On a clear morning in the ravines of Nanyi Gully, in the Nanyi Luoba ethnic township of Milin (Nyingchi) city, soldiers from a Tibet Military District frontier company fold their uniforms, load lesson plans and set off to visit homes. The men and women are not on patrol but on “one soldier, one household” education visits: regular weekend lessons, chores and steady contact with children and elders in a remote Lhoba (Luoba) village.
The programme began in 2021 when a border regiment paired with the township school as part of a wider military‑civil co‑construction drive known in Chinese as “Five Co‑construction, Five Consolidation” (五共五固). Commanders decided that while improving infrastructure mattered, transmitting knowledge and reinforcing cultural habits were equally important. The company piloted personalised tutoring for schoolchildren in Qionglin village, where most families lack the cultural time or formal education to provide consistent homework support.
The unit selects well‑educated, teaching‑capable soldiers — often former university students — to act as de facto home tutors and weekend teachers. The effect has been tangible: pupils who struggled with arithmetic gained practical problem‑solving methods and exam scores improved; one third‑grader raised her end‑of‑term maths grade to 85 after regular sessions with Sergeant Mu Kaiyou. Officers report disciplined lesson records, monthly checks and semesterly assessments to measure impact.
The scheme purposefully blends social care with civic ritual. Soldiers do more than teach: they shovel snow, mend roofs and visit elderly guardians when parents are absent for migrant work. Children respond by emulating military manners, attending weekly flag‑raising events punctually and saluting passing patrols. Local leaders credit the programme with strengthening social norms, raising educational ambition and seeding respect for the armed forces among a generation growing up at a strategic frontier.
The regiment has institutionalised its approach. An underused classroom became a national‑defence education room; schools and units co‑host defence lessons on anniversaries and open days; teachers and pupils tour the regiment’s military history exhibits. The township school has sent more than ten pupils to mainland Tibetan‑language classes and in 2023 was named a national model for defence education — a mark of political as well as pedagogic success that the unit plans to replicate across the plateau.
This activity matters beyond simple charity. Tibet is a sensitive border region for Beijing: raising living standards while embedding national identity and loyalty is a dual objective of central policy. The People’s Liberation Army’s involvement in schooling strengthens the state’s outreach where civil service capacity is thin, gives the PLA a daily, positive presence in minority communities and demonstrates a softer facet of military power that reinforces Beijing’s governance model.
There are trade‑offs. Embedding soldiers in everyday life inevitably mixes social welfare with political socialisation: national‑defence classes, routine contact with uniformed personnel and the celebration of patriotic rituals shape civic identity alongside academic help. The programme’s long‑term sustainability depends on maintaining trained, stable tutor rotations despite troop transfers and retirements and on balancing educational aims with respect for local languages and customs.
As dusk falls and the soldiers reassemble to return to barracks, children call after them: “See you next week, soldier‑teacher!” The scene captures why China is intensifying civil‑military ties in remote areas: practical improvements to livelihoods and schooling, fused with a deliberate effort to tether frontier populations more closely to the state’s institutions and symbols.