The Chinese government has been using all the media channels to advertise its efforts for minorities since the riot in Urumqi on July 5.
One of the efforts, according to Zhang Qiang- a Hui ethnic and deputy director of the ethnic education department at the Ministry of Education- is working on promoting bilingual education, both mandarin and their own languages, among all the ethnic groups in order to help them catch up with the development outside their communities as well as boosting local economy, as he told China Daily. He insisted that the government never suppresses the local languages, let alone their cultures. "We have never tried to weaken any ethnic language," he said, adding they encourage minority people to master their own ethnic languages first to preserve and develop their own cultures. He said the central government is even aiding the publishing houses which print materials in ethnic languages as they are losing money due to poor circulation. To make up the shortage of mandarin teachers, the ministry is using technology to provide long-distance education in both mandarin and ethnic languages, Zhang said. According to China Daily, the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 brought the modern education system to all the ethnic groups in China. The nine-year compulsory education system has so far covered over 96 percent of minority groups, and will cover all by 2010.
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