The Educational Experiment of the Great Leap Forward, 1958-1959: Its Inherent Contradictions

Abstract

The educational system of China has undergone far-reaching changes in the last quarter century. Over this time period, Western scholars of Chinese education have continually reappraised their analyses of these reforms. In the 1960s Western scholars labeled the Great Leap Forward (GLF) a fanatical attempt to increase the educational capacity of the country and accused the Chinese government of failing to consider existing conditions and constraints. In the 1970s a number of social scientists began to agree with the Chinese government's reform efforts.' They interpreted the educational reforms of this period as part of the continuous struggle to establish a socialist order and as continuous with changes made in educational policies during the Cultural Revolution. Given the current renewed interest in the GLF, a review of changes made in this period should provide us with a better understanding of recent educational developments. When the Communist party took political control of mainland China in 1949, only 20 percent of the population had completed some level of education; about 90 percent of the population was illiterate. Educational facilities were mostly located along the coast or in the major urban centers, and many rural regions simply had no educational facilities, a pattern which resulted in a great disparity in the distribution of educational opportunities.2 The government had the enormous task of expanding educational facilities and equalizing opportunities. In carrying out this task, they were faced with almost insurmountable difficulties: a lack of physical resources and competent teachers that was another legacy of centuries of foreign exploitation and civil war. To overcome this, the new communist government adopted the policy of providing both informal and formal