Rebellious students in Inner Mongolia may be offered cash if they return to class and abandon their protest against a new curriculum that would make Mandarin Chinese the language of instruction instead of the native Mongolian.

Under the proposal, each student would be rewarded with a 200 yuan “gift package” for every classmate they can persuade to return to class. That suggestion was floated by the Communist Youth League branch committee of Ongniud Banner, an administrative division in the autonomous region.

Chinese authorities are understood to be considering the suggestion as an alternative to harder-line proposals that are also being mulled. The move comes amid protests across the autonomous region over the new curriculum.

Students have staged class boycotts and parents have pulled children out of schools to oppose the move, which they believe will further erode Mongolian culture and language.

The 200 yuan cash reward could be used to redeem phone bills or food expenses, according to the proposal. Awards and prizes would also be dished out.

Local governments and schools have been taking different approaches to get pupils back in classrooms. Some have taken the harder line of threatening to expel those who fail to return to school by a certain time.

Parents who are civil servants have also been threatened with suspensions and pay freezes if they or their children take part in protests, according to reports on social media.

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is home to 4.2 million ethnic Mongolians. The strategy of replacing the native languages of autonomous regions is not uncommon amid Beijing’s goal of assimilating more ethnic minorities into Han culture.

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