On the Improvement of Educational Work

Middle-level education and citizen's education [see glossary] in the Border Region has in the past suffered from serious problems of dogmatism and old-fashioned orthodoxy, thus departing from and even opposing the needs of the Border Region and of the Border Region peoples. The senior cadre meeting of the year before last and the third meeting of the Government Committee in the spring of last year pointed out a clear and correct policy: for the purposes of the War of Resistance Against Japan and of service to the Border Region peoples, the education of cadres comes first, citizen's education second. That is, we must change those aspects of education that are not relevant to carrying on the War of Resistance and not relevant to the Border Region and its people, thus making education fully compatible with revolutionary San-min chu-i [Three People's Principles] (which is to say, the New Democracy) and with the spirit of the Ten Great Policies,* and suitable to the present needs for construction in the Border Region. The Conference on Rectification of Studies in Middle-Level Schools during the first half of last year and the rectification movement in the various Middle Schools during the second half of last year generated criticism of old-fashioned orthodoxy and dogmatism; this is a great step forward and is a key transformation of middle-level education in the Border Region.     

A Basic Question in the Border Region Youth Movement

The Shan-Kan-Ning Border Region youth movement has a long and glorious historical tradition; beginning from the period of civil war [with the Kuomintang forces, 1928-1936], the Border Region Communist Youth Organization and the National Salvation Association of Youth have produced a large number of cadres and carried out a number of tasks beneficial to the revolution. But it cannot be denied that it has at the same time lacked a grasp of the specific characteristics of the Border Region, that through the formalistic use of the old work style and of methods derived from cities outside the Border Region it has lost touch with the people and walked a crooked path.     

Border Region Government Directive on Promoting the Study of Model Schools and on Experimentation with Popular-Management Primary Schools (April 18, 1944)

Past primary education in the Border Region, compared with the situation before the revolution, has shown very great progress; but it still retains several shortcomings left over from the old style of education, especially in that educational policies are still not suited to the needs of society and the masses in the Border Region. First of all, in terms of its content, the new education does not make use of the experiences and problems in the actual lives of the Border Region population. On the contrary, its content is a complex curriculum not relevant to the urgent needs of the villages. As a result, students are cut off from production and alienated from their families; when students return to their homes they are unable to "look after the homestead." After graduating from primary school they look down on manual labor and are unwilling to serve the peasants. Female students entering the primary schools become estranged from their families, clamor for divorce, and create other problems. These influences hinder the development of production among the masses, destroy family relationships, and are contradictory to the present need for building up production in the Border Region. Because of this, the populace in a large number of areas is unwilling to send its children to school, thus putting severe limitations on the projects to achieve universal education and to eliminate illiteracy. Since undergoing rectification last year, the government and cadres at various levels have gradually come to realize these facts. In different areas, the policy and content of education have begun to be newly transformed. For example, the Sui-te Subregion has put forward a policy of "uniting labor units, social organizations, government, and families with the schools" and has, moreover, already begun to move in the direction of reform. In other areas, since last fall, certain schools have begun to focus on combining the content of education with production and family life. For example, the Yenan City Complete Primary School, beginning in the latter half of last year, has added, above the fourth grade level, instruction in accounting, letter-writing, map-making, contract-writing, and abacus; it has in addition begun advising the students to pay attention both to their studies and to manual labor; students are encouraged to return home and help with household work. Students are taught to understand manners and to respect their parents; during New Year's, they participated in the yang-ko drama and joined in anti-epidemic propaganda work; all this was a first step forward, and it earned the support of the masses. This spring, therefore, a great many among the masses in Yenan City changed their earlier attitudes toward the schools and sent their children to register. As a further example, at the most recent combined teachers' meeting in Yenan district the policy of "combining production with education" was put forth. The Fu-hsien [Shensi] First Complete Primary School and the Tzu-ch'ang First Complete Primary School specified definite responsibilities for production, bringing about a combination of education and production; similar developments have taken place elsewhere. All this makes it very clear that primary education in the Border Region is already moving in a new direction, and this development makes us very happy. In this we have further proof that if only we think of the masses, plan for the masses, and adapt to the needs of the masses our schools will be run well and the people will certainly welcome them. Naturally, as of today this transformation has not yet become widespread, but has merely started.     

Regarding the New Curriculum for Middle Schools

The Northwest Bureau Propaganda Department [of the Communist Party] and the Provincial Department of Education of the Border Region Government, with the assistance of the [Party] Central Propaganda Department, have already decided upon the main content of the curriculum and fields of study for a three year (six semester) course in the secondary level normal schools in the Border Region, and have assigned special personnel to edit the teaching materials.     

