Overview of educational development 1949-1959

1949
　　10月1日，Founding of the People's Republic of China and Chairman Mao proclaims
《中国人民政治协商会议共同纲领》which has the following elements related to education：
中华人民共和国的文化教育为新民主主义的，即民族的、科学的、大众的文化教育。人民政府的文化教育工作，应以提高人民文化水平，培养国家建设人才，肃清封建的、买办的、法西斯思想，发展为人民服务的思想为主要任务。在知识分子中进行思想与政治教育，有计划、有步聚改革旧的教育制度、教育内容、教育方法。新中国教育建设起步。　　　　
Is this the kind of document that forms a part of the sampling frame, or even sampling universe? It is key information regarding the direction that educational development must take but it is not a document specifically related to education. furthermore these old documents are going to prove very difficult to uncover and I am wondering how to sovle this problem. Perhaps I can take a make a list and take a trip to Columbia University library to see which ones I can locate.

11月1日，中央人民政府教育部举行成立典礼。Establishment of the Central People's Government Education bureau
12月23日-31日，教育部召开第一次全国教育工作会议。 The first meeting of the Education Bureau. 会议提出教育必须为国家建设服务，学校必须向工农开门。建设新教育要以老解放区新教育经验为基础，吸收旧教育某些有用的经验，借助苏联教育的先进经验。教育工作的发展方针是普及与提高的正确结合。必须坚决正确地招待团结、教育、改造知识分子的政策。毛泽东等国家领导人接见了全体会议代表。这次会议对新中国教育产生了深远影响。　　　　本年中国人民解放军各地军管会接收新解放区的各级公立学校，组织开学复课，对学校进行整顿改造，取消国民党反动训导制度和反动课程。开设革命的政治课程和其他新课程。
[This is valuable historical background information.] The primary task undertaken by the education bureau of the new government was to first revise the curriculum from the old "reactionary?" system and to supplant a new curriculum that taught students about "revolutionary politics".

1950
6月6日，毛泽东在中国共产党七届三中全会上所作《为争取国家财政经济状况的基本好转而斗争》的讲话中指出，有步聚谨慎地进行旧有学校教育事业和旧有社会文化事业的改革工作，争取一切爱国的知识分子为人民服务。在这个问题上，拖延时间不愿意改革的思想是不对的，过于性急企图用粗暴方法进行改革的思想也是不对的。 Chairman Mao calls upon all intellectuals who love their country to serve the people and counsels them to not take too long to reform their old ways of thinking but to also avoid taking extreme and violent measures to change the ways that people think.
　　6月19日，毛泽东就健康问题写信给教育部长马叙伦，要求各校注意健康第一，学习第二。Chairman Mao calls upon schools to consider health first and study second
8月1日，教育部颁布新中国第一个《中学暂行教学计划（草案）》。Draft of the first teaching plan for middle school students since the founding of New China. This could be a valuable document to look up perhaps as representative of educational goals at the start of the founding of New China.
8月2日-11日，中国教育工会召开第一次全国代表大会，明确教育工作者是工人阶级队伍的一部分，教育工会以保护教育工作者利益，提高教育工作者阶级觉悟为主要任务。　Teachers are classified as belonging to the class of workers who are deserving of protection and benefits from the government.　　　
9月20日-29日，教育部、全国总工会联合召开第一次全国工农教育工作会议，讨论工农教育的实施方针、领导关系等问题。毛泽东、刘少奇、朱德、邓小平出席会议。会议提出必须实现“政府领导、依靠群众组织、各方面配合”的原则，着重以工农干部和积极分子为主要教育对象，分别以文化教育、政策时事教育为主要内容。The education of workers, peasants and activists is to take precedence in the educational work and the main content of this education is to be cultural education and policy and current events.
10月3日，中国人民大学举行开学典礼。这是新中国创办的第一所新型大学。The first new university of New China is established "People's University"
12月1日，人民教育出版社正式成立。Founding of the People's Education Press
12月14日，政务院发出《关于举办工农速成中学和工农干部文化补习学校的指示》。Document about the establishment of accelerated middle school programs for workers and peasants.
12月14日，政务院第六十五次会议通过《关于处理接受美国津贴的文化教育救济机构及宗教团体的方针的决定》。Policy regarding the acceptance of funding from American cultural, philanthropic and religious institutions.
....至1951年末，按不同情况，对全部接收外资津贴的大中小学校，分别改为公办和中国人民自办，收回了教育主权。Beginning at the end of 1951 all universities, middle and primary schools were taken under the control of the government and were now in two categories: public or private? owned by the Chinese people.

