1. Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong
Education policies

2. What was education like in China and Cuba, prior to the rise of Mao/Castro?
High illiteracy
Private education not accessible to poor rural inhabitants, significant city/country divide
China
High illiteracy
Mostly decentralized education (China politically disunited)
Very few universities (all located in urban areas) maintained standards of excellence
Chinese academics between had discovered an interest in Western art/literature

3. What were the similarities and differences in Mao’s and Castro’s ideologies concerning education?
Wanted to improve the quality of life of the lowest social classes
Wanted to eliminate the educational urban/rural gap
Mao
Wanted to remove western/capitalist and traditional/Confucian elements from Chinese culture
Disliked the educated urban elite, felt its members where out of touch with the realities of life in rural areas

4. What were the practical goals of the two leaders?
Castro
Eliminate illiteracy
Bring availability of education to all social classes
Shift focus towards technical education
Technical innovation, industrial and economic growth
Mao
Decrease illiteracy
Form a generation of individuals devoted to the regime
Shift focus towards technical education
Technical innovation, industrial and economic growth

5. What actual policies were adopted?
Castro
Cuban Literacy Campaign, lifted literacy from 60-70% to 96%
Literacy centers, literacy marches
Obligatory elementary school
Universally free education
Nationalization of private schools and universities
Construction of new schools with heavy focus on rural areas that lacked educational infrastructure
Politically “inconvenient” university professors often dismissed
Mao
Chinese Academy of Science (1949)
Large polytechnics
University entrance exams abolished (1966)
Intellectuals sent to labor camps and generally persecuted
Down to the Countryside Movement (1960’s – 1970’s)
Introduced simplification of Chinese characters to reduce illiteracy
Western influences removed from curriculums, replaced by Maoism

6. To what extent were the two leaders’ policies successful?
Castro
Illiteracy almost entirely eliminated
Lower classes benefited the most
Level of education of different social classes much more balanced
Renovating higher education proved more challenging
“Brain drain”
Unbalance in favor of technical education
Mao
China’s education virtually frozen
Formation of entire generation of “inadequately educated” individuals
Large numbers of potential university students sent into the countryside after high school, often referred to as “China’s lost youth”
Impacts on illiteracy minimal, varied by region
Illiteracy rates did not improve/improved marginally in most regions

7. What is the legacy of the policies adopted by Mao and Castro?
Cuba
Castro’s reforms still today considered a crucial part of Cuba’s development
Highly ranked education system, best in entire South America by some indicators
All education completely free
High teacher/student ratio
Schools deeply integrated with communities, offer various forms of social aid to families
China
Simplified Chinese characters are official character standard in use in PRC
Education still today a focus of controversy
Natural sciences and technical subjects have remained the focus, although humanities experienced a revival in the ‘70s and ‘80s
Post-Mao, further education of already educated elite has been encouraged
Learning technical expertise from abroad now encouraged