Education in China Since Mao

The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Vol. X-l, 1980 Education in China Since Mao WILLIAM G. SAYWELL* ABSTRACT Policies in Chinese education, particularly higher education, have undergone major shifts since 1949 in response to general swings in Chinese policy, ideological debates and the political fortunes of different leaders and factions. These changes have involved shifts in emphasis between "redness"and "expertness", between education as a party device designed to inculcate and sustain revolutionary values and education as a governmental instrument used to promote modernization. In the most recent period since Mao's death and the "Gang of Four's" ouster in the fall of 1976, there has been a return to pragmatism with the radical policies and stress on political goals of the Cultural Revolution period giving way to a renewed emphasis on developing professional and technical skills. These objectives are being promoted by the reintroduction of earlier moderate policies governing curricula, admission standards and academic administration and by extraordinary measures, including international educational exchanges, designed to overcome the Cultural Revolution's disruptive impact. These new policies have provoked some criticism from those concerned about elitist aspects of the current system and a reduced commitment to socialist values. Since educational policy is highly sensitive to shifting political currents, future changes in this area will serve as a barometer of new political trends. RÉSUMÉ La politique de l'enseignement en Chine, particulièrement l'enseignement supérieur, a subi des changements majeurs depuis 1949 en réponse aux va-et-vient généraux de la politique chinoise, aux débats idéologiques et à la fortune politique des différents leaders et des dissensions. Ces changements ont impliqués des déplacements d'accent entre le fait d'être "rouge" et le fait d'être "expert", entre l'éducation en tant qu'appareil d'un parti visant à inculquer et supporter des valeurs révolutionnaires et une éducation en tant qu 'instrument du gouvernement employé à promouvoir la modernisation. Dans la plus récente période depuis la mort de Mao et l'éviction du "Gang des Quatre" en automne 1976, il y a eu un retour au pragmatisme avec la politique radicale et un accent mis sur les buts politiques de la période de la Révolution Culturelle cédant la place à une importance renouvelée accordée au développement des aptitudes professionelles et techniques. Ces objectifs sont * Vice-Provost, University of Toronto. The author gratefully acknowledges financial support which allowed him to travel to China, from the University of Toronto/York University Joint Centre on Modern East Asia and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2 W.G. Say well promus par la réintroduction d'une politique modérée, plus ancienne, régissant les curri- culums, les standards d'admission et l'administration académique, et par mesures extra- ordinaires, incluant des échanges éducatifs internationaux, visant à surmonter l'impact perturbateur de la Révolution Culturelle. Cette nouvelle politique a provoqué quelques critiques dans les parties concernées par les aspects élitistes du système actuel et d'un senti- ment de responsabilité réduit vis-à-vis des valeurs socialistes. Puisque la politique éducative est extrêmement sensible aux changements de courants politiques, les changements futurs dans ce domaine serviront de baromètre dans les nouvelles tendances politiques. Introduction: Shifts in Education Policies, 1949-1976 Policies in Chinese education, particularly higher education, have undergone major periodic shifts since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October, 1949. Few other major policy areas have been as sensitive to the general swings in Chinese policy, ideological debates and the political fortunes of different leaders and factions. This is hardly surprising. As a developing nation the critical importance education plays as a steering force in the nation's development is obvious. As a revolutionary socialist society its leaders have strongly held convictions about the values and norms, as well as the professional training, education must provide. Education is an explicit device of the party designed to inculcate and sustain revolutionary values and Marxist-Leninist theories, as well as an instrument of the state used to promote its modernization. The duality of 'redness' and 'expertness' has been at the essence of Chinese educational objectives, while swings in emphasis between the two have been a major characteristic of policy change. As a controlled society (some would argue totalitarian), leaders and leadership groups have been able to impose sudden and dramatic shifts and reversals in the field of education policy as in other areas. In the early 1950's Chinese policies, including those in Chinese education, particularly at the post-secondary level, essentially followed the Soviet model. This emphasized scientific and technological training directed at the needs of an industrializing society. For example, in 1949 China had 180 institutions of higher education enrolling 80,000 students. By 1957 enrollment had jumped to 440,000.' The Chinese Academcy of Sciences, the national organization primarily responsible for the training of research scientists, had thirty-one research institutes in 1952 and 170 in 1958.2 When Mao abandoned much of the Soviet model in the Great Leap Forward of 1958, policies in education shifted accordingly. Less priority was given to the advanced training of a scientific and technological group needed to manage an industrializing economy. Politics and class background were introduced as criteria for admission to university. Priority was given programmes which aimed at achieving mass literacy, providing local initiative, expanding rural educational opportunities, encouraging curricular and structural innovation and politicizing education at all levels. Many of these policies including programmes like the part-work/part-study schemes had their roots in the Chinese Communists' revolutionary tradition long before Liberation and had been continued in the early 1950's. But they were given renewed priority in the great Leap period. Enrollment in China's primary schools almost doubled between 1957 and 1965, jumping from 51,000,000 in 1952 to 64,000,000 in 1957 and 116,000,000 in 1965,3 This represented 84.7% of 3 Education in China since Mao school age children.4 In the same period middle (secondary) school enrollment increased from 3,100,000 to 7,000,000 in 1957 and 14,400,000 in 1965.5 The failure of the Great Leap generally and the economic difficulties that followed led to a retreat in these educational priorities along with a major shift in the country's economic policies as a whole. As China moved to a more moderate set of policies in the recovery years of the early 1960's, education policies began to shift their emphasis away from the more poli- tically oriented ones of the Leap years to those associated with economic development. While mass literacy and universal primary education remained important targets, a renewed emphasis was given higher education, particularly in the training of scientists and engineers in both universities and research institutes. By 1965 university enrollment had reached 670,000.6 Community run primary and middle schools offered at least some education to most at the local level. But academic quality and opportunities for professional development and mobility rested in a state run system which included "key" schools at each level.7 To the key schools went the best teachers, students and equipment. Unified entrance examinations channelled the best students from each level into the key institutions at the next level. Class background and political activism remained criteria for admission to universities, but the basic evaluation was made on the academic record of the student, particularly in the form of his or her mark on the college entrance exam. The quality of middle and primary schools was largely judged on the basis of the percentage of their students who entered college. At the top of the hierarchy China's best universities were designated "key" universities and made directly responsible to the Ministry of Education. In 1965 education in China, especially higher education, favored city over countryside, intellectual ability over class background or political activism and 'expert' over 'red'. To Mao Zedong these policies, like many at that time, were 'revisionist' and the work of 'capitalist roaders' in the party. China and especially its youth had to be redirected away from the revisionist model of the Soviet Union with whom China had fallen out in 1960, to a purer Chinese revolutionary one. In 1966 he launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In June of that year university classes were suspended, initially for six months, to revise curricula, teaching methods and admission procedures. In the summar of 1967 a few institutes of higher education such as the Aeronautics Institute of Peking resumed limited work, but essentially China's system of higher education remained closed. In October, 1967 a central directive ordered universities, secondary and primary schools everywhere to commence classes immediately. Primary and middle schools which had also been widely suspended resumed classes at different points between then and 1969. But China's universities remained torn by revolutionary upheaval. In July, 1968 a new directive from Mao published in the People's

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