The monks from Amithaba Monastery (kagyupa tradition) usually are sent to Central Insitute of Tibetan Higher Studies at Sarnath, Varanasi after class 8.
So first usually they start with UKG སྔོན་འགྲོའི་སློབ་གྲྭ།, then Primary School གཞི་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ། (year 1 to 8).
Then they join what would be the equivalent of “college” བཤད་གྲྭ།. In there they study Buddhist philosophy, logic, and various classical texts:
- Purva Madhyama དགུ་མ་འོག་མ། (2 years)
- Uttara Madhyama དགུ་མ་དགོང་མ། (2 years)
- Shastri བསྙན་བཅོས། (3 years)
- Acharya སློབ་དཔོན། (2 years)
Then after that if you have gotten distinction you are encouraged to follow towards geshe / khempo རིག་གཅིག་རྐང་འཛིན། (specialize in one subject) degree which involves 3 years of research into a topic (sort of a PhD).
If you don’t get distinction you go serve to a monastery and later on with time you might acquire it if in that monastery during your service you did some study.