抗战时期陕甘宁边区社会教育与马克思主义大众化

抗战时期党在陕甘宁边区实施的社会教育运动究其本质而言不仅是一场政治社会化运动,更是一场马克思主义大众化的运动。用大众化的视野来审读这场运动,可以发现,抗战时期陕甘宁边区实施社会教育是实现马克思主义大众化必然要求。与此同时,抗战时期陕甘宁边区社会教育也适应了马克思主义大众化的要求,其结果是实现了马克思主义大众化。     

抗战时期陕甘宁边区的干部教育及其经验

抗日战争时期,陕甘宁边区制定了正确的干部教育方针政策,广泛开展学校干部教育和在职干部教育,取得了丰硕的成绩,积累了许多有益的教育经验,为当前我党构建学习型政党积累了有益的借鉴。     

Promote the Mass Education Movement on a Large Scale

Border Region culture has both progressive and regressive aspects: New Democratic culture is its progressive aspect, the remnants of feudal culture are its regressive aspect. The Border Region people have destroyed feudal control on the political and economic fronts; in cultural life, which is a reflection of politics and economics, feudal control should also be destroyed; and from the standpoint of the direction of government leadership and of government's new cultural and educational work, the old kind of cultural control has indeed already been destroyed. In the army, factories, public schools, and in many mass organizations in the Border Region, the old kind of cultural control basically has ended as well. As far as the most important aspects of peasant ideological attitudes are concerned, feudal bondage also has already been broken. But as far as the general sphere of the majority of peasants' cultural life is concerned, remnants of feudal culture still exist, and in certain spheres, such as public health and art, they temporarily occupy a dominant position and clash with rather than conform to political and economic life in the Border Region. Therefore, moving from old to new and destroying feudal remnants, opening up a broad route for the new democratic culture, and making culture appropriately reflect the new political and economic life - these are still important historical tasks for Border Region education, and it is necessary to devote massive efforts to these tasks before we can succeed.     

Index to Chinese Education,VOL. III (Spring 1970-Winter 1970/71)

The objective of this school is to train and raise the capacity of New Democratic and Revolutionary Three People's Principles* cadres to do the actual work of political, economic, and cultural construction in accord with the needs of the War of Resistance and Border Region construction.     

School improvement plans and student learning in Jamaica

A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from 1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were similar to program schools in the baseline year. By the final year of the program, we find that program schools had received more inputs to improve literacy and numeracy than control schools, and that some inputs associated with the program were correlated with improvements school average achievement: supplementary reading materials, additional training for reading resource teachers, and functioning computers. At the student level, however, we find no evidence that students enrolled in program schools achieved higher reading or math scores than those in control schools. We suggest three possible reasons for this: (a) the lack of sensitivity of the learning measures to improvements at the lower end of the scales; (b) the availability of program-like inputs in non-program schools, provided by other programs and donors; and (c) the growth in student enrollment in the program schools, which may have diluted the program effect for incoming students in upper grades. Schools with school improvement plans did not outperform comparable schools that did not have these plans.     

延安时期妇女解放运动中的性别问题及其历史启示

延安时期的妇女解放运动使陕甘宁边区妇女在一定程度上挣脱了封建束缚,获得了参与公共事业的机会和与男性同等的政治上和法律上的地位。但是,由于历史的原因,延安时期的妇女解放运动只停留在争取妇女政治层面的解放上,边区妇女并未获得真正意义上的解放。探讨延安时期边区女性群体的真实性别处境,考察其妇女运动的盲点和历史局限性,可为当今有效地贯彻男女平等基本国策,实现女性的真正解放提供历史借鉴。     

The More You Travel The "July 21" Road,The Wider it Gets

It has already been six years since Chairman Mao issued the brilliant directive to "take the road of the Shanghai Machine Tool Plant and train technicians from among the workers." For the past six years, the working class of Shanghai has been resolutely moving forward in the direction Chairman Mao has led. Besides selecting a large number of workers with practical experience to enter higher-level schools to study each year, the mass movement for factory-run schooling has been intensively developing every day. So far, over 90 percent of the whole city's major industrial enterprises have already launched various forms of technical education. Altogether, there are over 200,000 staff and workers taking part in technical study. The entire city has 48 schools like the "July 21" Workers' University of the Shanghai Machine Tool Plant and over 7,700 students. There are over 300 spare-time secondary technical schools. In addition, there are also a great number of short-term technical training classes and all kinds of spare-time education.     

In The Struggle Maintain the Correct Orientation of MAY 7 Cadre Schools [Excerpt]: An Investigation of the May 7 Cadre School Run by Central Committee of the CCP

Seven years ago, in the brilliant illumination of Chairman Mao's "May 7 Directive," this new socialist thing known as the May 7 cadre school came into being. Chairman Mao issued a great call: "Sending the masses of cadres to do manual labor gives them an excellent opportunity to renew their study; it should be done by all cadres except those who are too old, weak, ill or disabled. Working cadres should also go group by group to do manual labor." Chairman Mao's "May 7 Directive" and his injunction to "send the masses of cadres to do manual labor" are of great significance in opposing and preventing revisionism and consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, and they have clearly pointed the direction that May 7 cadre schools should take. While people everywhere are engaged in studying the theory of proletarian dictatorship and investigating how to run May 7 cadre schools better, we would like to introduce a well-run May 7 cadre school to everyone: the May 7 cadre school of the CCP Central Committee office.     

