Statistics provided by the regional education bureau show that by the end of 1999, the nine-year compulsory education had been introduced to the region's 55 cities and counties.

At present, there are 1,435 primary school students, 500 junior middle school students, 108 secondary school students, 53 polytechnic school students and 31 university students for every 10,000 people in the region, which matches the national level.

The number of students from ethnic minority groups accounts for 64 percent of the total.

Xinjiang, the biggest region inhabited by people from ethnic minority groups in China, covers an area of 1.6 million square kilometers and has a population of over 17 million.

The Chinese government has mobilized dozens of universities and colleges in the inland area to train more than 10,000 ethnic minority students and other personnel for Xinjiang in the past five decades.

Xinjiang now has 17 institutions of higher learning, with some 60,000 students. In the past two decades alone, more than 330,000 students have graduated from universities and colleges in Xinjiang.

According to local officials, Xinjiang plans to carry out 10 educational programs in the next five years to train more personnel for local economic and social development.

(Xinhua 10/16/2000)