Bilingual education on the rise

More students in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are being educated in both their native tongue and Mandarin than in 2010, according to the latest statistics from the regional education department.

By the end of last year, the number of primary and secondary students receiving bilingual education in Xinjiang had risen from 999,000 to 2 million, 480,000 of them in kindergartens. Also, 69 percent of children from ethnic groups received bilingual education in elementary and secondary schools, up from 34 percent in 2010.

In Xinjiang, ethnic groups are guaranteed the right to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. There are 10 major languages in the region.