1951
　　3月19日，教育部召开第一次全国中等教育会议，制定发展和建设中等教育的工作方针与措施。会议提出，要使青年一代在德育、智育、体育、美育等方面获得全面发展，成为新民主主义社会自觉的积极的成员。[this is interesting and related to the discussion of suzhi jiaoyu, or all round education. that idea is not a new idea at all as here it is expressed in just the same terms as in its renewed emphasis in recent curriculum reform efforts... even the call to raise up a new people...here the new people however are described slightly differently conscious and active members of the new democratic society]
　　5月20日，《人民日报》发表毛泽东为该报写的社论：《应当重视电影"武训传”的讨论》。全国文教界开展批斗《武训传》及<武训精神>的运动，以期达到学习掌握马克思主义观点，对知识分子进行自我教育、自我改造的目的。 [It seems that this was a movie "Wu Xun's Life" about a poor beggar who was deprived of an education but set about making sure that other poor rural folk would be able to get an education. Mao Zedong called upon everyone was called upon to watch and learn from it. More on the movie here and here.]
　　8月27日-9月11日，教育部合并召开第一次全国初等教育会议和第一次全国师范教育会议，讨论制定发展、建设新中国初等教育和师范教育的方针、任务。会议提出，争取十年内基本普及小学教育，以正规师范教育与大量短期培训相结合，五年内培养百万小学教师。Goals for the universalization of primary education and standardizaton of teacher training adn the large scale short term training of on million primary school teachers.
　　9月20日-28日，教育部召开第一次全国民族教育会议，讨论制定新中国民族教育方针。会议提出要以培养少数民族干部为主要任务，同时加强少数民族地区的小学教育和成人业余教育。First meeting for the development of minority education. It was decided that the first priority would be to train minority cadres, and at the same time strengthen primary school education in minority areas and adult education.
9月29日，周恩来总理在京津高校教师学习报告会上作《关于知识分子改造问题》的报告。Zhou Enlai holds a meeting on the topic of what to do about the changing of the intellectuals.
11月30日，中共中央发出《关于在学校进行思想改造和组织清理工作的指示》。Instructions on ideological remolding and organizational clean up [that sounds rather scary]
10月1日，政务院公布实施《关于改革学制的决定》。这是新中国第一个学制。它以法令形式确立和充分保障工农干部受教育的机会；明确规定了职业技术教育和业余教育在学制中的适当地位。The first document regarding the educational system. It established the guarantees for workers and peasants to receive education and gave status to informal education and vocational education. [This may also be an important document to include among representative documents of the 1950s]

1952
　　3月18日，教育部颁发了《中学暂行规程（草案）》、《小学暂行规程（草案）》。　　　　5月2日，中共中央发出《关于克服目前学校教育工作中偏向的指示》。Instructions for dealing with with current deviations in the work of schools.
6月5日，教育部公布汉字常用字表，列出常用汉字1500个字。这个常用字表成为扫除文盲工作中的脱盲标准。1500 characters that are most frequently used are identified to help with the sweeping out illiteracy work.
　　7月8日，政务院发出通知，决定在全国高、中等学校学生中实行人民助学金制。此前该制度已在一些地区公立学校实行。National project to offer scholarships for middle and primary school students
　　9月1日，中共中央发出《关于培养高等、中等学校马克思列宁主义理论教师的指示》Training of teachers of Marxism and Leninism for university and middle school teachers. [Now is this a document that I include? it covers issues related to middle schools. i am really most interested in nine years of education or the development of basic education which would not be included in this. It is also related to teacher training which is of course relevant. I don't want to include it but don't have a scientific definition for my reason yet. i will highlight it in purple and decide later.]
　　9月10日，教育部发出《关于接办私立中小学的指示》，提出将全国私立中学全部由政府接办，改为公立。此项工作于1956年全部结束。Instructions for the taking over of private middle and primary schools. This work is to be completed by 1956. [the reason I do not want to include this i feel has something to do with my interest in philosophic underpinnings of education which perhaps relate to this in some indirect way too but not directly. however the teacher training issue is directly related to educational purposes--to the themes of visions of the ideal citizen to be cultivated and the ideal society.--aha...visions of ideal citizen and ideal society which are intimately connected and which are really under the heading of civic education and social studies but i never really think of it that way. also i think that somehow i conceive of my project as expanding beyond that? to include education in the sciences, education to be economically productive etc.]
　　本年教育部以培养工业建设人才和师资为重点，进行全国高校院系调整工作，相继新设钢铁、地质、航空、矿业、水利等专门学院和专业，并把私立大学全部改为公立。1955年又调整部分高等学校院系专业设置和分布，以改变高等学校过于集中大城市和沿海地区的状况。经过两次大调整，初步形成了新中国的高等教育基本框架格局。In this year the main goal was to cultivate human resources for industrial development and also teachers. there was a restructuring of the higher education system to establish steel, geological, space, mining, water management colleges and majors. all private universities became public. there was also a trend away from the over concentration of universities being in large cities and along the eastern seaboard.

