Authorities have announced a drive to bring literacy to most ethnic minority adults and compulsory education to minority children in the next eight years.
The mainland's minorities mostly live in the remote and poorer inland provinces of the west.
Speaking at a national conference in Beijing on educating ethnic minorities, Education Minister Chen Zhili admitted their schooling fell short of the needs for economic and social development in the regions.
In the first phase, Ms Chen said, the ministry aimed to introduce a nine-year compulsory education programme in about 70 per cent of counties populated by minorities by 2005, up from 51 per cent last year.
By 2005, at least 95 per cent of those regions would provide compulsory primary school education, Xinhua reported.
Ms Chen called for better training of teachers speaking minority languages and Putonghua to help implement the programme.
She said distance learning should be encouraged, with remote teaching centres set up in counties and townships using satellite technology.
