From black to white: An educational revolution

More than 10,000 students have studied there and have gone on to lead successful lives not only in the region and across the country, but throughout the world as well.

When the school was founded it only had three classes, little more than 60 students, and very rudimentary classrooms with blackboards and broken stools. Now it has 38 classrooms and 152 teachers for its more than 2,000 students, and modern amenities that include whiteboards, a multimedia classroom, art room, a music room, a dining hall and a science laboratory.

Dawa Yangjen, a math teacher at the school, says the huge strides the school has made over 68 years through a program of modernization and regeneration that the central government has strongly promoted have contributed to the city's growth.

"When I was transferred here in 2001 the school buildings were all old," Dawa Yangjen, 45, says. Computers, hot water and air conditioning have contributed to that transformation, she says.

"Flowers and plants in offices and new desks and chairs in classrooms have also greatly helped improve the environment."

Sherab Jikme, another teacher at the school, says that in addition to the huge abundance of resources students now enjoy, the quality of teaching has greatly improved over the years.