 In
the early 1950s, adult education was provided mainly to
workers and peasants with literacy as the major objective.
In 1955, the government proposed providing regular and
spare-time primary, secondary and higher education to
adult laborers, including cadres, workers, peasants and
city residents. It formulated regulations on adult education
and for the first time included adult education in the
country's educational system. Through adult education,
by the mid-1960s, more than 2.8 million workers and staff
members had attained to the educational level of primary
school graduates; and 960,000 people to that of junior
or senior middle school graduates. By the same time, close
to 200,000 people had graduated from spare-time colleges
and universities, and more than 8.7 million workers and
staff got rid of illiteracy.
Adult
higher education started at the same time. By 1957,
institutions of higher learning that had started adult
education covered the fields of liberal arts, sciences,
engineering, agriculture, forestry, teacher education,
|
|
finance and economics, and political science and law.
In 1960, the Beijing Radio and TV University was inaugurated.
This is the first of its kind in China. Initially, the
university had four specialities - math, physics, chemistry
and Chinese, and the length of schooling was four years
(professional training) or five  years
(undergraduate studies). It intended to provide continuing
education for working people in their spare time. The
next few years saw establishment of radio and TV universities
in big cities throughout the country and a number of regional
and industry-wide adult colleges.
Toward
the end of the 1970s, with the country faced with a shortage
of qualified people as a result of disrupted education
during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76),
adult education became the means through which people
"made up missed lessons." The years saw a vigorous
development of various forms of education and training,
including illiteracy-elimination education, make-up educational
and technical courses for young workers, |
