Impact of GLF and CR on Education

Question 1

GREAT LEAP FORWARD:

• Sep. 1958: ‘Directive on Education Work’ launched - criticised bourgeois ideas about ed.
• Future: Promotions of teachers largely based on political qualifications.
• Manual labour brought into curriculum - ^ eco power.
• ‘1/2 work 1/2 study’ - rejected rote learning.
• Rural middle schools: help peasants to run rural inds & support intro of modern agri techniques.
• Reduce dependence on urban unis: contribute to Mao’s goal of reducing inequalities btwn towns & countryside - ‘new men of communism.’
• 1960: 30k schools, 1 per commune, est 2.9m students.

Answer 1

IMPACT OF GLF:

• Schools cut too many classes for sake of prod labour activities.
• Students unable to attend: backyard furnace work.
• May 1959: Strict limits on schools changing curriculum & teaching methods: guidelines set.
• Rural areas: Children went from primary -> agri school.
• Cities: full-time education from kindergarten -> uni.

IMPACTS:

• Old elitism returned: children of cadres took places at schools learning intellectual interests & developing same career aspirations as Capitalist class CCP tried to destroy.
• System returned to pre-leap elitism.
• Early 60s: System more elitist than ever before.

Question 2

CULTURAL REVOLUTION:

• 1966 C.C. decision on C.R. said task was to reform old ed system.
• Offered students chance to experience rev rather than school.
• R.Gs abandoned education to attend Mao rallies in Beijing: Schools & unis closed.
• Young ppl denounced & intimidated teachers at struggle meetings.
• Children from higher-class backgrounds: most radical - abandoning school allowed them to show ideological commitment.
• Violence completely shattered China’s school system.

Answer 2

IMPACT OF C.R. ON EDUCATION:

• C.R had lasting impact on students’ attitudes to learning.
• Willingness to challenge rote learning > practical skills: could be success for Mao’s vision of egalitarian ed system.
• End of C.R: Many R.Gs sent to countryside as part of U.T.M.D.T.V campaign.
• Mao: wanted to force intellectuals to experience harshness of rural life.
• Also conveniant way to alleviate urban overcrowding.
• Seeing first-hand impacts of communism: many became disillusioned w regime. ‘- Uneducated & abandoned: became known as ‘lost generation.’

Question 3

COLLAPSE OF EDUCATION AFTER 1966

Answer 3

• Mid-1960s: Failure to create ed equality: convinced Mao Capitalist roaders had infiltrated party.
• Early 1964: Mao complained 12-yr ed is too long, exams too rigid & students not prepared for manual labour.
• Didn’t want intellectuals to have power.

SOCIALIST EDUCATION CAMPAIGN:

• Political & class background returned as ground for admission into senior middle school & college.
• Education: focused on:
  1. Marxist-Leninist Theory.
  2. Class Struggle.
• Socialist heroes e.g. Comrade Lei Feng played central role in school