URUMQI, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- As of Dec. 1, nearly 860,000 high school students in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will receive free education, according to the regional education department Tuesday.

Tuition, textbook costs and accommodation fees will be waived for a total of 857,200 students studying in high schools as well as secondary vocational schools in Xinjiang. Extra subsidies will be provided to students from poor families.

Xinjiang has become China's first provincial-level region to offer 15 years of free education from pre-school to high school. Previously, the region built or expanded more than 4,400 kindergartens for free bilingual (Chinese and Uygur) education for over a million pre-schoolers in rural areas.

The regional government also earmarked 2.58 billion yuan (390 million U.S. dollars) to implement the policy in rural and less developed southern areas.