Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to increase language training for 55,000 young teachers in the next eight years, enabling them to teach in both Chinese and minority languages.

The teacher training program initiated in May this year is believed to the largest-scale bilingual teacher training program ever launched in Xinjiang. It will offer bilingual training to science teachers under 40 years old from 2004 to 2011.

By the end of 2002, there were 4.35 million students at schools in Xinjiang, of which about 60.5 percent are minority students.

Seven languages have been used in all middle and primary schools in Xinjiang: Uygur, Chinese, Kazak, Mongolian, Xibe, Kirgiz and Russian.

With frequent talent exchanges throughout China, limited minority language teaching has not only reduced the teaching quality, but also brought difficulties for students to seek jobs after graduation.

Local sources said that the central government will invest 76 million yuan (about 9.2 million US dollars) to help Xinjiang carryout training programs for teachers.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2004)