Editing Uyghurs (section)

===Education===
Historically, the education level of Old Uyghur people was higher than the other ethnicities around them. The Buddhist Uyghurs of Qocho became the civil servants of Mongol Empire and Old Uyghur Buddhists enjoyed a high status in the Mongol empire. They also introduced the written [[Mongolian script|script]] for the [[Mongolian language]]. In the Islamic era, education was provided by the mosques and [[Madrasa|madrassas]]. During the Qing era, Chinese Confucian schools were also set up in Xinjiang<ref name="Millward PA142">{{harvnb|Millward|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA142 142–148]}}</ref> and in the late 19th century Christian missionary schools.<ref name="benson"/>

In the late nineteenth and early 20th century, schools were often located in mosques and madrassas. Mosques ran informal schools, known as [[Maktab (education)|mektep]] or ''maktab'', attached to the mosques,<ref>{{cite book|author=S. Frederick Starr|title=Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA192|date=15 March 2004|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3192-3|pages=192–|access-date=28 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109081722/https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA192#v=onepage&q=schools&f=false|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''maktab'' provided most of the education and its curriculum was primarily religious and oral.{{sfn|Millward|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA146 145–147]}} Boys and girls might be taught in separate schools, some of which offered modern secular subjects in the early 20th century.<ref name="Millward PA142"/><ref name="benson"/><ref>{{Cite book|title = East Turkestan history|last = Muhammad emin|first = Bughra|year = 1941|location = Kabul|page = 155}}</ref> In madrasas, poetry, logic, Arabic grammar and [[Islamic Law|Islamic law]] were taught.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rian Thum|title=The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqOmBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-96702-1|pages=63–|access-date=15 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109065008/https://books.google.com/books?id=QqOmBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In the early 20th century, the [[Jadid]]ists Turkic Muslims from Russia spread new ideas on education<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew D. W. Forbes|title=Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAs9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17 |date=9 October 1986|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-25514-1|pages=17–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA166|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|pages=166–|access-date=28 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109091416/https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q=schools&f=false|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900–1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=80–|access-date=28 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109085604/https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/Ibrahim.pdf |title=Ibrahim's story |author=William Clark |journal=Asian Ethnicity |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=203–219 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119004309/http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/Ibrahim.pdf |archive-date=19 November 2015 |doi=10.1080/14631369.2010.510877 |year=2011 |s2cid=145009760 }}</ref> and popularized the identity of "Turkestani".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/uyghur|title=What Is a Uyghur? |work=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=26 October 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403153046/https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/uyghur|archive-date=3 April 2016 }}</ref>

