#3056 - Week 14 Reading Deng - Chinese Economic History Since 1850

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) the advantage of coming from an educated family or an intelligentsia or cadre family was drastically reduced

• Reflecting massive state intervention

Some compare the educational changes to those in other command societies such as East European communist societies

• But there is little evidence that the pattern of attainment in East European societies during the communist era was radically different from those of Western Europe (Blossfeld and Shavit, 1993)

The Chinese government tried, in a variety of ways to promote education opportunities for the children of peasant and worker families at the expense of those from higher status backgrounds

China adopted an American-style school system in 1922 (Gao, 1985)

After 1949, China’s educational system fell under Soviet influence

• In 1951 China’s DoE proposed system of 5 years primary, 5 years secondary, 4 years university

• But most school systems didn’t carry out the reform

  • Retaining instead the 6-3-3-4/5 structure (American style)

  • Therefore structurally similar to that of industrialized countries even though it wasn’t supposed to be

Family class origin was used as an admissions

Family cultural capital has been shown to strongly affect educational attainment (Bourdieu, 1977)

Communist goal of “eliminating the distinctions between town and country, industry ad agriculture, physical and mental labour” – (China Youth Daily, 1959)

According to party ideology – cultural capital breeds social “elitism”, in which the children of workers and peasants fall victim to “examination discrimination” (Munro, 1972)

Three techniques to promote and improve educational opportunities for works and peasants and their children:

• 1) Expanded the formal education system

• 2) Established an informal “mass education” alternative

• 3) Employed different enrollment criteria for people with different social backgrounds

The number of schools at each level and the portion of school age children enrolled in them both increased continuously from the 1950s to 1970s (China DoE, 1982)

Collective-owned schools and “convenient primary schools”

• Accounted for 22% of primary school pupils by 1981

The state appropriated all universities and colleges in 1950, abolished tuition fees, provided subsidies for students, guaranteed jobs following graduation

“Mass education programs” for adults was also introduced

• Gave priority to adults of working-class and peasant backgrounds

• Courses stressed Marxist classics and the works of Chairman Mao Zedong

• Were mostly short-lived

• Very high drop out rates

Shortened the school program at primary and secondary level

From 1950s government pressed schools at all levels to increase their enrollment of students of worker or peasant origins (Xu, 1982)

Policy of Open the Door of High Education for Workers and Peasants began in 1953 (Gao, 1985)

During some periods admission was granted to some students by ‘recommendation only’, allowing them to bypass the recruitment examination

• Usually had made contributions to the revolutionary cause

• But only among those who met the academic standard

• Peak use of this method was during the Cultural Revolution

Intelligentsia were the most affected by the Cultural Revolution

• Had no political power with which to protect themselves

Cultural Revolution resulted in a massive disruption of education in China

• There was a shortage of teachers, since many had been purged

• Schools and universities faced the probably of extra cohorts following the re-opening of them after the Cultural Revolution

  • Tried to solve by making 2 years work experience a pre-requisite for tertiary level institutions

Gradual return to ‘normalcy’ throughout the 1970s

• Explicit program of “return to the team” by which many professionals...