China Again to Send Students to Countryside : Chinese Farms, Factories to Get Students Again

BEIJING — China is planning to revive Cultural Revolution-style regulations requiring students to work in factories and on farms, the official China Daily newspaper said today.

The new rules follow student demonstrations for democracy that swept as many as 20 Chinese cities in December, prompting the fall of Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang and a nationwide campaign against capitalist ideas.

“Since 1977, schools and colleges have stopped sending students to work in rural areas and factories,” the newspaper quoted Vice Minister of the State Education Commission He Dongchang as saying at the Third National Congress of Chinese Educational Workers. The meeting opened Sunday in Beijing.

‘Contact With Reality’ Cited

“However, while we corrected the wrongs done by the Gang of Four, we have neglected the education that encourages students to do labor and keep contact with reality,” He said.

The Gang of Four led by Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s wife, Jiang Qing, is officially blamed for the violent excesses of the Cultural Revolution, when millions of young people were sent to work at communes to learn “revolutionary” values.

Since the Cultural Revolution, China has laid more emphasis on intellectual training, but He Dongchang said the “excessive drive” for good grades at colleges has prevented the nation’s almost 2 million students from “integrating into society.”