A total of twenty-one ethnic languages are being taught in more than 10 thousand middle or primary schools across China to improve education among ethnic nationalities.

The State Ethnic Affairs Commission says ethnic languages and Mandarin Chinese are both used in teaching at middle and primary schools for minority nationalities in ethnic autonomous areas.

In addition, central and local governments have set up special funds to sponsor the publishing of teaching materials in ethnic languages.

At present, 3500 types of teaching materials in ethnic languages are published each year, with a total of 100 million copies.

(CRI.com February 21, 2005)