Basic education conditions in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have been improved with the support of China's central government.

Over 97 percent of ethnic minority school-age children in Xinjiang now go to school, over ten percent more than five years ago.

Poverty and scattered residences in Xinjiang severely limited the rate of enrolment in primary school.

In recent years, the Chinese government has taken measures to improve this situation, including textbook donations and providing volunteer education with a special fund of 1.4 billion yuan, or US$170 million, a year.

(CRI October 18, 2004)