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“It’s snowing. It’s snowing. On the snowfield are there little painters painting...” In a classroom at a school in Baishikante Township in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region， students are narrating a text in Chinese. Classes at this school are taught in both the Uygur language together with Mandarin Chinese. However， creating such a bilingual school wasn’t easy， given the fact that it was built from an abandoned warehouse.
Starting from scratch
Baishikante is a typical Uygur settlement located 30 km from the Shache County seat in south Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture. It has taken Huang Ming nearly 20 years to establish his bilingual school in such a remote place.
In 1994， many local children had no access to education due to a critical shortage of teaching resources. Huang， who was teaching at a public school at that time， was determined to start bilingual classes after seeing that his friends’ children were being kept from school. However， Huang met with difficulty at the start of his endeavor. Parents in the neighboring villages were not interested in bilingual education， so Huang had to personally visit families in order to recruit students. He finally found eight for his class.
Huang used a number of methods to enhance the education level， including having them listen to radio broadcasts. In 2000， all of Huang’s eight students were admitted to the bilingual class at the No.2 Middle School in the county on account of their high test scores. After that， Huang’s school became increasingly popular amongst local residents.
Huang is delighted by the fact that more and more parents from all over Shache and other places around Kashgar are enthusiastic about bilingual education and choose to send their children to his school. Now， the school has students coming from all 29 townships in the county， and even from other counties nearby.
Regeyan Ayoupu is a seventh grader from Alamaiti Township. Speaking in Mandarin， she said， “I couldn’t speak any Chinese when I entered this school. Now Chinese is my best subject. I scored 92 on a recent test.”
Working together
Bilingual education has been a government strategy since the Central Government’s work conference on Xinjiang’s development was held in 2010.
“We pursue bilingual education not with the intention to use one language to replace another but to help students master Mandarin Chinese together with their own native languages，” said Nur Bekri， Chairman of the Xinjiang regional government. “Plus， they need to master a foreign language at school. This is significant to their personal development and for the whole nation.” “More and more ethnic minority students have benefited from bilingual education， and as such， bilingual education should begin early on，” said Akotzguli， Vice Secretary of the Party Branch of the Beijing-based Minzu University of China’s Preparatory Education College. The college’s Xinjiang class has more than 50 students this year.
The quality of bilingual education concerns not only Xinjiang’s overall development but also all the families that have tremendous expectations for their children.
“My gratitude is beyond words，” said Mehmet Dawut， a farmer and father-of-four in Kepuqiai Village in Shache. With the exception of his eldest child who missed the opportunity for bilingual education， all his children studied in Huang’s school. Currently， two of them are in college， and the youngest is studying at a preparatory class in a local middle school for students to study in schools in east China.
In 2001， Xinjiang set bilingual education as an important means for realizing its strategy for improving the overall education level of all ethnic minorities in the region.
Huang’s dream of providing bilingual education have turned into reality because of government support. He has greater expectations for the future. “With a larger school and more students， we plan to recruit more bilingual teachers，” he said.
Teacher training
Improving bilingual education faces a number of challenges. Ayizaguli， a Uygur teacher at Center School of Heshilik Township， Korla City， said， “If we teach solely in Mandarin， students cannot understand. If we teach just in our native Uygur language， students won’t perform well on tests. This is the difficulty we face.”
This dilemma restricts the expansion and development of bilingual education in Xinjiang. To develop bilingual education further， three main problems have to be addressed： the shortage of teachers； low professional skill； and the low Mandarin ability of teachers.
“A total of 165，500 bilingual teachers will be trained by 2020，” said Dai Xiang， an official in charge of Xinjiang’s bilingual education. “As we improve teacher training， we should overcome these three problems.”
New training programs focusing on Mandarin proficiency and related teaching skills have been provided to bilingual teachers in Xinjiang since June.
In Shache， a training center for bilingual teachers opened earlier this year. With the best facilities in the area around Kashgar， it will provide training courses for more than 1，200 bilingual teachers in the county. According to Lu Yong， Deputy Director of the county’s Education Bureau， the first group of 250 outstanding ethnic minority teachers had received training there. In addition， Xinjiang has invested 53 million yuan （$8.66 million） in updating bilingual textbooks and other materials. Those books were provided to classrooms in September.
Making dreams come true
“My dream is to pass the national college entrance examination and study at Zhejiang University，” said the 14-year-old Alim， a student at No.66 Middle School in Urumqi. “And then I will come back to Kashgar to be a policeman， protecting the people I love and the people who love me.”
Founded in 1897， Zhejiang University ranked 28th on the 2013 Asian University Rankings released in June by the British higher education consulting company Quacquarelli Symonds， best known for their annual QS world university rankings. It is the sixth most prestigious amongst all the higher learning institutions on the Chinese mainland.
Alim’s parents are both farmers. He said that if the government hadn’t created special bilingual education programs to help ethnic minority students， kids like him would never have a chance to go out and see the rest of the world.
Alim is in charge of extracurricular activities for over 10 clubs at his school. Like other students at the school， he enjoys a free education and is given a living allowance by the government.
The advantages of a bilingual education are obvious in Xinjiang. Hailiqm Naimaiti， a college graduate and village official in Baja Village， Shayar County， opened up a bilingual training class for surplus rural laborers. Nine students in her class， who had never left the village because of language barriers before joining her class， found well-paid jobs outside Xinjiang.
“With the development of bilingual education in Xinjiang， more and more parents have realized that their children must have a good level of Mandarin in order to achieve a better future，” Dai said. While expanding the reach of the local people， bilingual education also helps to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other regions in China in terms of educational level. It has also helped more and more local students turn their dreams into reality.
Starting from scratch
Baishikante is a typical Uygur settlement located 30 km from the Shache County seat in south Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture. It has taken Huang Ming nearly 20 years to establish his bilingual school in such a remote place.
In 1994， many local children had no access to education due to a critical shortage of teaching resources. Huang， who was teaching at a public school at that time， was determined to start bilingual classes after seeing that his friends’ children were being kept from school. However， Huang met with difficulty at the start of his endeavor. Parents in the neighboring villages were not interested in bilingual education， so Huang had to personally visit families in order to recruit students. He finally found eight for his class.
Huang used a number of methods to enhance the education level， including having them listen to radio broadcasts. In 2000， all of Huang’s eight students were admitted to the bilingual class at the No.2 Middle School in the county on account of their high test scores. After that， Huang’s school became increasingly popular amongst local residents.
Huang is delighted by the fact that more and more parents from all over Shache and other places around Kashgar are enthusiastic about bilingual education and choose to send their children to his school. Now， the school has students coming from all 29 townships in the county， and even from other counties nearby.
Regeyan Ayoupu is a seventh grader from Alamaiti Township. Speaking in Mandarin， she said， “I couldn’t speak any Chinese when I entered this school. Now Chinese is my best subject. I scored 92 on a recent test.”
Working together
Bilingual education has been a government strategy since the Central Government’s work conference on Xinjiang’s development was held in 2010.
“We pursue bilingual education not with the intention to use one language to replace another but to help students master Mandarin Chinese together with their own native languages，” said Nur Bekri， Chairman of the Xinjiang regional government. “Plus， they need to master a foreign language at school. This is significant to their personal development and for the whole nation.” “More and more ethnic minority students have benefited from bilingual education， and as such， bilingual education should begin early on，” said Akotzguli， Vice Secretary of the Party Branch of the Beijing-based Minzu University of China’s Preparatory Education College. The college’s Xinjiang class has more than 50 students this year.
The quality of bilingual education concerns not only Xinjiang’s overall development but also all the families that have tremendous expectations for their children.
“My gratitude is beyond words，” said Mehmet Dawut， a farmer and father-of-four in Kepuqiai Village in Shache. With the exception of his eldest child who missed the opportunity for bilingual education， all his children studied in Huang’s school. Currently， two of them are in college， and the youngest is studying at a preparatory class in a local middle school for students to study in schools in east China.
In 2001， Xinjiang set bilingual education as an important means for realizing its strategy for improving the overall education level of all ethnic minorities in the region.
Huang’s dream of providing bilingual education have turned into reality because of government support. He has greater expectations for the future. “With a larger school and more students， we plan to recruit more bilingual teachers，” he said.
Teacher training
Improving bilingual education faces a number of challenges. Ayizaguli， a Uygur teacher at Center School of Heshilik Township， Korla City， said， “If we teach solely in Mandarin， students cannot understand. If we teach just in our native Uygur language， students won’t perform well on tests. This is the difficulty we face.”
This dilemma restricts the expansion and development of bilingual education in Xinjiang. To develop bilingual education further， three main problems have to be addressed： the shortage of teachers； low professional skill； and the low Mandarin ability of teachers.
“A total of 165，500 bilingual teachers will be trained by 2020，” said Dai Xiang， an official in charge of Xinjiang’s bilingual education. “As we improve teacher training， we should overcome these three problems.”
New training programs focusing on Mandarin proficiency and related teaching skills have been provided to bilingual teachers in Xinjiang since June.
In Shache， a training center for bilingual teachers opened earlier this year. With the best facilities in the area around Kashgar， it will provide training courses for more than 1，200 bilingual teachers in the county. According to Lu Yong， Deputy Director of the county’s Education Bureau， the first group of 250 outstanding ethnic minority teachers had received training there. In addition， Xinjiang has invested 53 million yuan （$8.66 million） in updating bilingual textbooks and other materials. Those books were provided to classrooms in September.
Making dreams come true
“My dream is to pass the national college entrance examination and study at Zhejiang University，” said the 14-year-old Alim， a student at No.66 Middle School in Urumqi. “And then I will come back to Kashgar to be a policeman， protecting the people I love and the people who love me.”
Founded in 1897， Zhejiang University ranked 28th on the 2013 Asian University Rankings released in June by the British higher education consulting company Quacquarelli Symonds， best known for their annual QS world university rankings. It is the sixth most prestigious amongst all the higher learning institutions on the Chinese mainland.
Alim’s parents are both farmers. He said that if the government hadn’t created special bilingual education programs to help ethnic minority students， kids like him would never have a chance to go out and see the rest of the world.
Alim is in charge of extracurricular activities for over 10 clubs at his school. Like other students at the school， he enjoys a free education and is given a living allowance by the government.
The advantages of a bilingual education are obvious in Xinjiang. Hailiqm Naimaiti， a college graduate and village official in Baja Village， Shayar County， opened up a bilingual training class for surplus rural laborers. Nine students in her class， who had never left the village because of language barriers before joining her class， found well-paid jobs outside Xinjiang.
“With the development of bilingual education in Xinjiang， more and more parents have realized that their children must have a good level of Mandarin in order to achieve a better future，” Dai said. While expanding the reach of the local people， bilingual education also helps to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other regions in China in terms of educational level. It has also helped more and more local students turn their dreams into reality.