ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the CCP’s goals for its educational system and the ways in which they were implemented, as well as difficulties in deciding how much of the curriculum should be devoted to inculcating socialist values versus academic expertise, and the effects of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution on educational standards. It also discusses the return of rigorous academic standards under Deng Xiaoping, and discomfort with the urban bias of the system, with elitist public schools and expensive private schools for the wealthy, corruption in admissions, and with the content of the examination system itself. Expansion of the tertiary sector meant a lowering of standards at some institutions, with many college graduates unable to find jobs in their fields. Pressure for world-class recognition led some professors to make false claims. Xi Jinping’s concern with strict conformity to his interpretation of socialist ideology has had a chilling effect on academic discourse.
