China vowed on Wednesday to further boost education in its central and western regions, particularly Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region. Experts said the promised expansion in the exchange of educational resources between Han and minority ethnic areas will allow students to receive a more balanced education.

The General Office of the State Council on Saturday released a guideline on boosting the development of education in central and western regions, stressing the improvement of efforts to set up secondary school classes for ethnic minority students from Tibet and Xinjiang in other regions of China.

"Students in Tibet and Xinjiang classes [in other areas] not only receive a better education and rich experience, but they also bring different values to their families and communities," Xiong Kunxin, an ethnic studies professor at Minzu University of China, told the Global Times.

"We may have greater chances to attend first-tier universities, so many parents hope that we can be enrolled in Tibetan classes," a former student of a Tibetan class who asked for anonymity told the Global Times, adding that a majority of Tibetan students in those classes eventually returned to Tibet to work after completing their education.

The guideline also announced that 30,000 teachers from other areas of China would be dispatched to work in Tibet and Xinjiang by 2020, displacing over 90 percent of local science teachers, who will receive off-the-job training.

"The lack of high-quality bilingual teachers is an obstacle for basic education in Xinjiang," Li Xiaoxia, director of the Institute of Sociology under the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

"Different languages, climates and customs also discourage teachers from other parts of China from going to those areas," Xiong noted.

"Xinjiang has rolled out bilingual training programs for local teachers and has tried to attract teachers from other parts of China, which is a long-term process," Li said, adding that, as in provinces throughout the country, there is an imbalance in the distribution of educational resources between rural and urban areas in Xinjiang.

The State Council's guideline also stated that China will offer more higher education opportunities to students from ethnic areas.

Students in Tibet have been provided the chance to study at high schools in other parts of China since 1985. Currently, 21 Chinese provinces and cities offer classes for students from Tibet.

A similar program for Xinjiang students was set up in 2000, allowing  junior middle school students from Xinjiang, mostly ethnic Uyghurs, to study in cities throughout eastern China,  the Xinhua News Agency reported.

In 2015, 37,000 students from Xinjiang studied in 93 schools in 45 cities in eastern China. More than 95 percent of the students in the program went on to attend university and returned to work in Xinjiang between 2004 and 2015, according to the regional education department.