China’s literacy policy for the 1990s
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China’s literacy policy for the 1990s
Xinsheng Zhang, Shangdong Teachers’ University
In February 1988 the State Council of China promulgated the new ‘Regulations on the Work of Anti-illiteracy’. By emphasising the obligations and the right of the country’s citizens aged from 15 to 40 to receive literacy education, the new regulations has also set the target that illiteracy within the defined age group should be basically got rid of within five years.
In the same month, the State Commission of Education issued a circular in regard to the details of the new literacy scheme. Compared with the Regulations, the circular has sketched a more ambitious plan, proposing that by 1995, the elimination of the country’s illiteracy should be elementarily accomplished, or 95% of the population aged from 15 to 40 enabled to become literate. As it is widely acknowledged, China has made tremendous achievements in its anti-illiteracy campaign since 1949. The official statistical figure published recently shows that 157 million people have discarded their illiterate ‘hats’ through the large-scale campaign and that the proportion of the illiterates to the whole population has been reduced from 80% in 1949 to about 20% in 1988.
The present situation is, however, still quite grave. In terms of figures, 20% represents a very large number. There are virtually about 220 million illiterate people in China now, of whom 210 million are in the rural areas, 72 million aged from 15 to 40, and nearly 70% women. In some regions, the illiterate population runs as high as to 45%! All this certainly poses a great challenge to the completion of the task put forward by the state, and thus calls for a careful examination of the relevant policies and practice of the country over the past 40 years.
The Chinese experiences in the anti-illiteracy campaign so far can be well identified by such characteristics as overwhelming uniformity, political propensity and functional vulnerability resulting from the two previous aspects.
Since China is a country where anti-illiteracy has been carried out under the general policy of the state, there has been a great deal of conformity in terms of both the contents and forms of the literacy education. Hence it is not uncommon that the characteristics of adult fail to be recognised and that many adults have undergone a learning process with greater difficulty or a considerable reluctance because their initiatives have not been actively involved.
The political implications of anti-illiteracy has always been made very explicit in China. The practice was carried to such an extreme in the Cultural Revolution that it nearly brought the real work to a standstill. The initial idea, however, came from the country’s educational principle that all education, including literacy education, should give priority to the ideological teachings of Marxist doctrines. Therefore, political terminology and slogans would often compose a large part of the teaching contents in the literacy education.
This has obviously made the anti-illiteracy a dependent element easily affected by the overall political atmosphere of the country. The consequence is that there has been a great waste of resources on the parts of both the agents and the clients. Since the political movements succeeded one after another between 1949 and 1979, the anti-illiteracy campaign was full of ups and downs, and it inevitably resulted in a high rate of relapse as can be detected from the diagram in Appendix A (2).
There are clear indications that the number of the students attending literacy classes has been suffering a sharp drop in the past several years. The reasons for this back slide can be many. But one unnegligible factor is that the students are less motivated either because they are no longer quite interested in political studies or because the shift of the stress of the government policy to the country’s economy. With the decreasing number of the students since 1985, the figure only just reached 1.5 million in 1987.
When the country stands at the door way of the 1990s, the questions for China now are how it will approach the problems of literacy and what policy the government will make to ensure the fulfilment of the task.
It is of paramount importance to regard anti-illiteracy as an indispensable part of the process of individual development. If the campaign used to be mainly reckoned as a means for political education, its normal function should now be restored so as to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the citizens of the country. In the present world, it should be understood that when a country still retains a high percentage of illiterate population, it is not merely a matter of losing face, but a serious problem of losing living capacities. And it is this realisation that should be laid down as a strategy for the country s literacy work in the l990s.
To keep anti-illiteracy from being subject to politics, relevant law should be made to guarantee the right as well as the obligations of every citizen between 15 and 40 for the eradicating of illiteracy within five years. The law should stipulate that the government bodies at different levels, the business and the enterprises are all responsible for anti-illiteracy of their staff members , and that each individual within the age group must receive the necessary literacy education before he or she can be further employed or engaged in business whatever.
It should be the duty of both the government, central as well as local, and business to render financial support to the anti-illiteracy campaign. A the same time, the right to receive literacy education should form part of every citizens’ social welfare, but it differs from the others in that this welfare is compulsory this time. In the real practice, the responsibility system of contracts can be introduced which gives awards and punishment (mainly material ones) according to the actual performance of the students in their studies. The pilot experience in Wulian County, Shandong Province has proved it a very effective method.
Meanwhile, the law concerning the popularisation of the primary education throughout the nation should be further reinforced. This will fundamentally prevent the country from producing more new young illiterates. With some remote areas, this can be very difficult, but all possible human and material resources must be mobilised to get the ball rolling.
As China is a vast country with a great deal of demographic, economic and geographical varieties, the anti-illiteracy will of course achieve a better result when more diversity occurs in accordance with the situation in different regions, both in the contents and forms of the work. As the practicality of the campaign is being stressed, attention should also be drawn to the initiatives of the students. Whenever possible, modern techniques like radio and television must be made use of to provide a more efficient service.
To sum up, the literacy policy for China in the l990s should guarantee a steady financial in-put and allow for more diversity in the provision and teaching contents . It also should avoid the previous practice to substitute political study for actual literacy education. Hence, relevant laws are recommended to be made to ensure that both the agents and clients will fulfil their own duties.
References
Achievements of Education in China 1949-1984. People Education Press, China 1984
Aspects of Anti-illiteracy work in Wulian County. Wulian County, China 1989
Chambers, D.I. (1985) Rural literacy campaigns and the politics of education in the P.R. China
Glossary of Chinese Adult Education. The State Commission of Education, China
Illiteracy in China. People’s Daily (Overseas Edition) 3 Nov. 1988 p.4
Ouyang, Z. (1987) Records of important events of adult education. Beijing Press, China
Price, R.F. (1970) Education in communist China. Routledge and Kegan Paul
Regulations on the Work of Anti-illiteracy (by The State Council of China) Adult Education in the Rural Areas no.4 1988 pp.2-4
Seventy percent illiterates are women. The People s Daily (Overseas Edition) 8 April 1989 p.8
Appendix A (1) Table
The number of adults attending and completing literacy studies
YEAR / ENROLMENT(IN THOUSANDS) / NUMBER OF GRADUATES
1949 / 13,268 / 657
1950 / 23,138 / 1,372
1951 / 51,080 / 1,375
1952 / 31,904 / 656
1953 / 18,810 / 2,954
1954 / 25,Q47 / 2,637
1955 / 79,329 / 3,678
1956 / 51,426 / 7,434
1957 / 52,352 / 7,208
1958 / 90, 000 / 40,000
1959 / 26,000
1960 / 5,733
1961 / 458
1962 / 167
1963 / 5,871 / 225
1964 / 6,299 / 747
1965 / 1,422
1973 / 60,000 / 5,000
1974 / 33,045
1975 / 29,321 / 5,203
1976 / 30,.521 / 7,456
1977 / 23,9?6 / 6,666
1978 / 18,067 / 4,799
1979 / 16,363 / 5,676
1980 / 12,209 / 5,388
1981 / 6,213 / 3,539
1982 / 3,960 / 2,106
1983 / 5,288 / 3,067
Source: Achievements of education in China 1949-1984. People’s Education Press 1984
Appendix A (2)
Diagram: the number of adults attending and completing literacy studies
Numbers in millions
Reproduced from 1989 Conference Proceedings, pp. 244-252 SCUTREA 1997