CHINA-EDUCATION: XINJIANG-UYGHUR AR
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China Education Daily reported on April 2, 2018 that the Xinjiang government will pay special attention to preschool education this year, which includes building more public kindergartens and improving kindergarten students' mandarin in preparation for primary school. It said almost 1.88 million ethnic minority students in Xinjiang receive mandarin classes during the compulsory education stage (six years' primary school and three years' middle school), an increase of 1.05 million compared with 2016. A development plan released by the Xinjiang education department in 2017 said more than 98 percent of children will have access to three years of free preschool education. By 2020, students from ethnic minority groups will have a basic command of standard spoken and written mandarin, read the development plan. Separately the official Global Times quoted Xiong Kunxin, a Professor at Tibet University in Lhasa as saying that learning mandarin not only enhances communication between different ethnic groups but also helps young ethnic minority people get a better education and greater employment opportunities.
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