Introduction

• 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

The Educational System Since 1949

• 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)

State Interventions to Promote Educational Equality

• 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...

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