On The Development Of The "Village Education Campaign" And Its Enlightenment To China's New Rural Education Reformation

In the 1920's and 1930's, China almost faced the brink of collapse because of the aggression of western imperialists, the cruel rule of domestic feudalism and the perennial warlordism. In order to salvage and transform Chinese society, a group of patriotic intellectuals, represented by Huang Yanpei, Tao Xingzhi, Yan Yangchu, Liang Shuming, hoped to improve the quality of Chinese people through education so as to achieve our country's prosperity and national revitalization without changing the existing social system and order. This is commonly known as "Saving the Nation through Education". At the same time, they clearly realized that China was a large agricultural country, in which rural population accounted for 85 percent, and that rural areas were the focus and key of the transformation of Chinese society. Therefore, they put forward that intellectuals should go down to the countryside, and earnestly practiced what they advocated. They set up rural education experimental zone, which gradually evolved into a nationwide "Village Education Campaign".In the fifth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party, the grand goal of building a new socialist countryside was proposed. Improving the quality of farmers in rural areas is fundamental to the building of the new socialist countryside, it's not only the objective, but also the means and channel of the new countryside construction. However, China's current rural education exists many problems that affect the healthy development of rural education and the improvement of the overall quality of farmers. Therefore, the reformation of the rural education is imperative. As to how to practice, the "Village Education Campaign" has provided us with useful lessons in some respects. This article is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is the introduction of the purpose, the meaning and the status quo of this research; Chapter two analyzes the background of the "Village Education Campaign", and briefly introduces its development situation; Chapter three discusses the experiences and limitations of the "Village Education Campaign", and on this basis makes an objective assessment of its historical value; Chapter four explores the education reformation of the new countryside construction integrating with "Village Education Campaign".