井冈山斗争时期党的干部教育培训及其启示

井冈山斗争时期,毛泽东和边界党组织高度重视干部教育工作,采取了一系列措施对干部进行教育培训。总结井冈山斗争时期干部教育培训的经验,对于新时期我们党的干部教育事业仍然具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Shen-Kan-Ning Border Region Government Directive on Winter Study for 1945

In its directive issued on the twenty-third of this month, the Shen-Kan-Ning Border Region government emphatically pointed out that winter study should be founded this year on a voluntary basis and with a view to meeting the masses' needs. The original text of the directive follows.     

Literacy impact studies in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

During 1998–99, two separate studies to evaluate the impact of new literacy programs on pupils’ achievement were conducted in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu primary schools by a team of local teachers, an external consultant and the staff of a regional program entitled Basic Education and Literacy Support (BELS). The studies were sponsored by the BELS Program as a part of its strategy to monitor the impact of its ideas and its in-service training for teachers on literacy education. The studies adopted a cross-sectional design, contrasting project schools with control group schools and included a sample of 19 schools, 10 in the first study in Solomon Islands and 9 in the second study in Vanuatu. Data on the literacy achievements of pupils at Years 3 and 4 in these schools were collected. This chapter reports on the design, fieldwork and findings of the two impact studies.     

Field-based teacher education in literacy: preparing teachers in real classroom contexts

For the past two decades, scholars have advocated for reforms in teacher education that emphasize relevant connections between theory and practice in university coursework and focus on clinical experiences. This paper is based on our experiences in designing and implementing an integrated literacy methods course in a field-based teacher education program. We describe issues involved in helping preservice teachers learn to differentiate literacy instruction for diverse learners in urban schools and describe how we use Grossman’s framework of representation, decomposition, and approximation of practice to connect theory and practice. We offer insights about the importance of using recursive cycles of practice and carefully scaffolded learning through attention to different aspects of practice. Initial successes and challenges in implementing field-based literacy education are discussed.     

Corruptness in Education

Chairman Mao teaches us that "sending the masses of cadres to do manual labor gives them an excellent opportunity to renew their study." In response to Chairman Mao's great call, vast numbers of cadres throughout the country are now renewing their study either by being sent down to do manual labor or by taking part in collective productive labor while still holding office. It is our wish that all these cadres will write about their understanding of study renewal so that they can exchange experiences and promote the revolutionization of their ideology. The following three articles were written by a cadre in a "May 7" cadre school, a cadre who has settled down in a brigade, and an administrative cadre who persists in taking part in collective productive labor.     

改革县级党校体制促进干部教育事业科学发展

县（市）委党校在党校系统中处于最基层地位,几十年来,为基层干部培训、学历教育、党的政策理论宣传等工作,作出了应有的贡献。现阶段,由于中国社会的发展变化,使县（市）委党校已经不能更好地完成相应的教学任务,从而影响干部教育事业的发展,因此,必须对县（市）委党校体制进行改革,以更好地适应干部教育事业发展的需要,培养出更高素质的基层党员领导干部,更好地推动中国社会向前发展。     

社会主义核心价值观视域下的党校干部培训研究

党校作为党员干部培训的主阵地和主渠道,担负着为社会培养和造就素质优良、政德高尚的党员干部的重任,在加强对干部社会主义核心价值观教育培训方面发挥着不可替代的作用。党校要立足于干部培训实际,培育和践行社会主义核心价值观,抓好理论教学和管理工作,培育健康向上的校园文化,营造浓厚的人文氛围,以社会主义核心价值观统领干部认识,凝聚人心,传递正能量。     

The Production Movement

The production movement has stirred up great activity at K'angta. According to the report of authorities at K'angta this movement has the following threefold significance:

Economically speaking, K'angta's operating expenses are covered by savings effected by reductions in clothing allotments and salary for all officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and all officials of the Border Region government. This source is certainly not all that sufficient for K'angta's expenses. K'angta has already been operating for four semesters. The number of anti-Japanese cadres created and sent to the various battlefields is not less than several thousand. From a mere hundred persons in the first semester,* K'angta has already grown to five or six thousand students. The first semester's students were mostly former cadres of the Eighth Route Army. Now youths from not only each province of the whole nation but even from Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Annam, Burma, Java and elsew here have traveled across land and water in considerable numbers to come to K'angta. While in one sense this is a manifestation of K'angta's progress, at the same time it cannot help but increase the school's financial problems. However, K'angta is a school for the resistance against Japan; it was born in response to the needs of the war and certainly cannot allow financial problems to stand in its way. On the contrary, it should increasingly adapt itself to the development of the war by further expanding. Therefore K'angta's authorities have resolved not to pay attention to any difficulties or hardships. In order to produce greater numbers of anti-Japanese cadres, to increase and strengthen the nations capacity for conducting the war of resistance, to win the final victory in the war against Japan, the school must continue to increase its recruitment of students. Thus the production movement has two functions economically. One is to increase the supply of provisions for each department; the other is to provide partial relief for the school's financial problems.