Recently, the annual college entrance examination has arrived again, and many high school students have begun to face the most important moment in their lives, is it the title of the gold list or the name of the sun mountain?
When it comes to the college entrance examination, we cannot avoid those who have established and developed the college entrance examination system.
When New China was first founded, due to a series of reasons, the college entrance examination system was always in a stage of exploration and development. Later, for some reasons, the selection system replaced the college entrance examination selection system, so that many outstanding students lost the opportunity for further study and development, and many people were forced to choose an ordinary life.
It was not until 1977, after the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, that Deng Xiaoping presided over a symposium on science and education work. The numerous educational problems caused by the abolition of the college entrance examination system attracted the attention of Deng Xiaoping.
After listening to the feedback of many educators, he realized that the lack of the college entrance examination system has a huge impact on the future of the country. Therefore, it was decided to abolish the recommendation system and resume the college entrance examination in the second half of 1977.
However, after the Ministry of Education completed many preparatory work, they found a difficult problem that had to be solved, and they immediately asked the central government. Finally, the central leaders headed by Deng Xiaoping immediately decided to immediately stop printing the Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Volume V), which solved the final problem and made the first college entrance examination after ten years go smoothly.
So what was the problem that made the central government stop printing the Selected Works of Mao Zedong?
In this issue, we will review the central decision of the most important moment in the history of the college entrance examination.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the college entrance examination system did not have a clear statement, out of the urgent need for talents to build a new China and the stable transition of education, the central government put forward the slogan of "maintaining the original school and gradually improving".
In such a situation, universities have a great deal of autonomy in recruiting, while the government is rarely involved.
In addition, due to the difference in national educational resources and levels, many universities have a choice of independent enrollment, and only some universities in Beijing and Shanghai choose to conduct joint enrollment with some schools in other places.
Later, with the steady development of New China, how to better and more cultivate higher talents became a problem that needed to be solved. The central government began to pay close attention to and intervene in college admissions, and China's college entrance examination system had a preliminary framework.
However, with the development of the socialist construction movement, education has gradually begun to serve social construction.
On September 19, 1958, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instruction on Education Work", which pointed out that "in a certain period of time, education work has committed the mistake of separating education from production and labor, divorced from reality, and to a certain extent ignoring politics and ignoring the leadership of the Party", and demanded that "all positive factors be mobilized to develop education as quickly and efficiently as possible".
As a result, college admissions began to add political components, examinations were not the only way to enter, and guaranteed admissions gradually became the mainstream. Fortunately, in just one year, the central government recognized the problem of such enrollment.
Therefore, in 1959, the college entrance examination was resumed, and the unified enrollment system of the college entrance examination was gradually improved. Such a policy continued until 1966.
In December 1965, Chairman Mao delivered a speech at a conference in Hangzhou, in which he analyzed the current domestic situation and the educational situation, saying, "I am very skeptical of this kind of education system now.
From primary school to university, a total of sixteen or seventeen years, for more than twenty years I could not see rice, beams, millet, wheat, millet, millet, how workers worked, how farmers farmed, and how commodities were exchanged... Students are asked to go down to industry, agriculture, and commerce.
As for engineering and science, the situation is different, they have internship factories, they have laboratories, they work in internship factories, they do experiments in laboratories, but they also have to get in touch with social reality."
At that time, New China still lacked many talents in construction, but under the educational work of more than ten years, although many talents were trained, due to the imperfection of the education system and the lack of educational experience, most of the talents cultivated appeared to be high or low, that is, the level of scientific research was not enough, and they were unwilling to work in society.
Therefore, Chairman Mao realized that education needed to be reformed, so he put forward his own opinions and opinions. He believes that in the process of learning, students need to go to practical work and achieve the so-called "unity of knowledge and action", rather than blindly immersing themselves in hard reading.
In fact, Chairman Mao's speech was to break the old education system and establish a new one.
In accordance with this line of thinking, the Central Committee approved and forwarded the "Report on Request for Instructions on Improving the Enrollment of Colleges and Universities in 1966". According to this report, the college entrance examination admission system for that year was changed.
In terms of admissions, we began to use a combination of recommendations and examinations. In the recommendation column, high school graduates who have experienced major social practices are recommended first. As for the graduation of college students, the report also makes several requirements.
After graduation, college students can continue to work on the front line, become educated workers and farmers, work as cadres, or engage in technical work.
Finally, in order to promote local construction, this report gives local governments sufficient decisions on college entrance examination admissions.
