Five main reforms that took place during CR are reforms on admission policy, length of education, substance of education, governance of schools, and teaching methods and curriculum
Admission policy is to change the traditional entrance examination. The old ways of entrance was abolished at all levels of schooling from primary schools to universities. Students were chosen for admission to higher level schools by the revolutionary committee of their factory, commune or other place of work. According to Mai zedong’s directive, China’s colleges and universities should enroll students from among the workers, peasants, and soldiers. This new enrolment policy gives access for peasants, workers and soldiers, who were once excluded from this sector, to enroll into universities and colleges. However while giving the peasants access to university, the reform also down graded the standard level of colleges and their qualifications in the selection of students. Even peasants, who has a minimum amount of knowledge, can go to universities.
Length of education is the second main reform. The reform considered in shortening the time of schooling at each level of education. Education in both the primary schools and secondary schools was cut from six years to five years. In the colleges and universities, the length was also cut from four or five years to, in most cases, three and a half years. Mao believed that students could learn more by working in the society. They can learn more experiences by doing practical work. Therefore all educational duration had been shortened.
The third reform is to change the substance of education, the education administered under the stewardship of Lin Biao was attacked for having divorced it self from proletarian politics, production, and practice. Mao’s prescriptions were that teacher and students should do thing that is more practical and can contribute more to the society. He wants thing that has practical values. He said that only values of production needs are required.
The fourth and the fifth reforms are the governance of schools and the changing method of teaching and curriculum. The administration of schools was moved from the hands of intellectuals to committees made up of local workers and peasants. This had a huge impact on the students because the peasants and workers lack of knowledge, therefore it is kind of pointless to go to school. The teaching method and curriculum was changed. The classroom ceased to be a stage from which teachers display their vast erudition to a passive audience. The traditional cramming method was replaced. Instead, analytical and critical abilities were stressed. New textbooks were written with faculty, students and workers participating in the curriculum committees. These were called “democratic meetings for the discussion of teaching and studying”.
A decade and a half after the communist party of china took power in China; significant changes were implemented in the field of education. The Cultural Revolution, a major political movement that lasted an entire decade, had constituted the most important educational reform experienced by Chinese people during the twentieth century.
In conclusion, the Cultural Revolution had a massive or in other words, a tremendous affect on the educational system of china. Students are much too involved in participating CR where they ignored study. Intellectuals were replaced by a bunch of workers that lacks education themselves. The five main reforms only had practical values to encourage students to work no to study. All the point above stated that educational system generated so many changes in such short period of time and the affect of the Cultural Revolution had on education.
