China to increase the rate of nationals speaking standard Chinese to 80%

Almaty. April 3. Silkroadnews – China plans to increase the rate of nationals speaking standards Chinese language (Putonghua) to 80% by 2020, the Chinese media writes.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Education and State Language Commission of the People’s Republic of China, Putonghua proficiency should be raised among the teachers, especially young teachers. They must be checked for the command of the normative language before being enrolled by schools.

Besides, it is planned to strengthen training of teachers from ethnic minorities regions. For this, in particular, such methods as distant learning will be involved.

Currently, the normative Chinese language is spoken by 70% of China’s population, but there is still a large gap between different regions and population groups.

In large cities the rate of those who speak Putonghua exceeds 90%, with only 40% in many rural areas.