URUMQI -- Authorities in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will make 15 years of education basically universal by 2020.

According to a development plan released by the region's education department, more than 98 percent of children will have access to three years of free preschool education.

Ninety-five percent of children are expected to finish the compulsory nine years of primary and junior high school and 90 percent will attend senior high school, it said.

The region also plans to speed up development of vocational and higher education to enroll 40 percent of students in universities.

By 2020, all students attending kindergartens, primary and junior schools will have bilingual education, and students from ethnic minority groups will have a basic command of standard spoken and written Chinese.

Additionally, people entering the labor market in the region will have received 13 years of education on average, it said.