BEIJING -- By 2010, more than 95 percent of the population of China's ethnic autonomous areas should have access to the nine-year compulsory education, said the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released Monday by the Information Office of the State Council.

The government will continue to establish and develop schools and organize preparatory classes for ethnic minorities, adopt bilingual teaching systems and give preferential treatment to students of minority ethnic groups in enrollment in schools and universities, the plan said.

The state will promote boarding education in the vast rural and pastoral areas, and establish Tibetan junior high schools and Xinjiang senior high classes in the hinterland, it said.

The plan said the state will guarantee ethnic minorities' right to learn, use and develop their own spoken and written languages. It will train people to be specialists in the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities, and guarantee the use of such languages in the judicial, administrative and educational fields. It will increase financial aid to publications using languages of ethnic minorities, and support the publishing of books and magazines in ethnic-minority languages.

The state will help enhance the capabilities to produce (as well as the capabilities to translate) films, and radio and television programs in languages of ethnic minorities. It will raise the rate of coverage of radio and television broadcasting in languages of ethnic minorities in border regions, and promote the standardization and informationization of their spoken and written languages.

China is a unified country composed of 56 ethnic groups identified and acknowledged by the central government. The 55 minority ethnic groups - Han Chinese not included - have a total population of 106.43 million, accounting for 8.41 percent of the total population of China.

Source: news.xinhuanet.com