Comments on the Second-Term Education Plan of the Political Team of the Advanced Infantry School
(June 4, 1953)

This document[2] is returned to you. I did not examine it in detail but glanced through it and made a few revisions.[3] Additionally, regarding the nine and a half hours of daily study time, it seems too much. How about changing it to eight hours? Especially in summer, the students cannot endure it.

[1]
Peng Dehuai, then Vice Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission.

Mao Zedong
June 4

[2]
Refers to the Second-Term Education Plan of the Political Team of the Advanced Infantry School of the People’s Liberation Army, formulated on May 1, 1953, by the Military Academy Management Department of the General Political Department of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission.

[3]
Mao Zedong made three revisions to the draft education plan: First, he deleted the five characters "Mao Zedong Thought" from the phrase "strengthen the education of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought" in the first training requirement; second, he changed the phrase "understand the conditions and path of transitioning from new democracy to socialism" in the same article to "understand the conditions and path of gradually transitioning from new democracy to socialism"; third, he drew a horizontal line and a question mark next to "nine and a half hours" in the sentence "daily study time is set at nine and a half hours: six hours of formal lessons; one hour of review of shooting and drill instruction; two and a half hours of self-study," and annotated beside it: "It seems better to have eight hours, that is, five hours of formal lessons, one hour of drill, and two hours of self-study."