Figure 1.--

Background

Gradually the Cultural Revolution played itself out. With Mao's death in 1976, the Gang of Four was arrested. China began to change course. With the end of the Cultural Revolution fashions again changed in China. China on a radical change in policy through its door open to the outside world in 1978. The open-door policy and freer political environment led to a radically different view of fashion. Army caps and other uniform items were sttill very popular among boys during the period immediately after the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese people gradually regained the freedom of deciding how they wanted to dress on an individual basis. Gradually uniforms vecame less and less popular as young peeople invreasingly wanted to dress more individualistically. Important leaders by the 1980s began to appaer in smartly tailored western suits. Soon after these suiys were being worn by people of all classes from leaders to common laborers. The western suit became was considered a standard dress for China. The popular concept regarding clothes underwent drastic change. Women began wearing high-heeled shoes and qipao once again. Elegant dresses appaered. The Goverment issued oe enforced no limitation of regulations on clothing anymore. [Chang] Most young Chinese turned to the West, primarily America for fashion inspiration. This proved to be realtively wasy as Chinese factories were making large quantities of trendy fashions to be sold in the West. In addition Western publications became easier to obtain and Westernm primarily American, movies began to be shown. The central feature of the reforms was the creation of a Western market economy in China. Increasingly young Chinese are pursuing their on individual like styles and dressing like their counterparts in the West.

Education

Chinese officials in 1976 with the nd of the Cultural Revolution was faced with an educational system virtually without standards that had largely ceased to function ffectively, especially at the university level. The Cultural Revolution ended when the arest "Gang of Four". The Gang of Four was a group led by Jiang Qing, Mao's widow. They had helped Mao launch the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to destroy traditional Chinese culture and replace it with an extreme form of communist ideology and culture. Finally after Mao's death in 1976, the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution was rejected by the Communist Party and they were arrested. The results were immediately felt in Chinese schools.

Early reform stage

Deng Xiaoping rose to power after the arrest of the Gang of Four. The educational policies of the Cultural Revolution were brought into question. The Government's immediate response was to adopt the educations policie of the early 1960s before the Culturl Revolution had changed the coure of Chinese education. The Government adopted four "Four Modernizations" which meant focusing on technical trining in agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. In pursuing these techical fields, the schools were follow the "Four Cardinal Principles": the socialist road, the people's democratic dictatorship, the Chinese Communist Party leadership, and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought.

Regularization

One major step needed after the caos of th Cultural Revolution was a need to restablish academic standards. his ws badly needd throughout the school system. For the first time in 10 years, some attention was given to the quality of the educational program rather than just emphasizing quantity. Throught China, with only limited exceptions, a system with 6 years of primary and 6 years of secondary (3 years of junior and 3 years of senior secondary) was standardized. This was the system before the Cultural Revolution.

Educational debate

The old debate reemergd in China as to the importanc of populist broad-based educatio as opposed to eduvating the elete. The Government finally settled on a basic education of 6 yers of primary and 3 years of junior secondary. The Ministry decided to expand the vocational and work-study schools to offer a meaningful educational challenge to students not preparing for college. Along with the commitment to populist mss education, the Government made impotant commitments to lite education. The Ministry of Education began establishing key schools to serve the elite.

Primary schools enrollment

Enrollments in Chinese schools declined because of various Government actions. The first was the closing and merging ofmany schools--especilly small primary schools in thinly populated rural areas. Most Chinese provincial authorities reported higher enrollments in 1978 than the 1980s or even the early 1990s. The decission to decollectivize agiculture begun in 1978 also impacted school enrollent. Agricultural families undr decollecivization were compensated on a production system. Thus many families chose to keep children at home to help with farm chors rather than to send them to school.

Secondary school reforms

Major changes were made at the secondary level. The Ministry decided to adopt a secondary system with four different types of schools. There were to be keypoint middle schools ( zhongdeng zhongdian xuexiao ), non-key general or ordinary middle schools ( Putong xuexiao ), specialized technical secondary schools ( zhongdeng zhuanye xuexiao), and vocational schools (zhiye zhongxue). The Ministry's program was not what one might have expected from a Communist Government or a country in desperate need for technically trained worker required for the economic reconstruction of China. The Ministry's promotion of technical and vocational secondary schools was slow, especilly at first. These vovational schools were genberally looked down on by most Chinese. Academic training had much greater prestige. Many saw vocational programs as only for students that were not academically capable. Only about 5 percent of students were in the vovation program in 1978. China has ince significantly expanded the vocatiinal program. Ministry of Education officials in 1994 that of the graduates of junior secoday schools, about 45 percent persued the academnic program in senior highchool while 55 percent persued the voctional and technical program.

