| Abstract The purpose of radical educational reforms in rural areas in China can be summarized as threefolds: 1��,to secure better access to education for the lower strata of rural society;2��, to strengthen political indoctrination inside the school system; 3��,to make education more directly to rural economical life. My conclusion is that the radical reformers achieved their first goal but failed to reach the second and the third.
Why was that? I got the strong impression form interview that rural population of China all through the 20th century quite consistently has demanded three things from the education system. In order of priority they were: 1��, schooling should improve their children’s chances of upward social mobility; 2��, it should provide them with basic academic skills, primary reading and writing skills; 3��, it should contribute to the formation of the students’ characters and turn them into socially competent members of scociety. Whenever a certain reform in the specific socio-political context in which it was introduced was seen to move towards these goals the rural population tended to support it. Whenever it moved away from the most villagers would reject it or twist its content in a more acceptable direction.
Seen in this perspective, radical policies were in line with public demands as far as the expanded access to education was concerned. Villagers wanted their kids to go to school because they believed, even during the Cultural Revolution, that schooling would improve their chances in life. As for political indoctrination, the villagers did not see it as very useful, so contrary to the intentions of reformers they focused more on basic reading and writing skills than on the political content of what they learned to read and write. It should be remembered here that the memorization of the textbooks is a didactic principle with old-age roots in Chinese culture. If students for centuries could be taught to read by having them memorize the Sanzijing and Qianziwen, why should it not be possible to Quotations of Chairman Mao in a similar way? When it came to the link between education and economic life the rural population remained very skeptical, particularly when schools tried to transmit agricultural skills. Village kids go to school in order to get away from agriculture, not in order to become better farmers. Reforms in these field therefore failed miserably except in those areas where the villagers could see that schools transmitted vocational skills which their children could use to leave the fields and get more attractive jobs. |
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