China News Service, Urumqi, September 10 (Zhang Jiawei) In August 2024, the Southern Xinjiang Language Teaching and Research Center (hereinafter referred to as the "Center") was officially launched at Xinjiang Aksu College of Education.
This is a place specializing in Chinese teaching established in southern Xinjiang, led by Zhejiang Aid Xinjiang and jointly with 6 units including the Xinjiang Institute of Educational Sciences, the Teaching and Research Section of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, the School of Continuing Education and Teacher Training of Beijing Normal University, the School of Lifelong Education of Zhejiang Normal University, the Aksu Regional Education Bureau, and the Alar City Education Bureau of the First Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Two years later, the results are remarkable. In 2026, the average Chinese language score in the Aksu region's high school entrance examination was 13.86 points higher than last year. All 30 base schools improved their scores, and the highest score increased by a single school was 19.1 points. The center’s achievements won the special prize for teaching achievements in the autonomous region.
"Hematopoietic" aid to Xinjiang
Zhao Li, the person in charge of the center, said that before the center was established, there were obvious shortcomings. There is a lack of high-quality teaching and research resources, and teachers’ professional abilities are uneven; the national common language teaching and classroom teaching and research systems are not perfect; the scientific research strength of the subject is weak; and the implementation of excellent Chinese traditional culture in classrooms is insufficient.
Zhejiang’s idea for aiding Xinjiang is to directly build a platform. The center has four sub-centers, namely the subject research center, the teacher training center, the communication and development center, and the literacy cultivation center. The center operates using a comprehensive research and training model of "six parallel paths and six forces". It is a comprehensive research and training platform that integrates Chinese teaching and research, academic exchanges, teacher training, and literacy cultivation.
According to Zhao Li, Zhejiang Aid to Xinjiang introduces national language experts and Zhejiang famous teacher resources through "concept input - method transplantation - local transformation" to provide software and hardware support such as topics, courses, and live broadcast platforms.
Zhao Li said that through the "teaching by famous teachers from Zhejiang + the incubation of local backbones", the gradient development of teachers' professional abilities has been achieved, a self-development mechanism for regional Chinese teachers has been built, and the transformation of educational aid to Xinjiang from "blood transfusion" assistance to "hematopoietic" symbiosis has been achieved.
The center has listed 30 teaching and research base schools, established a full-time and part-time teaching and research team of 70 people (including 12 Zhejiang famous teachers), and implemented the "Language Enriching Zhejiang" plan. Regularly carry out grassroots services under the "Teaching and Research Express", go deep into the front line to polish high-quality demonstration courses, and cover teaching scenarios in the entire school period.
In March 2025, the center cooperated with Zhejiang famous teacher Jiang Wenhua's studio to organize a "cloud teaching and research" for senior high school Chinese. More than 500 people participated online, forming a cross-provincial collaboration mechanism of "Zhejiang famous teachers leading - southern Xinjiang teachers participating - expert evaluation".
Teaching effectiveness gradually appears
In recent years, all the work of the center has been implemented and achieved results, and the results in education and teaching and research have been fruitful, quantifiable, and testable. Teacher training activities are carried out on a regular basis, attracting a total of more than 2,000 teachers to participate offline, more than 135,000 people to study online, and accumulating more than 80 high-quality quality lessons; scientific research work has improved both quality and efficiency, with a total of 67 projects at all levels, 30 projects completed, and 21 national-level papers published, forming a complete three-level scientific research system.
The teaching effectiveness continues to be outstanding, and the quality of regional Chinese education has been significantly improved. Relying on the intensive support of base schools, many grassroots schools have achieved leap-forward improvements in teaching quality. Through the "teaching and research express train", the center provides regular assistance to schools, carries out precise guidance such as course research, lesson polishing, and demonstration lesson presentations, and continues to optimize the grassroots classroom teaching model.
Through systematic teaching and research empowerment, grassroots teachers' classroom teaching, teaching and research capabilities have been greatly improved, and students' ability to use the national common language, text interpretation and writing literacy have been comprehensively improved.
The center's achievement "Language Solidification and Teaching and Research Improvement - A Southern Xinjiang Sample for the Development of Chinese Teachers' Professional Abilities" won the special prize for the autonomous region's teaching achievements (basic education category), forming a Southern Xinjiang model that can be promoted and replicated.
Leaving behind a teaching and research system that “cannot be taken away”
Zhao Li said: "After the phased end of the aid work to Xinjiang, we hope to leave behind three things: a standardized teaching and research work system that adapts to the academic situation in southern Xinjiang, a core team of Chinese teachers who can be retained and can deepen their cultivation, and a batch of high-quality lesson examples and scientific research results."
The "Chinese Studies Classics at the Grassroots Level" activity went to 14 schools and 9 administrative villages, and held special lectures and cultural performances, with 69,000 people participating. It was rated as one of the top ten cases of social science popularization in the autonomous region.
The center has built a live broadcast room called "Language Enriching Zhejiang·Aerobic Reading", launched 76 themed live broadcasts and 70 original works, established the Zhejiang Language Arts Club, and created and arranged 20 original language programs such as "Bridge".
Online training courses and teaching and research resources have been opened to the entire southern Xinjiang region, and a total of more than 30,000 Chinese teachers from various prefectures have been trained. Relying on the "Dandelion Project" demonstration and leadership project, the center's teaching and research model, high-quality courses and training system are being continuously promoted to various regions in southern Xinjiang, driving the coordinated improvement of Chinese education in southern Xinjiang.
Zhao Li said that through normalized teaching and research empowerment, the cultural confidence and identity of teachers and students of all ethnic groups can be subtly cultivated, and ideological consensus can be gathered through subject education to lay a solid foundation for education in building a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.
In two years, Zhejiang's aid to Xinjiang has made building a strong sense of the Chinese nation's community no longer a slogan, making Chinese classes "alive" in southern Xinjiang.
