City hosts more Tibet and Xinjiang students

• Source: Global Times
• [13:31 August 30 2010]
• Comments

Some students of ethnic minorities walk to Fudan University Sunday. Photo: Yang Jianzheng

By Yan Yining

An additional 1,000 middle school and high school students from Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region will have the chance to study in Shanghai this year, as a 20-year-old-project aimed at providing children from the remote regions a chance to be schooled in the city expands its reach.

The number of students joining the scheme is 25 percent up compared to last year, and will add to the city's existing 3,800 or so students from the areas.

The expansion means the city will pump another 3.25 million yuan ($478,075) into the system this year, according to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.

"Participants will be provided with the same textbooks as local students and will take the same exams," said Sun Hong, deputy director of general education for the Shanghai Education Committee. "These students will be held to the same expectations as native Shanghai students and given every opportunity to succeed in the future."

By the end of this year, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission predicts that 97 percent of the high school students from Xinjiang in the city will graduate and continue on to higher education, while all of the Tibetan high school students studying in the city will be accepted into universities across the country.

Under the educational program that started in the 1980s, more than 10,000 students from Tibet and Xinjiang have graduated from high schools in the city over the years, according to statistics provided by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.