Education and Health Provision Flashcards
Why was it important that people were literate?
Communist ideas could spread more quickly, economic progress relied on China producing its own technical specialists
By mid-1950s, what had been set up?
A national system of primary education
National literacy rate 1949-1960
Rose from 2 percent to 50 percent to 64% 1964
What stunted early progress
Only 6.4% of the total budget went on culture and education 1952 and less during Korean War
In 1956, how many children aged 7-16 were in full-time education?
Fewer than half the children aged 7-16
What was still a weakness of education?
Many elitist elements of the old system still lived in. ‘Key schools’ attracted the best teachers, students had to pass strict entrance examinations and places were reserved for the children of high-ranking Party and government officials.
What happened to higher education?
Expansion of higher education, and greater concentration on science and technology in universities to make technical experts
Pinyin
Modernised form of phonetic Mandarin, the language of most of China. Officially adopted 1956 to assist the spread of literacy, which was being handicapped by the lack of a standardised form of language that everybody could understand.
Why was Mandarin hard to learn?
Mandarin pronunciation varied widely from region to region and it had no alphabet, which meant each ideogram had to be learned separately.
In Pinyin, all of the sounds of Mandarin were given a particular symbol, what did this mean?
made it much more straightforward to learn and write, enabling literacy to spread faster
The collapse of education after 1966
The closure of schools and universities during CR meant that the education of 130 million young people stopped. After 1968, up the mountains and down the villages campaign.
When schools did reopen, difficult to restore belief in the system: teachers had been attacked and ridiculed, the curriculum dismissed as a waste of time and the whole purpose of education undermined. During CR only purpose of education to serve revolution. Learning not regarded as having any intrinsic use. After, clock not simply turned back- there was a greater emphasis on practical work and vocational training, fewer exams.
Health: the barefoot doctors
During CR, 1mil medical trainees, barefoot doctors, were sent to provide rudimentary medical help to the rural peasantry. 6 months of intensive study with practical focus, before being dispatched to provide free basic healthcare. Promoted simple hygiene, preventative health care and family planning, and treated common diseases.
What was a chronic feature of rural China
Endemic diseases, notably cholera and malaria, and high mortality rates
What was the ideological reason for barefoot doctors?
exposure to peasant conditions would prevent young medical intellectuals from slipping into the bourgeois mindsets. They spend half their time working in agriculture alongside the people they were looking after, which helped them win local confidence. Also, because the training was based around practical skills, their education was directly serving the revolutionary cause.
Why were barefoot doctors cheap?
Lasted only 6 months and wages roughly half those of a traditionally trained urban doctor, paid for by the local village government.
