【Epoch Times September 23, 2025】Schools in multiple regions of Inner Mongolia have recently announced a significant change – apart from the “Mongolian language course,” all subjects in primary and secondary schools will now be taught in Mandarin Chinese. Teachers who continue to use Mongolian language for instruction will face reassignment or training. Simultaneously, in government institutions, Mongolian officials are required to speak Mandarin Chinese in public; speaking Mongolian may be criticized for having an “incorrect accent” and even mocked openly. Interviews and public reports indicate that this change is occurring simultaneously in multiple regions.
The Chinese authorities’ mandatory Mandarin teaching in the minority regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia has sparked outrage. On September 23, a Mongolian teacher named Saren from a primary school in Xilingol League told reporters that since last year, all local schools have enforced Mandarin Chinese as the medium of instruction, turning Mongolian into a standalone subject.
“Now, apart from Mongolian language courses, all other subjects must be taught in Mandarin Chinese. I used to teach math in Mongolian for over ten years. Since last autumn, I have been required to switch to Mandarin,” Saren added that many Mongolian language teachers are struggling to adapt to this requirement. “The training time is very short, and many terms are difficult to switch over. I find it challenging to speak myself, and the children are struggling even more to keep up.”
Naren Gao Wa, who teaches at a primary school in Ordos, also noted that some high-performing students experienced a sharp decline in grades after the language transition. She gave an example, saying, “I have a relative whose child is currently in the third grade. They studied math in Mongolian in the first and second grades, but suddenly switched to Mandarin in the third grade, resulting in failing grades. The parents are anxious and mistakenly think the child is not working hard enough.”
In another high school, office spaces are arranged for both Han and Mongolian teachers to work together. A Mongolian teacher who declined to be named told reporters, “They say this is to ‘promote communication,’ but friction frequently arises in reality. Different lifestyles and even speaking styles can be scrutinized. Some teachers have directly told me not to speak Mongolian in the office, which makes me feel like an outsider.”
A Mongolian grassroots cadre from Ordos revealed, “In the past, we could communicate in Mongolian at ethnic conferences, but now we must use Mandarin. When we don’t speak it well, Han officials laugh directly. Previously, this only happened in private, but now it happens openly. We feel very uncomfortable.” He mentioned that this atmosphere has made some Mongolian officials afraid to speak their native language, fearing being seen as “backward” or lacking in ability.
Haschaolu, a Chinese ethnic education researcher and retired professor from Inner Mongolia Normal University, stated that language is the core of national culture. If Mongolian language education is confined to just one subject, students will inevitably have fewer opportunities to engage with Mongolian in daily life. He angrily said, “This will accelerate the marginalization of the Mongolian language over time, leading to a rupture in cultural inheritance.”
Bao Lema, a Mongolian residing in the United States, recalled, “Five years ago, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Education Department replaced Mongolian teaching materials with Chinese. Many people went on strike, even petitioned the regional government. But the CCP completely ignored it, and the police even made arrests. We protested many times overseas, but it was ineffective.”
Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly warned that China’s language and education policies in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are systematically eroding the public function of minority languages, forcing minorities to gravitate towards a single Mandarin system.
In August 2020, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Education Department issued a directive requiring the use of national textbooks in politics and history from September 1 of the new semester, taught in Mandarin. This sparked massive protests: parents boycotting classes, herders gathering, and teachers refusing to teach. However, as authorities tightened control, the protests were forcefully quelled, leaving many parents worried about their children’s future, afraid to express dissent publicly.
Radio Free Asia and Voice of America have reported multiple times that the actual goal of the CCP’s policy is to remove Mongolian from the mainstream education system, retaining it in form only as a “minority language course.”
Starting this autumn, some schools in Inner Mongolia have significantly reduced Mongolian language instruction: some primary schools compressed from seven weekly classes to three; changes have appeared in kindergarten where some institutions no longer teach Mongolian nursery rhymes and songs, switching to Mandarin content; the number of ethnic schools has greatly decreased, with many schools that primarily used Mongolian or bilingual instruction being required to reform or stop Mongolian language teaching.
Education professionals in Beijing point out that forcibly replacing Mongolian language teaching with Mandarin will hinder the academic progress of hundreds of thousands of Mongolian students and weaken their sense of ethnic identity. A parent in Xilingol sighed, “When children come home from school, they only speak Mandarin. They can’t write in Mongolian and are unwilling to speak it anymore. We insist on speaking Mongolian at home, but the school environment is too dominant.” He lamented, “We do not oppose children learning Mandarin, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of their mother tongue.”
Currently, official Chinese emphasis is on the “promotion of national common language and script,” but the Mongolian community feels their status being diminished and dignity eroded.