IB History Education Healthcare and Religion Notes

Mass Provision Under Party Control

1. The PRC treated mass literacy as essential to socialist development. Campaigns used simplified characters, work-unit classes and new rural schools, and literacy expanded significantly, though quality and access still varied widely by region.
2. Primary and secondary enrolment increased steadily after 1949. The state trained large numbers of new teachers and standardised curricula nationally, but rural schools remained consistently less well funded than urban ones.
3. Universities were reorganised along Soviet specialised models during the 1950s, with science, engineering and technical training given clear priority. Political criteria increasingly influenced admissions and academic careers alongside ability.
4. Schools and universities closed or operated only irregularly after 1966. Students turned instead to Red Guard politics, and many teachers faced persecution, so an entire generation experienced severely disrupted formal education.
5. "Barefoot doctors", rural health workers given short practical medical training, provided basic treatment, vaccination and sanitation education. The programme widened access to care without ever replacing the need for fully trained doctors.
6. Public health campaigns targeted smallpox, cholera, schistosomiasis and other major diseases. Clean water projects, vaccination drives and vector control measures improved survival rates, raising life expectancy through relatively low-cost preventive care.
7. Urban workers accessed work-unit clinics and better-equipped hospitals, while rural communities relied far more on collectively financed care and basic practitioners, so real health gains coexisted with major regional inequality.
8. The CCP viewed organised religion with suspicion and actively promoted atheism. Religious bodies were reorganised under state-supervised "patriotic" associations, and their independent links to foreign institutions were deliberately restricted.
9. Temples, churches, mosques and clergy faced sustained pressure during political campaigns, and the Cultural Revolution brought widespread closures and destruction of religious sites. Religious practice nonetheless survived privately and revived after Mao's death.

Overall Judgement

1. Education and healthcare improvements genuinely strengthened the state's legitimacy and improved everyday life for many citizens. But repeated political campaigns damaged expertise and institutional continuity, so Maoist social provision combined real mass gains with heavy ideological control.