At a very young age, my parents would teach about the Qur'an and make me learn the Arabic language. My sisters and all of my friends, were also taught the “Quran in private madrasahs (Islamic schools) attached to local mosques (Gladney, Dislocating China 277).” Moreover, my parents also sent me to an Islamic public school at Yinchuan; I learned the same curriculum set by the Ministry of Education for all schools (Gladney, Dislocating China 269). The curriculum gears mainly toward Han students and lacked the focus on Muslims’ perspective. The only accommodations that the Chinese government have arranged for the Hui minority thus far, is have no pork served at the schools and charged no tuition fees to Hui students (Gladney, Dislocating China 269). Despite the fact, my father still encouraged me to work hard in school because everything I learn was only be to my advantage. Then, my father would continue on saying that I could choose any job that I wanted since I had the same education background as any other Han. I know that many of my friends were forced to drop out of school because their parents felt concerned about the “value of learning Chinese and mathematics (Gladney, Dislocating China 278 )” for our belief. Last night, I overheard my mother and the mother living next to us conversing outside of my front door, it went like this:
“It would be much more useful,” the other mother said, “for our children to learn the Quran, Arabic and Persian. If my son excelled, he might become a manla, and eventually perhaps an ahong. Their status in the village would be much higher than the average middle school or even high school graduate, as would their income, estimated at 100 to 500 yuan a month for a well-known teaching ahong! (Gladney, Dislocating China 278)”
Now that I am in my final of high school year, I finally understand the reason my parents kept me in school. Today, my teacher talked about the illiteracy rate, “on average the Hui females were 42.7% illiterate and semi literate, compared to 23.7% among Hui males and 12.3% among Han males and 31.1% for Han females (Gladney, Dislocating China 275).” Upon hearing this, I was not surprised since many of the girls living in my village were declined to go to school by their parents. Many girls were withdrawn from school either to assist the needs in the family or the farm and perhaps the parents “preferred their daughters to learn the Koran and other matters connected with religion rather than the curricula available at the state schools (Mackerras 147).”
The Chinese government plays a significant role in the minority’s education by avoiding the sensitivity of the differences among the minorities regarding culture and language. The public schools, mainly teaches the curriculum in standard Chinese and it is a struggle for many minorities because they have to learn two languages in order to preserve their language and compete with the Han. Whereas, no minority languages are taught in school since many Hans choose not to take the minority language classes because it is not useful everywhere is China. Due to the low demand, the government has stopped funding these language classes causing the minority parents to feel reluctant of sending their children to school. Thus, in order to improve the education for Muslims, the government must make major changes in the curricula by incorporating more information about Muslim and Islam, and “recognize the ‘cultural levels’ that are based on other knowledge traditions and languages (Gladney, Dislocating China 280).”
I am very fortunate that my parents are optimistic about allowing me to go to school and learn standard Chinese, Putonghua. I know that they are afraid that I might one day lose all our traditions but I will work hard to preserve them so that my children in the future will do the same. I am very thankful that my parents have not given into pressure from other parents in the village to discourage my sister and me, from going to school. Many changes have undergone in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, “there are 173 primary schools and 44 middle schools for Hui people only (YU 11).” Although, only Putonghua is taught, the Hui cultural heritage is also very important part of the curricula, so parents should not worry about their children neglecting the Hui traditions. Even with an increasing amount of schools, the highest education level for most people is middle school; some will finish high school, and less than half will attend college. I cannot wait to study at Beijing University next school year!
