Mother tongue and bilingual minority education in China

Mother tongue education in separate schools has been in the norm for several of China's large minorities since 1949. In recent years, however, the shift in minority parental demand, media focus on low educational outcomes of mother tongue education combined with government concerns about separatism have led to the development of mixed schools for Chinese and minority students. In China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) the government plans to merge all minority mother tongue schools with Chinese schools by the end of 2008.This paper explores the reasons for this policy change and examines whether the mixed schools will address the unsatisfactory educational outcomes for minority students. It draws on data of case studies of two schools in XUAR, a rural minority primary school and an urban mixed minority/Chinese school. The study found mixed schooling does not address the disparity in educational outcomes. Minority ethnic children in both schools have insufficient access to adequate education in their mother tongue, in the national language as well as in the third language, English. It questions whether either school provides genuine bilingual education but provides an example of how bilingual education in one of the schools can address issues of educational outcomes. Keywords: bilingual educationlanguage minoritieslanguage policyminority educationmother tonguelanguage learning Notes 1. The political structure of XUAR is the same as all other provinces and regions. At the top is the Xinjiang Regional Politburo Standing Committee under the direct control of the Centre government. Under it they are the Regional Party Congress, the Military Affairs Commission, the Regional People's Congress, and the Regional Government. Within the regional government there are three administrative levels, duplicating the central system in Beijing: regional, districts, and counties/cities. The regional government has direct control over two cities, eight districts, and five autonomous prefectures. There are 79 counties/cities and six autonomous counties below the districts and the prefectures. Among them, 35 are border counties. 2. Figures are from Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Quanguo Fenxianshi Renkou Tongji Ziliao 2005 (Statistics on Census by Cities and Counties, the People's Republic of China, 2005), 206. Compiled by the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China. 3. School names have been changed to maintain anonymity of informants. 4. The word wenhua (culture) in Chinese means literacy, Children meant that their parents had no wenhua (culture) because they were not fluent in Chinese. 5. Volume 2 Chinese textbook (Hanyu), page 2, 1998, Xinjiang Education Press. 6. Chairman Mao Zedong said this in 1951 to praise and encourage a very brave eight-year-old pupil in Suzhou, Chen Yongkang, who helped to catch a spy. Mao's words have become a nationwide slogan and have been posted in nearly every classroom in China since then. 7. Volume 2 Chinese textbook (Hanyu), page 18–9, 1998, Xinjiang Education Press. 8. Volume 2 Chinese textbook (Hanyu), page 12–3, 1998, Xinjiang Education Press.