Education

Education under the Nationalist government

Nationalist China rose in the mid-1920s amid a resurgence of nationalism and national consciousness stimulated by post-World War I developments. It was led by the Nationalist Party, the political party organized by Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the republic. Cognizant of the popular appeal of nationalism, the Nationalist Party set up a government pledged to achieve national unity at home and national independence from foreign control as prerequisites to a program of modernization and national reconstruction. In education, it set out to systematize and stabilize a shaky and ill-supported school system and use it as a means of national regeneration. Schools were assured of financial support, however inadequate, and placed under strict supervision and firm control by public authorities.

State control of education by means of centralized administration was instituted. Measures were adopted to correct the abuses and chaos that had resulted from the laissez-faire educational policy of the warlords. Decrees and regulations issued by the Nationalist Ministry of Education were strictly enforced, with the aid of a centrally administered system of inspection and accreditation. Detailed regulations covered the curricula of schools on all levels—minimum standards of achievement; teaching procedures; teachers’ ... (200 of 123,993 words)