E/CN.4/2002/24 page 27 view of the conditions currently existing in the autonomous region, free medical care is provided in agricultural areas, and a public mutual-assistance system has been set up under which the cost of providing integrated health care is absorbed by the whole of the urban population; this enables members of all nationalities living in the region, and in particular indigenous Tibetans, to enjoy greatly enhanced protection in the area of health. The average life expectancy in the region as a whole has thus increased from 36 in the 1950s to 67 today. 7. Although family planning is a fundamental principle of the Chinese State, the Government has, exceptionally, adopted a flexible policy with regard to Tibetans, given their current situation, and is not imposing a birth control programme on the farming population, who make up 80 per cent of total inhabitants of the region; it is simply conducting an information campaign to encourage families to bring up their children in accordance with traditional methods. In urban areas, it is also implementing the principle of encouraging the ‘use of natural resources and available services for a better life’, and all types of forcible abortion have been stopped. The population of Tibet has increased from 1 million in the 1950s to 2,620,000 at the present time. 8. In the area of education, the Government attaches particular importance to the development of education services for the ethnic minorities and has devoted a total of over 5 billion yuan to the establishment of a modern education system taking into account local Tibetan features and special characteristics at all levels, including pre-school, primary, secondary, specialized, technical and higher education, and other levels. It has also set up an adult education system and educational television programmes. In the year 2000, there were in Tibet about 4,000 educational establishments of various types, attended by 381,500 pupils and students. The enrolment rate for Tibetan children in the various age groups is 85.8 per cent. According to the above-mentioned note, Tibetans have to pay two times the school fees paid by the members of other nationalities. In fact, the opposite is true: in order to develop education in Tibet, the State provides completely free education services for Tibetan pupils and students; from the primary stage onwards, their education costs are borne by the Government in their entirety. Since 1985, an assistance policy consisting in providing food, housing and clothing is being pursued for the benefit of some Tibetan pupils and a boarding system has been set up in areas where extensive agriculture is practised. Regarding the enrolment of pupils in secondary, higher, specialized and technical education establishments, priority is also given to indigenous Tibetan candidates and candidates from the ethnic minorities of the region. An integrated system is followed in schools, enabling tuition to be given in three languages: Tibetan, Chinese and English, priority being given to education in Tibetan. The educational materials and aids needed for all primary and secondary classes have already been compiled, translated and published in Tibetan. This language is not used only in secondary schools; pupils who, at the end of secondary education, take common entrance examinations for the national higher-education institutions can also use their mother tongue. The right to study and to use the languages of the ethnic minorities on an equal footing is thus fully protected.