(August 23, 1958)
Comrades Enlai, Shaoqi, Xiaoping, and Dingyi III:
Document 121 may be used. It would seem advisable to circulate it to the principal democratic personages and to hold a symposium with them, after which it should be made public (.l ｝.
Mao Zedong
August 23rd
[I]
Enlai refers to Zhou Enlai. Shaoqi refers to Liu Shaoqi. Xiaoping refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time served as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Dingyi refers to Lu Dingyi, who was then head of the CPC Central Committee’s Cultural and Educational Leading Group and Minister of the Central Propaganda Department.
[2]
This refers to the draft Central Directive on Educational Work, adopted at the expanded meeting of the CPC Central Political Bureau held in Beidaihe on August 15, 1958. The draft consisted of six articles, the main points of which were: the Party’s educational policy is to serve proletarian politics and to integrate education with productive labor. To implement this policy, educational work must be under the leadership of the Party. Major cooperative zones should establish a complete educational system, and provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions should also gradually set up such relatively comprehensive systems; the same applies to each prefecture and each county. Nationwide, illiteracy should be virtually eradicated and primary education universalized within three to five years, with higher education being made generally available over a period of about fifteen years.
[3]
On September 1958, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council formally issued the “Directive on Educational Work,” which was published in the People’s Daily on September 20, 1958.