After the central authorities approved and forwarded the report, the contents of it began to be gradually implemented. On July 24, 1966, the Central Committee decided to formally abolish the college entrance examination system implemented since 1952 and began to implement a new system that combines recommendation and selection.
This new system achieved good results at the beginning, but with the passage of time, in the specific implementation process, the new system began to gradually deviate, and a series of problems appeared.
By 1976, this system completely hindered the selection and development of talents, seriously affected the development of society, and even appeared the unhealthy atmosphere of "reading is useless".
In 1977, when Deng Xiaoping had just returned to preside over the work of the Central Committee, at a symposium, some people proposed that the Party Central Committee and the State Council postpone this year's enrollment and reform the education system.
Just when Deng Xiaoping hesitated, another person said that if the college entrance examination is not implemented, 200,000 people will be recruited according to the recommended method this year.
As soon as this remark came out, it was supported by many participants. In an instant, the whole venue began a lively discussion. This situation attracted the attention of Deng Xiaoping, who decided to change the current admissions system.
So he asked Liu Xiyao, who was sitting next to him at the time, the minister of education: "Is it too late to resume the college entrance examination this year?" Liu Xiyao said: "It is still too late to postpone enrollment." Deng Xiaoping listened and decided on the spot: "Since there is still time this year, let's resolutely change it." "
On August 8, Deng Xiaoping boldly proposed at a forum on science and education work: "This year we must make up our minds to resume the direct recruitment of students from high school graduates, and stop engaging in mass recommendation."
Direct enrollment from high school, I think it may be a good way to produce talents early and produce results early. "
According to Deng Xiaoping's speech, the Ministry of Education quickly made changes, submitting to the central government the "Request for Instructions on Postponing Enrollment and the Start of The New Students' School Year", deciding to postpone the resumption of the college entrance examination to the fourth quarter, and the new students admitted through the examination were scheduled to enroll before the end of February of the following year, postponed for 3 months (including winter vacation).
However, there is another important issue that needs to be addressed, namely, the admissions target. Due to the abolition of the college entrance examination, many people chose to go to the society for practical work early. Now I want to participate in the college entrance examination system after the restoration of the college entrance examination system and continue to study and develop.
In view of this situation, the Ministry of Education held a working meeting in Beijing, and after 44 days, reached an agreement with the heads of education in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to relax the enrollment conditions: workers, peasants, young intellectuals who have gone to the mountains and the countryside and returned to their hometowns (including those who have not yet been assigned jobs in the cities according to the policy), demobilized soldiers, cadres and fresh high school graduates, who are about 20 years old, not more than 25 years old, and unmarried.
For those who have rich practical experience and have achievements in research or do have expertise, the age can be relaxed to 30 years old, and there is no limit to whether marriage is limited. After this sentence, it is particularly noted: Pay attention to the recruitment of graduates from the 1966 and 1967 classes.
After this meeting, the Ministry of Education and the State Council quickly adopted the "Opinions on the Enrollment of Colleges and Universities in 1977", and decided to reform the enrollment system of colleges and universities and restore the unified examination system from 1977 onwards.
However, just when the work of resuming the college entrance examination was in full swing, a more embarrassing problem appeared.
Due to the restoration of the college entrance examination system, many people saw the possibility of chasing their dreams, so they registered for the exam at the first time, and finally about 5.7 million people participated in the registration, creating the highest record in the history of education in China and even in the world at that time.
However, the excessive number of applicants led to no more paper printing of the examination papers at the central government for a while.
The problem was quickly reported, and finally the central leaders headed by Deng Xiaoping unanimously decided to suspend the printing of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Volume V) first, to call up the paper, and to print the examination papers first. This decision of the Party Central Committee enabled the resumption of the college entrance examination work of that year to proceed smoothly.
On November 28, 1977, the college entrance examination officially began, and on December 25, the college entrance examination officially ended. In the end, after passing the examination, 273,000 new students were admitted.
Many of these people who have been admitted have been sharpening their swords for ten years and have gone through hardships. Facts have proved that after these tribulations, this group of admitted people became the backbone of All Fields of China's modernization construction in the following 30 years.
This also confirms how far-sighted and wise Deng Xiaoping's decision to resume the college entrance examination in 1977 also played a key role in building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Resources
LI Ning,SHI Lei. Deng Xiaoping and the Restoration of the College Entrance Examination System[J].Lantai World, 2010, (No. 7).
WU Shu,JIANG Zheng. "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" give way to the college entrance examination[J].Special Abstracts, 2017, (No. 14).