Proudly mongolian

By Wang Kaihao (China Daily)

Updated: 2013-11-20

Schools in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region are giving students from the Mongolian ethnic group the opportunity to be taught in their mother tongue. Wang Kaihao reports in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia.

On a recent Thursday afternoon in Urad Rear Banner, a county-level administrative district in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's western city of Bayannur, lively students of the Mongolian ethnic group added bright colors to the barren Yinshan Mountains scene.

Kindergarten children were picking up fallen leaves from the ground for their nature class, while pupils in traditional ethnic clothes were practicing a group dance.

Several senior high school students, meanwhile, were taking a short rest from their studies by walking the pathways.

Children attend kindergarten in the ethnic educational park in Urad Rear Banner in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's western city of Bayannur. Photos by Wang Kaihao / China Daily

High school students at the ethnic educational park have a bokh class.

Students dress up in traditional Mongolian attire to practice group dance.

It is thus hard to tell if this place is a kindergarten, an elementary school or a high school. This Mongolian ethnic educational park is a combination of all.

Twin sisters Jirog and Jirona, both 17, are senior high school students in the educational park. There are only 20-odd students in the spacious classroom, a contrast to the crowded scene common in high schools all over China.

Getting up before 6 am, they wind up an intense day of learning after 10:30 pm, like their peers all over the country who want to shape their destiny via the upcoming national college entrance examination next June. Classes and exams are conducted in the Mongolian language.

"Our parents are sheep herders and don't earn much money," says Jirog, the slightly shy elder sister. Their home on the grassland is a four-hour drive to the banner seat. "But it's great to learn in this good place because we don't have to pay any tuition."

Bayannur is among Inner Mongolia's most agriculturally developed areas, a place where Han people and Mongolians have mixed for generations.

Only 4 percent of residents in Bayannur are of the Mongolian ethnic group, one of the lowest among Inner Mongolian cities. It thus became an urgent and difficult task to keep more Mongolian education in their mother tongue, according to Baoyu, who is also of this ethnic group and heads the office in charge of ethnic education affiliated to the municipal education bureau.

"Unlike the huge Mongolian population in the east of Inner Mongolia, many Mongolian parents here are not able to speak their mother tongue and will naturally choose Mandarin education for children," Baoyu opines. According to recent statistics from Baoyu's office, only 46 percent of Mongolian students in Bayannur choose Mongolian language education from childhood, even though the number has slightly increased since 2008.

In 2008, the municipal government launched a project to waive the tuition fee, textbook costs, and boarding expenses for all the students undergoing Mongolian language education at elementary and high school, according to Khasbileg, principal of the educational park. Each of these students also receives 6,000 yuan ($983) annually as a cost-of-living subsidy. This free education policy was extended to kindergarten students two years later, making Bayannur one of the first cities in Inner Mongolia to complete "15-year free Mongolian language education".

The campus of the ethnic education park covers an area of 95,200 square meters. Based on the banner's only Mongolian-language high school, which was first built in 1978, its construction was completed in June this year.

"These schools share the same playground, the same gym, and other infrastructure," says Baoyu. "This avoids huge waste to build a separate campus for each, because we don't have that many Mongolian students here."

Though Urad Rear Banner covers an area of 25,000 square kilometers, about 50 percent larger than Beijing, its population is only about 80,000. The Mongolian high school only has 185 students combining all six grades, and the elementary school section has 351.

"The original purpose of the ethnic educational park was to attract more Mongolian students by providing free education and fine infrastructure," he explains. "But that is far from enough. The best students have been selected by high schools in richer places. It takes a lot of work to build up our reputation."

Jirog often earned the highest exam scores in her class, but she said her biggest goal is to enter Inner Mongolia University, the top university in Inner Mongolia. She did not dare to aspire to study in Beijing because the enrollment quota for Mongolian language students is low in colleges outside the autonomous region.

"It's so hard for us, and I think I don't do well in English and math," she says modestly.

"It's easier to overcome the hardware gap between schools in our small place and those in big cities," sighs Hudagool, the head teacher of the twins' class. "But you can imagine how difficult it is to catch up with others in some fields, like English learning, where our students barely have the chance to speak."

Though all four Mongolian-language high schools in Bayannur provide up to 150,000-yuan annual salary, three times higher than local civil servants' average income, to attract top-tier teachers from more educationally developed places, Baoyu admits the endeavor still fails to satisfy everyone. He estimates 20 percent of those accepting Mongolian education in Bayannur will move to the autonomous region's capital city of Hohhot after junior high school.

"Many colleges will enroll students with arts or sports expertise. Mongolians never lack talent in morin khuur (Mongolian bowed stringed instrument) or bokh (Mongolian wrestling). Although only a few Mongolian-language high school graduates in Bayannur can enter universities outside Inner Mongolia every year through this program, they at least have more chances."

To attract more Mongolian students who prefer to learn in their mother tongue, a successful trial program in Urad Rear Banner running since 2007 provides jobs after college graduation for each local Mongolian student who accepts Mongolian language elementary education.

Bayinbileg, 25, graduated as a math major from Chifeng College in the east of Inner Mongolia in 2012, and later became a teacher in his alma mater in Urad Rear Banner thanks to the policy.

"My college students really envy me because they have to face the tense job market," says Bayinbileg with a smile. "The infrastructure in the high school has become much better since I left in 2008. The most advanced multimedia device in a class then was a projector. We didn't know much about computers."

Though he got an offer from a logistics company in the nearby rich city of Ordos that would have paid him 3,000 yuan per month after graduation, he chose to return home with a lower salary, knowing it would take two years to increase to 3,000 yuan.

"At least, this job is stable enough for you to do something more meaningful: helping students learn in their mother tongue and telling them how important it is to stick to their Mongolian roots."

Contact the writer at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn.