ABSTRACT
One of the several important bases for the economic progress and political stability of the first few years in the history of the People's Republic of China was the education system and the investment which was channelled into it in terms of finance, effort and energy. This base still remains, of course, but the effectiveness, relative to earlier performance and present problems, has to some extent, though by no means entirely, been blunted by preoccupations first with urgent economic considerations resulting from crop failures and latterly with major policy matters that have arisen in the wake of those events. The importance with which the Chinese government regards education has been constantly in evidence throughout the present political campaign: not only its title, ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ (Mao Tse-tung in his essay ‘On New Democracy’ defined a given culture as ‘the ideological reflection of the politics and economy of a given society’) but also the decision taken in June 1966 to review the entire system of education with particular reference to the con-tent and duration of the school and university curricula are clear illustra-tions of its attitude in this respect.