In more recent times, religious education is highly restricted in Xinjiang and the Chinese authority had sought to eradicate any religious school they considered illegal.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA168 |title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|page=168}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Madrasa in Asia: Political Activism and Transnational Linkages |url=https://archive.org/details/madrasaasiapolit00noor |url-access=limited |editor1= Farish A. Noor |editor2=Yoginder Sikand |editor3=Martin van Bruinessen |author=Jackie Amijo |chapter=Chapter 6 – Muslim Education in China |pages=[https://archive.org/details/madrasaasiapolit00noor/page/n185 185]–186 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year= 2008 |isbn=9789053567104 }}</ref> Although Islamic private schools (Sino-Arabic schools ({{lang-zh|first=s|s=中阿學校|t=中阿學校|labels=no}})) have been supported and permitted by the Chinese government in Hui Muslim areas since the 1980s, this policy does not extend to schools in Xinjiang due to fear of separatism.<ref name="VersteeghEid2005">{{cite book|author1=Kees Versteegh|author2=Mushira Eid|title=Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics: A-Ed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuNiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA383|year=2005|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-14473-6|pages=383–|access-date=9 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109043648/https://books.google.com/books?id=SuNiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA383|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/31-1_007.pdf ALLÈS & CHÉRIF-CHEBBI & HALFON 2003] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429210144/http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/31-1_007.pdf |date=29 April 2016 }}, p. 14.</ref><ref name="Relations2005">{{cite book|author=Senate (U S ) Committee on Foreign Relations|title=Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, 2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04dlwzB2SvcC&pg=PA159|date=August 2005|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-072552-4|pages=159–|access-date=9 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108235844/https://books.google.com/books?id=04dlwzB2SvcC&pg=PA159|archive-date=8 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in the early 20th century, secular education became more widespread. Early in the communist era, Uyghurs had a choice of two separate secular school systems, one conducted in their own language and one offering instructions only in Chinese.<ref>{{Cite book|title = English language education across greater China|last = Anwei|first = Feng|page = 262}}</ref> Many Uyghurs linked the preservation of their cultural and religious identity with the language of instruction in schools and therefore preferred Uyghur language schools.<ref name="benson">{{cite book |title=Xinjiang, China's Muslim Borderland |chapter=Chapter 7 – Education and Social Mobility among Minority Populations in Xinjiang |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA191|author=Linda Benson |date=15 March 2004 |editor=S. Frederick Starr |pages=190–215 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1318-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA128|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author=Justin Jon Rudelson|year=1997|pages=127–129|publisher=Columbia University Press|edition=illustrated|isbn=0-231-10787-0|access-date=28 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> However, from the mid-1980s onward, the Chinese government began to reduce teaching in Uyghur and starting mid-1990s also began to merge some schools from the two systems. By 2002, [[Xinjiang University]], originally a bilingual institution, had ceased offering courses in the Uyghur language. From 2004 onward, the government policy has been that classes should be conducted in Chinese as much as possible and in some selected regions, instruction in Chinese began in the first grade.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse |url=http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/PS015.pdf |author=Arienne M. Dwyer |publisher=East-West Center Washington |year=2005 |pages=34–41 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011101342/https://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/PS015.pdf |archive-date=11 October 2017 }}</ref> A special senior-secondary [[boarding school]] program for Uyghurs, the Xinjiang Class, with course work conducted entirely in Chinese was also established in 2000.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLPhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA158|title=Language, Education and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang |editor1= Joanne Smith Finley |editor2=Xiaowei Zang |pages= 158–159|isbn= 9781315726588|date=2015 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> Many schools also moved toward bilingual Chinese-Uyghur education from 2012,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20200724-fears-for-uighur-culture-as-scholars-vanish-in-china-crackdown |title=Fears for Uighur culture as scholars vanish in China crackdown |work=[[France 24]] via [[Agence France-Presse|AFP]] |date=24 July 2020 |access-date=1 May 2025}}</ref> with teaching in the Uyghur language limited to only a few hours a week.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2015/06/27/tongue-tied |title=Tongue-tied |newspaper=The Economist |date=27 June 2015 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The level of educational attainment among Uyghurs is generally lower than that of the Han Chinese; this may be due to the cost of education, the lack of proficiency in the Chinese language (now the main medium of instruction) among many Uyghurs, and poorer employment prospects for Uyghur graduates due to job discrimination in favor of Han Chinese.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grose |first1=Timothy A. |title=The Xinjiang Class: Education, Integration, and the Uyghurs |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |date=March 2010 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=97–109 |doi=10.1080/13602001003650648 |s2cid=38299716 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLPhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|title=Language, Education and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang |editor1= Joanne Smith Finley |editor2=Xiaowei Zang |pages= 165–166|isbn= 9781315726588|date=2015 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> Uyghurs in China, unlike the [[Hui people|Hui]] and [[Salar people|Salar]] who are also mostly Muslim, generally do not oppose [[coeducation]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRSOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|title=China's universities, 1895–1995: a century of cultural conflict|author=Ruth Hayhoe|year=1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=202|isbn=0-8153-1859-6|access-date=29 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=qRSOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> however girls may be withdrawn from school earlier than boys.<ref name="benson"/>