Uygur children [blog.xmnn.cn]

Schools in northwest China's vast inland region, home to the country's densest population of Uygur ethnic group, are in dire need of bilingual teachers, fluent in both Mandarin (putonghua) and the Turkic dialect, a political advisor told Xinhua on Wednesday.

A former military veteran in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Qiu Yanhan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation's top political advisory body, said the growing shortage of bilingual teachers is alarming.

By 2014, another batch of 69,500 bilingual teachers will be needed for the region's elementary and junior high schools, and even more for the more demanding high schools and colleges.

Qiu suggests in his political advice, to be submitted to the annual CPPCC meeting, that ethnic bilingual education be nourished with a flexible compensation system as well as other preferential policies, advocating college graduates, especially those of ethnic people, to return to their homeland.

The annual national CPPCC meeting kicked off at 3 pm on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.