ABSTRACT
The provision of education and health services is generally considered to be a good indicator of the level of development of any society. Societies governed by Communist parties, as China has been since 1949, have always made a point of providing universal education, either free of charge or at a cost that could be afforded by the majority of the population. Educational provision in the early years of the People’s Republic was limited and the content of the curriculum was often skewed and used to serve a partial and partisan view of society. However, basic literacy was accorded a high priority and the government was able to point to this as a signifi cant advance on the system that had been offered under its predecessors.
