Schools for Cadres’ Children Should Be Gradually Abolished (1)
(June 14, 1952)


Premier Zhou:
(1) If feasible, all private primary and secondary schools should be taken over in their entirety.
(2) With regard to schools for cadres’ children: first, uniform treatment should be established, and the practice of maintaining different tiers must be discontinued; second, such aristocratic schools should be abolished and merged with those open to the children of the general public. Please consider and act accordingly.


Mao Zedong
June 14th
[1]
This is a note written by Mao Zedong on a report submitted on June 11, 1952, by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC concerning the financial burden and living conditions of primary and secondary school students, which was addressed to the Central Committee and the North China Bureau. The report from the Beijing Municipal Committee stated that the current expenses borne by primary and secondary school students constitute a considerable burden for working-class families and low-wage employees. At present, the state scholarships for secondary school students are meager in amount and available to only a limited number, while there are no scholarships at all for elementary school students. To improve this situation, it is planned to take over all private primary and secondary schools and to exempt both public and private schools entirely from tuition and miscellaneous fees. The report further notes that the treatment received by students in schools for cadres’ children is highly inconsistent: on the one hand, the standards for meal allowances and stipends vary considerably among different schools; on the other, even within the same school there are distinctions between “large kitchens” and “medium kitchens.” For cadres’ children attending ordinary schools, there are state-funded places, with subsidies graded into three categories based on the parents’ revolutionary background and official rank. These disparities have an extremely detrimental effect on both cadres’ children and ordinary students and should be rectified.