1953
　　6月30日，毛泽东接见青年团第二次全国代表大会主席团，提出“要使青年身体好，学习好，工作好”。Mao Zedong spoke to the second national meeting of the Youth League and emphasized "Our youth must be enabled to be healthy (shenti hao), to study well (xuexi hao), and to work well (gongzuo hao)"

1954
　　5月17日，中共中央批转政务院文教委员会党组《关于全国文化教育工作会议情况报告》。批示指出，各级党委必须加强对文化教育工作的领导，使文教事业更有效地为逐步实现国家的社会主义工业化和社会主义改造事业服务。Report on the progress of cultural education work
　　5月24日，中共中央转发教育部党组《关于解决高小和初中毕业生学习与从事生产劳动问题的请示报告》，为此，5月29日《人民日报》发表中央宣传部《关于高小和初中毕业生从事劳动生产的宣传提纲》。此后，许多城镇高小、初中毕业生响应党的号召上山下乡，参加农业生产劳动，形成知识分子青年上山下乡第一高潮。Document regarding the participation of primary and middle school graduates in activities of productive labor. it states that during this period many graduates were already going to the rural and mountainous areas to work in agriculture.
　　8月29日，中共中央转发北京市委《关于提高北京市中小学教育质量的决定》，在批示中提出，要加强党对教育工作的领导，改进中小学教育，提高教育质量。raising the quality of primary and middle school education in Beijing. The report includes the need for the party to be involved in the guidance of the educational work and educational reform.
　　9月20日，一届全国人大一次会议通过《中华人民共和国宪法》。这是新中国第一部宪法，其中规定：国家设立并且逐步扩大各种学校和其他文化教育机关，以保证公民享受教育权利；对从事科学、教育、文学、艺术和其他文化事业的公民的创造性工作，给以鼓励和帮助。The first consitution of New China is finalized. It guarantees the right of citizens to an education and to participate in science, education, literature, and the arts pledging the support and encouragement of the government for these activities.

1955
　　2月9日，《人民教育》发表署名文章：《实行全面发展教育中若干问题的商榷》，由此在教育界展开关于全面发展教育问题的大讨论。An article is published in "People's Education" entitled "Discussion of several issues related to the implementation of all-round education" [this document appears to be a key document if i am interested in studying specifically the topic of suzhi jiaoyu]
　　2月10日，教育部发布《小学生守则》，5月13日又发布《中学生守则》，作为规范中小学生行为的准则。Standards for primary and middle school student behavior.
　　7月9日，教育部、高等教育部发出《关于工农速成中学停止招生的通知》。regarding accelerated middle school programs for workers and peasants.
　　7月30日，一届全国人大二次会议通过《中华人民共和国发展国民经济的第一个五年计划》，其中提出教育事业五年建设的计划和工作重点。 The announcement of the first five year plan for eocnomic development. Among the points was the plan for the development of education.
　　11月4日，中共中央转发教育部党组《关于实用主义思想在中国教育中的影响和批判实用主义教育思想，以此作为进一步进行教师思想改造和教育事业建设中的重要任务。[This looks interesting] Regarding the influence of utilitarianism on Chinese education.
　　12月27日，中共中央办公厅编辑的《中国农村的社会主义高潮》出版，毛泽东在该书的序言和按语中对教育工作作了许多重要指示。 [This looks relevant and important for a look at rural education] "The high tide of socialism of China's rural areas" ...in the introduction and conclusion Mao Zedong writes many important instructions regarding the important role of education.

