Over 100 top Chinese universities will create one- or two-year preparatory courses in Mandarin reaching out to around 20,000 ethnic minority students per year, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) announced.

 

Wurihan, a 26-year-old girl of Mongolian ethnic origin, saw her college entrance exam results upped by 20 marks when entering college eight years ago, since the university course she would follow was taught through the medium of Mandarin.  

 

"The competition is fierce so the added marks were a huge relief," she said, adding that her Mandarin was at a high-level but that she still felt nervous when up against native Han speakers of the language.

 

She sat her college entrance exams in Mongolian, directly translated from Mandarin, except for the “Mongolian literature” part.

 

The SEAC revealed that the body has farmed out special university courses to be developed by ethnic college to cater to students from 22 minorities of under 100,000 people, including the Ewenki, Oroqen, Daur, Maonan, Sala, Bulang and Tajik.

 

The SEAC has also addressed the issue of languages under threat by recording these tongues among small minority groups and creating bilingual education programs to preserve them among younger generations.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007)