Social and Cultural Changes - Education and Health Provision Flashcards
Education before reform
• 30% males over 7 could read a simple letter
• 45.2% males and 2.2% females received any schooling
• 2/3 received traditional style education - learning confucian concepts
Subjects before reform
• arithmetic and science not included
• few modern schools with western-style curricula
• 59% students enrolled in humanities degrees
• 10% studied natural science
• 11.5% studied engineering
• 3% studied agriculture
How did literacy improve after reform
• new form of written language introduced
• number of primary school students increased from approx 26 million to 64 million
• in rural areas min-pan (run by the people) primary schools key to improving access
• winter schools provided short courses for adult peasants
How did reform improve higher education
• university enrolments from 117,000 to 441,000
• higher education modelled closely on Soviet Union - separate Ministry of Education set up to coordinate
• by 1959, 38,000 Chinese students trained in Russian universities
• 26 new engineering institutes created
• by 1953, 63% students in engineering, medicine and agriculture
Introduction of pinyin
• 1955 gov introduced new written language
• letters instead of symbols meant that words in Mandarin could be pronounced phonetically
• greatly improved communication
Failures of educational reform 1949-58
• system remained elitist
• academic requirements needed for admission to middle schools and universities favoured old bourgeoisie and children of party officials
• universities mainly urban students
• teaching in villages left to barely educated cadres
• winter schools ineffective since peasants forgot what they had learned previous winter
Educational change during the Great Leap Forward
• manual labour introduced into the curriculum
• ministry of higher education abolished
• Mao promoted ‘half work half study’ - new schools ran vocational courses along with basic maths and languages
• by 1960, approx 30,000 schools (one per commune)
Impact of the Great Leap Forward
• many potential students unable to attend school due to work on backyard furnaces
• two-track educational system developed - rural children went onto vocational training, urban children went into full-time education system
• ‘key point’ schools received more funding and best teachers - old elitism returned
• children of cadres took places at best schools
The collapse of education after 1966
• failure to create educational equality convinced Mao capitalist roaders had taken over the party
• Mao complained 12 year education system too long
• Mao complained exams were too rigid and students not prepared for manual labour
• ‘there is too much studying going on’
The cultural revolution
• central committee announced ‘the task of the cultural revolution is to reform the old education system’
• schools and unis closed as Red guards abandoned education to travel to Beijing rallies
• young people denounced and attacked their teachers - struggle meetings held
• partaking in ‘revolutionary struggle’ gave red guards opportunity to prove ideological commitment
Impact of the cultural revolution on education
• young people sent to the countryside as part of the ‘up to the mountains and down to the villages’ campaign
• Mao wanted to force intellectuals to experience the harshness of rural life
• Red guards became known as Chinas ‘lost generation’
Health policy
• party decided the priority was in prevention rather than expensive cures
• cadres trained to show peasants how to prevent disease through hygiene and sanitation
• patriotic health campaigns sent teams of party workers into countryside
• terror campaigns against drug suppliers and criminal gangs
Impact of the health policy
• diseases such as smallpox and cholera practically eliminated
• terror campaigns lowered number of drug addicts
• number of doctors trained in modern techniques rose to 150,000 by 1965
• by 1960s medical schools graduating 25,000 new doctors per year
• life expectancy rose to 57 years by 1957
Barefoot doctors
• villages sent young people to receive medical training to become ‘barefoot doctors’
• new recruits worked in the village clinic
• barefoot doctors trained intensively for 6 months studying a ‘barefoot doctors manual’ which provided no theory but rather a summary of symptoms
Impact of the barefoot doctors
• provided healthcare for rural peasants
• training adequate enough to treat common problems peasants experienced
• played important role in spreading modern medical knowledge
• by 1973 over a million new doctors trained