1956
　　1月14日-20日，中共中央召开知识分子问题会议，周恩来作《关于知识分子问题的报告》，并代表中央发出向“现代科学进军”的号召。A report on the problem of intellectuals.
　　3月29日，中共中央、国务院发布《关于扫除文盲的决定》。Decision on the sweeping out of illiteracy.
　　6月2日中央教育科学研究所筹备处成立，4年后正式建所。 Central institute for research in the educational sciences.
　　9月15日-27日，中国共产党第八次全国代表大会召开。刘少奇、周恩来在会上作报告，指出文教事业在整个社会主义建设事业中占有重要地位。要根据"掌握重点、照顾其他"及需要与可能相结合的方针，进行全面教育规划。争取在12年内分期普及小学义务教育。 at the eighth national people's congress the fundamental role of education in the larger project of socialist construction is pointed out.

1957
　　2月27日，毛泽东在扩大的最高国务会议上作《关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题》的报告，提出“我们的教育方针，应该使受教育者在德育、智育、体育几方面都得到发展，成为有社会主义觉悟的有文化的劳动者”。 Again a mention of the all-round education in a report of Mao Zedong "Regarding the correct way to deal with contraditions among the people in the party(?)" He said "Our educational direction should enable those who receive an education to develop in the areas of morals, intellect and physical capacities to become socialist workers who have consciousness and have culture."
　　3月7日，毛泽东和七省市教育厅局长座谈中小学教育改革与发展问题。
　　3月12日，毛泽东在中共全国宣传工作会议上讲话，指出：没有知识分子，我们的事情就不能做好，所以我们要好好地团结他们。知识分子也是劳动者。 Mao Zedong stresses the importance of bringing about unity among the intellectuals "intellectuals are also workers"
　　6月，全国开始反右派斗争。这场斗争有扩大化错误。从1957年夏至1958年春，在各级教育行政机关和各级学校中，一批干部、教师职工和大学生被错划为右派分子。1980年中共中央为被错划为右派的同志全部平反。 Anti rightist movement begins and many cadres, teachers and university students were labeled as rightists. in 1980 these people were exonerated.
　　
1958
　　4月、6月，中共中央分两段召开教育工作会议，总结建国以来的教育工作，讨论教育方针和教育改革等问题。会议确定，党的教育工作方针，是教育为无产阶级政治服务，教育与生产劳动相结合。为实现这一方针，教育工作必须由党来领导。education must serve the politics of the proletariat并提出教育事业发展措施。
9月19日，中共中央、国务院发布《关于教育工作的指示》。由此展开全国系统的“教育大革命”。 the "great educational revolution" is started by the publication of "regarding some instructions for educational work"
　　5月30日，刘少奇在中央政治局扩大会议上讲话，提出“我们国家应该有两种主要的教育制度和劳动制度，同时并行。一种是现在的全日制的学校制度，一种是半工半读的学校制度；一种是8小时的劳动制度，一种是4小时工作的劳动制度”。此前，在刘少奇直接关怀下创办的第一所半工半读学校－－天津国棉一厂半工半读学校开学。全国相继办起各种类型半工半读学校。opening schools around the nation that combine labor and study. half a day for labor half a day for study.
　　8月13日，毛泽东视察天津大学和南开大学时说，高等学校应抓三个东西：一是党委领导，二是群众路线，三是把教育和生产劳动结合给予积极的支持与鼓励。 Mao Zedong says that universities need to ensure three things: 1. party leadership 2. following the line of the masses 3. integration of labor and education and the encouragement and support of the activists.
　　
1959
　　5月17日，中共中央为逐步提高教育质量，指定北京大学等16所学校为重点学校。此后，又分批增加若干所学校，进行重点高等院校建设。 establishment of key universities.
　　5月24日，中共中央、国务院发出《关于试验改革学制的决定》，要求各地各部门有组织、在领导地进行学制改革试验。 Decision regarding experimentaiton in the reform of the educational system.
　　11月20日-12月4日，国家科委、教育部、中国科学院联合召开高等学校科研工作（自然科学部分）会议，会议指出，高等学校是科学战线的一个方面军。开展科学研究是高等学校的重要任务之一。要把高等学校的研究力量，纳入国家科技发展规划。importance of scientificy research in universities and research institutes.