Xinjiang Authorities Recruit More Teachers for Mandarin-focused "Bilingual" Education

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government recently announced steps to increase the number of "bilingual" elementary school and preschool teachers in the region, according to several reports from XUAR media. As noted by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in its 2008 Annual Report (via the Government Printing Office Web site), educational policies described as "bilingual" by the XUAR government have placed primacy on Mandarin Chinese, undercutting provisions in Chinese law to protect ethnic minority languages and promote their use in XUAR schools. The XUAR's "bilingual" education policies have affected the career prospects of ethnic minority teachers, who face Mandarin language skill requirements if their primary teaching language is an ethnic minority language. Under the government's "bilingual" programs, monolingual Mandarin-speaking teachers are not required to learn ethnic minority languages.

Among the steps to increase "bilingual" teachers is the recruitment of 15,600 "bilingual" elementary school teachers between 2008 and 2013, based on a plan issued in August by the XUAR government, according to a September 24 Xinjiang Daily article. The plan aims to address the problem of students who received "bilingual" preschool education who are unable to continue “bilingual" schooling due to a shortage of "bilingual" teachers in elementary schools, according to the report. A XUAR Communist Party official cited in the article called for authorities to ensure the "political education" of newly recruited teachers. On November 7, Xinhua reported that 10 colleges and universities in the interior of China would send students to the XUAR next spring to assist XUAR schools and address the shortage of "bilingual" teachers. Since late 2006, 13 colleges and a teacher training school inside the XUAR have dispatched 6,000 students to work in schools without an adequate number of "bilingual" teachers, the article reported.

These steps come amid plans to bolster "bilingual" teacher training at the preschool level. According to an October 7 Tianshan Net report, 573 graduates of junior high schools in the southern XUAR will receive two years of free "bilingual" teacher training. In the first year of training, the program will focus on "strengthening [students'] political quality" and Mandarin skills. Training participants will teach on-site in their second year and then take up employment at "bilingual" preschools. The training aims to address the need for nearly 11,500 preschool teachers by 2012, to serve a target of 438,200 students enrolled in "bilingual" preschool education, according to the report.

The recent steps to increase the number of “bilingual” teachers advance policies set forth in documents including a March 2008 opinion (via the XUAR government Web site) on "bilingual" teacher training and a May 2008 draft opinion (via the XUAR Education Department) aimed at bolstering "bilingual" education. The March opinion describes the structure of the government's two-year program for training "bilingual" teachers. The May draft opinion includes the strengthening of teacher training in broader plans for expanding "bilingual" education. For additional information on "bilingual" teacher training for local ethnic minority teachers, see, for example, a June 2008 circular (via the XUAR Education Department). The June circular says that teachers who receive training should "in principle be below 35 years of age." It also requires that participants have "higher" political consciousness and hold appropriate viewpoints toward religion, ethnicity, and the Marxist state, as well as hold loyalty to the Communist Party. The May draft opinion calls for giving "appropriate placements" to older teachers with poor Mandarin skills and for not allowing teachers without "bilingual" teaching skills to enter the teaching force.

For more information on conditions in the XUAR and on "bilingual" education, see Section IV--Xinjiang, in the 2008 CECC Annual Report, including the section's addendum on "bilingual" education.