S Xinjiang policy to reduce college enrollment gap in the region: expert
The new college admission policy in southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that awards more bonus points to students from ethnic minorities in the national college entrance examinations, or the gaokao, improves the country's ethnic policies, analysts said on Tuesday.
Minority students who use the Han people's exam papers or Han students who take the exam in minority languages during this year's gaokao will be entitled to 50 extra points if either of their parents is from 11 ethnic groups including Uyghur, Kazak and Mongol. The policy applies to students from four prefectures in southern Xinjiang - Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu and Kizilsu Kirgiz, according to the region's admissions office.
Ethnic minority students who are not from the 11 ethnic groups can get 10 extra points in their Chinese language test.
The preferential policy aims at introducing high-quality higher education to students in southern Xinjiang, and reducing the college enrollment gap between southern Xinjiang and the whole region, according to the office.
Previously, only students whose parents were both from the 11 ethnic groups could be given 50 extra points, and those with one eligible parent could only enjoy 10 extra points.
Other requirements include the registration of the residence of students and their parents in the four prefectures, and students have to study in local high schools for three consecutive years.
The policy is necessary as the overall education level and resources in southern Xinjiang are far behind northern Xinjiang and other provinces, Pan Zhiping, a professor at the Institute of Central Asia of Xinjiang University, told the Global Times.
The new policy could improve engagement among different ethnicities, Pan said, adding that the previous policy discouraged intermarriage between Han people and ethnic minorities.
Meanwhile, universities across the country have to set up a customized admission plan for students from southern Xinjiang. A total of 734 universities will enroll 3,680 students from southern Xinjiang.
But the preferential policy should cover all students in remote places with poor educational resources, including Han students, Pan said.
The college admissions rate of Han students who take the Chinese language test in the gaokao was very low in Hotan due to substandard education in Mandarin, or Putonghua, although the population of Han people in the region only accounts for around 10 percent, Zeng Heping, deputy director of the ethnology institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Tuesday.
The office requires strict requirement reviews including residence registration and school attendance and will crack down on those who falsify their ethnicity.
