The town of Jaghistay is at the foot of the beautiful Evliya summit located south of the Ili river in Qapqal county of the Uighur Autonomous Region. The town of Jaghistay consists of 4 farming production units and one animal husbandry farm. The current population of Jaghistay is about 12,500, 95% of which is Uighur. There is also a small portion of Kazakh and Kirghiz people who live on the nearby mountains. There are also some Han people who immigrated to Jaghistay during 1955 to work for a mining mill located 2 miles away from the town.
The town of Jaghistay lacks water resources and as a result the land is stony and dry. The town is considered one of the poorest in the Ili valley. However, historically, the town has been famous for its well developed educational system. The people of Jaghistay have put much effort into building schools, attracting talent, and educating the youth. The town has produced so many scholars, professors, poets, writers and famous actors that they are spread all over the cities of the Uighur Autonomous Region. There are also a large number of scholars who work in developed parts of China and western countries. No wonder during the 1950’s, the town was nicknamed named the “Town that produces intellectuals”.
According to the historical record, as early as 1800, there were already some schools in Jaghistay. Children of young ages went to those schools to learn how to write and how to do simple arithmetic. In 1894, a man named Molla’imin Hemesh who graduated from Kazan University came to Side Neighborhood in Jaghistay and opened a formal school. Beside Islamic religion classes, the school also offered language, literature, moral behavior and arithmetic classes to young children. The year 1894 marked the beginning of the modern educational system in Jaghistay. In 1905, a man named Iskender Hapiz invited a Tatar teacher Gharipulla from Ghulja city to teach a group of students in his home. All the classes taught to the group were science classes. Russian language was also one of the subjects. In 1910, the ‘Shangyu’ (the town administrator) of Jaghistay ordered the contstruction of another science school with 3 rooms near the Yusup Mirap gravesite. The administrator hired a teacher Mr. Mira Molla to teach 2 classes of children in that school. Mr. Molla was graduated from Zarvat College in Almata in present day Kazakhstan. Mr. Molla taught language, arithmetic, nature, geography and physical education classes as well as Islamic religion.
Later that year, several teachers from other cities came to Jaghistay to teach in these schools because of the attractive compensation and respect they received from the local people. Those teachers were graduated from the then famous Kazan University and Zarvat College. They were well educated and with advanced knowledge in modern technology. They dedicated their efforts in educating children with modern knowledge. In 1917, Mr. Isa Damolla and Mr. Nasuha Imin from the city of Ghulja, and Nezerhuja Abdusemet, Abdurehim Isa, Osman Yusup from Russia also came to Jaghistay “to work on brightening up people’s mind” ( to educate people with modern ideology). As the result, the science education in Jaghistay started to improve very rapidly. In 1932, after the establishment of “Birlik” (Unity) school, these schools combined to form one of the first modernized school systems in the Uighur Autonomous Region. Eventually, the ‘Birlik’ school system expanded and divided to Jaghistay Middle School, 3 Primary Town Schools, Nurahon Spring Animal Husbandry School, Akhyar Town School and the Unified Mine Worker’s Children schools for administrative reasons.
(to be continued)