Talk with the Heads of Departments and Bureaus of Education from Seven Provinces and Municipalities

Date: 1957-03-07
Source: Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward
        (Harvard University Press, 1989), ed. Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Cheek, Eugene Wu

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TEX T 5S 1 Xx
a
Talk with the Heads of Departments and Bureaus of
Education from Seven Provinces and Municipalities During
the Party's National Conference on Propaganda Work
a TT
7 MARCH 1957, EVENING
[236] Is it appropriate to have a unified national teaching plan and
teaching material? Jiangsu province differs from Hunan province: Is
it advisable for each province to have some supplementary material
[for its own use]? Do you people from different provinces feel
restricted?
Last year quite a few schools were set up, some of which had disturbances, mainly owing to the poor living and study [conditions].
Pm
Source: 1:236-8; alternate text, 6A:43-4. This “talk” seems to be a report of the same occasion as that covered in “Directive on educational work” in 6A:45-8, though Mao may have
met separately with different groups of provincial leaders on the same evening to discuss
issues of common concern as was normal during big conferences: See also the translation of
a third version in Michael Schoenhals, “Mao Zedong on Education,” The Stockholm Journal
better middle schools to those “capped schools,” to even out the
inequalities between them.
The problem of quality: Our main [concern] at present is the problem of spreading education and not [so much] emphasizing quality.
We have allocated 30 million yuan to set up “capped schools.” The
curriculum should be neither too heavy nor too advanced. It should
be cut in half; eight courses are enough.
The problem of promotion to schools of higher ranks: Basically
[graduates/schools leavers] will have to return home to participate in
production.
The problem of financial aid: Financial aid should be granted according to financial need. Within the next three years the peasants will still be
very poor. Between 70 and 80 percent of students should get financial
aid. [Those] in most difficult circumstances [account for] 15-40 percent
and 35-40 percent are slightly better off but still in need. The financial
aid [problem] should be handled according to this standard.
The rate of primary-school graduates going up [to middle schools]
of East Asian Studies 1:89-95 (1988).
In both reports, Mao is said to have met with officials from seven municipalities and
provinces, though 6A:45-8 names only six. On 1:236 Mao refers to Jiangsu and Hunan provinces, quite likely because representatives from them were present. Jiangsu is one of the
provinces listed as being represented at the start of the 6A version; Hunan is not, but it
might be the seventh missing province, especially as it is referred to by Mao on 6A:47.
Additional material of interest in the 6A report: (1) Henan and Shandong representatives reported on their student disturbances (p. 45); one of the Henan trouble spots was
apparently Xuchang (p. 46). (2) After an unnamed vice-minister of education had estimated
a need for additional educational expenditure of 80 million yuan, the Chairman increased
it by 25% to 100 million yuan (p. 46), the figure mentioned in the translated text. (3) Political classes had been dropped from the Chinese school curriculum in favor of classes on the
constitution in line with changes in the Soviet curriculum (p. 47). (4) One Hu XX is mentioned a number of times and towards the end of the session is directed by the Chairman
to prepare a RMRB editorial (p. 48). This is Hu Qiaomu, then as now a prominent propaganda expert, and at that time one of Mao's secretaries; see Schoenhals, p. 94.
“Capped schools” (dai maozi xuexiao) are those with an additional higher grade attached
to them. They are usually primary schools, and such schools would have the first grade of
middle school attached to them as a “cap.”
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The method of setting up “capped [schools]’ is a good one.! [It is] ©
an advanced experience. It’s convenient for peasant children to go to :
schools close to where they live. After they graduate from school, ©
they can easily return to the farm. Try to send some people from the |
National Conference on Propaganda Work
‘s close to that of last year. Increasing the enrollment by 400 thousand students requires about 10 million yuan; increasing faculty positions requires about 13 million yuan. Both should be solved within
the supplementary budget of 100 million yuan.
[237] The problems of schools run by APCs and by the people:
Where conditions [are appropriate] such schools should be allowed.
Try to mobilize everyone to discuss how to run schools. Our
national income last year, owing to natural disasters, was only so
much; the budget for this year is [thus] limited. We must understand
the overall economic situation.
The problem of schools run by [state and other] organs and by
industrial [enterprises]: We should summon all heads of education
bureaus and tell them, We want students to maintain discipline, [live
a life of] arduous struggle. Schools should be run with the students.
Creative work should be promoted. [We] advocate that teachers and
students should share comforts and hardships and run the school
together. Deceiving students is not permitted. Boasting when enrolling students is not permitted [either]; one must not skirt around
difficulties and talk only about [the school’s] good points. A cold
douche as fair warning is necessary. }
To all the people, cadres, students, workers, peasants, to all alike,
we should propagandize [a life of] arduous struggle. Education about
arduous struggle must be carried out in all the schools—more in universities, less in high schools, less still in primary schools. Young people lack experience [and] learn from their teachers; and the teachers
are also influenced by [our] newspapers.
Political and ideological education should be reinforced. Each
province should appoint a propaganda chief and an education bureau
chief to take charge of ideological education and give it leadership.
[Where] county leaders are not attending to their duties, they
must do so within a certain period of time.
First secretaries at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels
should concern themselves with education. They don’t have to do it
every day; a few days in the first half of the year and a few days in the
second half of the year, seven or eight days a year [would be enough].
The phenomenon of disengagement from education is unacceptable.
Call a meeting and listen to people’s complaints; jot them down
and write an editorial.
Zio
Establish a bureau of education at the county [level]. The staffing
[problem] can be solved by hiring from among those who are cut
[from other organizations].
Lower and higher middle schools should increase political classes.
Textbooks on politics should be compiled.
Administrative work should give way to the compiling of texts.
[The amount of] teaching material should be less heavy, [the number of] courses should be reduced. Classical literature should be
reduced. Most of the Book of Songs? has no poetic quality. Reducing
the number of classes and the amount of material is for the sake of allround development [of the students].
You people here are all in charge of education, [but] is the Ministry of Education the Chinese Ministry of Education or the Soviet
Ministry of Education? If it is the Soviet [Ministry], then your Ministry of Education should be abolished.
Why isn’t teaching material patterned on that of the Liberated
Areas?? Teaching material should have its local [238] characteristics.
Each province should add a course on provincial geography [to the
school curriculum]. A textbook on agriculture should be compiled
by each individual province. A sample text is needed. [You] can talk
all you want [about other things], but [you] cannot as a consequence
not comprehend [your] own province. A bit of local literature should
be taught. The basic principles of natural sciences and mathematics,
physics, and chemistry are much the same throughout the country.
Teaching some local literature in classical literature [classes] will be
more interesting.
An overloaded curriculum and a low standard of teachers, both
causes [of educational problems] exist.
Enrollments in primary schools can be increased by two to three
million.
In sum, [we will] use over 100 million yuan to solve [all these
problems].
2Shi jing, see Text 5, n. 26.
>For a comparison of education in the pre-1949 Liberated Areas with that in the PRC in the
1950s, see Suzanne Pepper, “Education for the new order,” in CHOC 14, pp. 185-217.
T E X T S EV EN
A Talk with Literary and Art Circles
8 MARCH 1957
[28] Chairman: How many days has [this] conference been going on?
How is it going? I’ve read all those thirty-three problems of yours.
(Lu XX! reports on the status of the [National] Propaganda Work
Conference.)
Chairman: (To Central [Committee?] comrades): Which of you is
attending the conference?
Sources: 7:27-46; alternate text, 9:56-74. The alternate text has been used to correct a few
obviously erroneous characters in the primary source.
1 Clearly this is Lu Dingyi, head of the CCP’s Propaganda Department.