Education Flashcards
When was the period of education revolution?
1949-56
What were the key points of education?
- Reshaping traditional attitudes
- transition from revolutionary war to government
- need to control thoughts and behaviour of Chinese people
- Expansion of primary education
- Public health campaigns
- Women in China
How did the CCP reshape traditional attitudes?
- Relates to control
- Through organisation of the state, relying on an intertwined relationship between party, government and army
- People monitored and controlled through their ‘danwei’
- Mao understood political importance of control over education, so returned to pre-civil war aim to improve access to education for all
What were the problems with education prior to its revolution?
- Prior to 1949, literacy rate was just 15-25%
- Illiteracy was a problem in adult populace so couldn’t be fixed only with increasing number of school
- Focus from Yan’an Years
What were the two focuses to improve education?
- Eradication of illiteracy
- The Schools Policy
How did the CCP improve literacy?
- After 1949, literacy drive to up-skill the labour force
- 1949-54 Rural Literacy Campaigns *
- Developed rapidly
- Many successful (mainly those based on experience)
- Simplification of characters
- 1,500 characters aimed at teaching peasants to read
- Only really happened in late 1950s with establishment of a committee
- Pinyin introduced to primary schools from 1958
-1954 National conference on rural adult education: Education steered to teaching character that supported rural collectivisation (literacy to be vocational and functional)
- By 1960s, 90% population had basic grasp on reading and writing
Why did the CCP want to improve literacy?
- Could use it as a way to more effectively spread Communist word
- Could break the historical pattern of education only being available to the elite, bringing equality
What were the key weaknesses in the education campaigns?
- Teacher shortages
- Childishness of teaching materials
- Conflicts between teaching and farming schedules
- Politicisation of the eradication of illiteracy
Which weakness in the education campaigns was a key problem and why?
Politicisation of education
- Eradication of illiteracy was a ‘state task’, so CCP cadres were keen to show loyalty and hit targets early
- peasants were coerced either physically or with financial sanctions to attend
- Political teaching took place over literacy, turning peasants away from education
- Peasants saw it as politics not literacy
What was the Schools Policy?
- During national economic recovery (1949-52), CCP consciously protected rights of the poor and encouraged locals and ordinary people to establish new schools
- inc. private, public and collective
- Old primary schools were supported and ‘adjusted’
- Educational strategy focused on restructuring higher education
- Soviet patterns of emphasis on engineering programs and production labor
- However, policy didn’t address mass illiteracy
Which policy was used to address the major issue with the School Policy?
1953-55 new policy adopted to stress improvement of education quality rather than quantity
- used to address mass illiteracy
1956 new main policy to try accelerate development
- private schools nationalised
- education expanded at all levels and heavily subsidised
What were the effects of the Public Health Campaigns?
- Masterclass in art of propaganda
- Improved health awareness and general awareness of sanitation
- Although not all, many campaigns were successful
- e.g. eradication of schistosomiasis
- Average life span of Chinese rose from 35 in 1949 to 68 in 1979
- Infant mortality dropped substantially
How did life change for women in the 1950s?
- 1950 new marriage law, making arranged marriages illegal
- Prostitution, dowries and concubinage made illegal
- Women’s property rights were equal to men
- Any women, despite marital status, could hold land
- Divorce available to men and women
- Children born out of wedlock had equal rights