Tertiary education

The Cultural Recolution had sought to open up university admissions in China. In the process, academic standards were virtually eliminated. The first steps taken by the reformers working at the university nd college level was in 1977 to reinstate the national unified college entrance exams. Eduction planners than turned to two important studies prepared in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution.
First: The "Decision on Unifying Management in the Higher Education System" delt primarily ith academic standards. It was decree estnlishing academic standards. It also gave the Ministry of Education the authority to facilitate and promote those standards.
Second: The "Sixty Articles of Higher Education" was a resolution asserting that universities and colleges and other institutions of higher education were focus on training the experts needed for socialist construction. , and that the teachers would be relatively uncumbered by political constraints as they went about their business of dispensing their expertise.

China had in the 1950s structured its univesity system like that of the Sovit Union. Even after the Cultural Revolution, that basic structure was still in place. Arts and sciences were taught at the comprehensive universities (zonghe daxue). There were descrete schools for other usualy diciplines. This was in part becaue these schools were also responsible for job placement. As part of the educational reforms following the Cultural Revolution, many of the school which had very limited programs have been refashioned into schools more closely resembling American 4-year colleges. The schools resonsibility for job replacement have been considrably reduced.

Reform (1980s)

Definative decissions on the future of China's educational program were not made until the 1980s. In many ways they simply reaffirmed earlier decissions and programs. The main points were: "1.To bring about the Four Modernizations. 2.To increase state funding for education. 3.To insure that the education system shall supply a sufficient number of highly qualified personnel. 4.To institute a 9-year compulsory education policy. 5.To expand the system of technical and vocational education. 6.To give provisions for reform of higher education, e.g., a.To change the system of job-assignments to graduates. b.To grant the colleges and universities more decision-making powers. 7.To strengthen educational leadership. a.To establish a State Education Commission (SEC). (This had a higher status than the previous Ministry of Education, roughly equivalent to that of the State Economic Commission. b.To establish the president of a college or university, or the principal of a school as the chief executive officer of the unit." [Surowski]

Education progress (1990s)

The National People's Congress passed the definative Education Law of the People's Republic of China which on September 1, 1995 became effective. This Law basically codified previous Ministry of Education policies and decrees following the Cultural Reolution. The major policies had been in fact adopted in the 1980s. The People Congress committed the country to both universal education and to an educationl system wih high academic standards capable of producing world-class scholars and scientists. China like other countries is faced with the challenge of just how to implement these two goals.

Current status

China has made considerable progress in creating a modern university system. The focus at Chinese univerities hasbeen on the hard sciences. China in 2001 reportedly had 1.6 million undergraduate students, but this may be an underestimate. Another estimate suggested that China graduated 0.4 million enginers in the hard scinces and mathematics. One asessment indicates that this is approximately equal to all undergraduate degreees awarded in the United States. Several important U.S. corporations, like Microsoft, are partering with major Chinese universities. Chinese students are especially interested in jobs with U.S. companies as they provide good salaries, access to excellent labortories and facilities, and access to the United States. Some have expressed a concern that China advances in science pose a potential national security threat given sheer number of Chinese graduates. Chinese authorities downplay any potential threat pointing out the how far advanced America is in s many areas. Chinese university graduates by all accounts are well qualified. They appear generlly more focused than graduates from American undergraduate programs. This is in part because the Chinese degree program allowed fewer electives and was more narrowly centered on science. China has, however, stll not built an important graduate-level program. Chinese universities have trouble retaining competent graduate-level instructors.

School Uniforms

China continues to have major problems with its primary and secondary education system. A relatively small percentage of the population receives a qulity education. Very serious disparities exist between schools in coastal cities and those in inland provinces.

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

Chun Chang, January 14, 2002

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: November 15, 2002