Adult literacy policy and practice in post-1949 China: A historical perspective

Abstract

Adult literacy and literacy education have long been a global agenda. China’s literacy education has been developing amid the backdrop of international commitments and goals of adult literacy. Since the founding of new China in 1949, adult literacy policy in China has been continuously evolved within the changing political, economic and social background, and has made great success in illiteracy reduction. By tracing the up-up–plateau–transformation processes of adult literacy policy in China, this paper reports that the policy focus is shifted from political ideology, economic growth, personal development to a mixture of the three currently although the policy influence is declining after 2011. China’s success in anti-illiteracy in the past seven decades might be duplicable for other parts of the world that are still facing the adult illiteracy problem.

Keywords:

• Adult literacy efforts
• policy evolvement
• historical reflection
• prospects

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Sino-Japanese war from 1931 to 1945 and the civil war of Liberation between 1946 and 1949

2 This concept is criticized by some scholars, e.g. Peterson (1997, pp. 50–51) for its unclear origin and meaning. But “semi-literate” is also used in English literatures, e.g. Arnove and Graff (1987).

3 It represents the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are unable to read or have difficulty in reading.

4 Dongxue, a typical type of adult literacy education in China, means that arranging adults to learn in winter while in the stack season of agriculture.

5 It was issued in 1995, then followed three editions in 2009. 2015 and 2021. But the Act about literacy education remains unchanged.

6 People who are illiterate or semi-illiterate above 12 years old.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.