Figure 1.--These Chinese children are particiapting in a primary school flag raising ceremony in 1981. The boys and girls have the same unifiorms. Note the red scarves and salute.

The Chinese Civil War (1927-49) ended with the Communists defeating Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces in 1948-49. Chang retired to Taiwan. The Communist's founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) and inititiated fundamental educational reforms, inituially slavishly using a Soviet model. Here the Comminists did not engage in the extensive debate earlier about importing foreign models. The simply adopted the Soviet model whole scale. The Chinese Government for the first time devoted considerable attention to developing a mass educational system. Great attention was given to university-level education. An analysis of education in China has to be divided into three destinct periods: early PRC era, the Cultural Revolution, and the modern reform era. Mahor changes in the educational system ocurred during these three very different periods.

Early PRC Era (1949-1966)

The Chinese Civil War (1927-49) ended with the Communists defeating Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces in 1948-49. Chang retired to Taiwan. The Communist's founded the People's Republic of China (PRC). After the founding of the PRC in 1949, the new Government inititiated fundamental educational reforms, initially slavishly using a Soviet model. Here the Comminists did not engage in the extensive debate earlier about importing foreign models. The simply adopted the Soviet model whole scale. The Chinese Government for the first time devoted considerable attention to developing a mass educational system. The Chinese Government reports that as of 1956, about 7 years after the Revolution that less than half of primary and seciondary age children were in school. One author maintains that the Soviet model was not successfully addressing the problem of mass illiteracy. We are not as sure about this as we do not know what percentage of children were in school before the Revolution. Much of the Givernments efforts in the 1950s focused on the restructuring of Chinese universities. The Government decided to reduce the number of comprehensive universities, bit increase the number of specialized polytechbical colleges. Much of the Givernments efforts in the 1950s focused on the restructuring of Chinese universities. Educational authoriries encountered a range of problems in pursuing their goals, many of them sef made problems caused by Mao Zedong and his policies. The Government after breaking with the Soviets needed a new educational model. The approach adopted was to resurect earlier attempts at siking a ballance between Confucian and Western-style education.

Cultural Revolution (1966-76)

Radically minded Communist Party officials saw the "two-tiered system" of education adopted in China would produce an elite few highly trained academics with the great masses of the Chinese people having to settle for an inferior education, able at best to reach the specialized pplytechnical colleges. It was in Chinese universities that the Cultural Revolition was unleashed. Some saw the administrators of the comprehensive universities as the culprits, believing that they were perpetuating a self-serving system. A "big character poster"' critical of the university's administrators. The Peking poster and criticism was given extensive coverage in the national media. It proved to be the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Political criticism of university administrators rapidly spread to universities across China. Under Liu Shaoqi, the government's first formal reaction was to appoint "workteams" to look into the charges and to contain the increasingly disruptive agitation. Chairman Mao personally by mid-June 1966 intervened in the growing national movement. He overtly questioned Liu's handling of the Cultural Revolution and withdrew the workteams. Thr Revolutionary students saw this as support for their cause. They escalted their efforts in university campuses throughout China. Turmoil resulted ion Chinese campuses. University education virtually ceased. Major reforms were conducted in primary and secondary schools. Primary schools were cinducted throughout the country side as part of the clectivizatin program, but the academic program was significantly simplified with many importnt subjects being watered down or eliminated. The selection of new students when admissions were resumed ignored academic abilities and was based on political "virtue". Party officials classified youths worker, peasants, or military families as the most "virtuous". The Cultural Revolution was an enomously disruptive period for Chinese society and especially for the country's educational system. The educational infrastructure, especially the dtaff of competent university professors, was decimated as a result of the revolutional struggles and purges. They were denounced and humikliated. Many spent years in the country side engaged in agricultural work. Some died or suffered debiliating injiries. Students akso suffered as they persued the factional polutical infighting on campus. Course work was simplied or actually non-existent.

Modern Reform Era (1976- )

Chinese school children in the 2000s all wear uniforms. The uniforms, however, are quite different. There is no national style, rather each school selects its on uniform. There appear to be regional differences. A HBC reader who has provided information has only been to Peking, Dalian, Suzhou and Shanghai. These are all big cities (between 1 and 15 million) in the prosperous eastern part of the country. I don’t think they are representative of the rural areas of the West and South. Some schools in the less prosperous areas may not require uniforms. The uniforms are seasonal, depending on where the school is located in China. The summer uniforms usually consist of short pants and a shirt in the same style, sometimes in quite bright colors. Sailor collars are frequent for girls. One favourite style is a colored suit with piping in white or a contrasting color. Children used to wear their school uniforms with red Young Pioneer scarves, but this is now less common.

Sources

David B. Surowski, "History of the Educational System of China: An essay commissioned by Projects for International Education Research," undated essay accessed August 29, 2002.

Created: August 29, 2002
Last updated: August 29, 2002