Ethnic Unity

Xinjiang students receive bilingual education

Updated: 2009-09-02 15:21

Urumqi: Over 600,000 students of ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang are taking the bilingual education, accounting for 25.4 percent of the overall number of students, a local education official told Xinhua news agency Wednesday.

In some villages in southern Xinjiang, local farmers voluntarily build “bilingual kindergarten” and encourage children to learn the language of their own ethnic group and Mandarin, according to Dai Xiang, vice director of Xinjiang Bilingual Education Guiding Office.

Xinjiang students receive bilingual education

Children practice their language skills by playing games at a bilingual kindergarten in Turpan, a city in the eastern part the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.[China Daily]

Most kindergartens of this kind are equipped with computers, TVs, DVDs and other technology. Each child receives an annual subsidy of 1,000 yuan for food expenses.

Dai added that investment from the central government on bilingual education in Xinjiang has reached to 1.2 billion yuan ($) since 2008.

“By 2012, the central government will invest a total of 4 billion yuan to fund the bilingual education in Xinjiang. ”

The official also spoke of the importance of knowing two languages, saying “bilingual education will facilitate the communication and understanding between people of different ethnic groups.”