Tung Yi
A g r i c u l t u r a l colleges in rural areas
What would be the best way to carry out the revolution in education in China's agricultural colleges? A number of colleges have already had some experience in tackling this problem. One of them, the Northwest Agricultural College, has adopted the method of setting up in the countryside an experimental 'teaching centre', in which training is carried out in the course of running three types of farms (the high-yield, the experimental and the seed farms) in cooperation with a local production brigade. Late in I97 I, in line with Chairman Mao's teaching that it is essential to revolutionize education, the Northwest Agricultural College set up specialized courses in crop raising in the countryside in southern Shensi province. It began to enrol worker-peasant-soldier students from various countries in that area the following spring. The college made a contract with a local production brigade to run the three farms, with the required labour power, fertilizer and seed to be supplied mainly by the brigade. According to a teaching plan jointly worked out by the college and the brigade, teachers and students teach, learn and do scientific research in the course of working the farms, and the leading group formed by peasants, teachers and students has charge. This enables teachers and students to step out of the schoolroom to integrate themselves with the peasants and to gain experience in working out a new system combining school492 Prospects, Vol. V, No. 4, z975
hag, productive labour and scientific research. Before the great proletarian cultural revolution, the Northwest Agricultural College kept its students inside, teaching farming by the blackboard and how to achieve high yields out of books. As a consequence, schooling became divorced from proletarian politics, from the worker-peasant masses, and from practical production. Such methods could not train students to be labourers with both socialist consciousness and culture. The new method of running three types of farms has proved fairly effective in healing the breach between the agricultural colleges and proletarian politics, the worker-peasant masses and practical production, and has helped in revolutionizing education ha these colleges. By this method, teaching is combined with running the farms, a course in the essentials of crop production with one ha the cultivation of a specific crop, all properly worked out and given in co-ordination. In view of the systematic character of the course, arrangements are made for the students to learn the essentials of crop production for the best part of the time during the slack farming season and for less time during the busy season. For instance, crop production study goes on during the nursing of rice seedlings, though at this time the special course in rice cultivation is given major attention. This is a change from the past situation in which the course in the essentials of crop pro-
Agricultural colleges in rural areas
duction was divorced from the course in the cultivation of some specific crop; theory was divorced from practice; and the fundamental course was divorced from any specialized line of cultivation and took no account of actual production. Important as it is because of its practicality, the running of three types of farms is not the whole of the schooling. Importance is attached to raising the theoretical level of the students on the basis of practice. The teaching of theory is closely integrated with practical activity in order to facilitate improvement of the students' theoretical knowledge. In the teaching of plant physiology while running the three types of farms, photosynthesis is explained in connexion with close planting; metabolic activity, with the change of colour on leaves; the part played by the root system in achieving high yields, with the growing conditions of the root system. In a word, perceptual knowledge is raised to the level of theory and at the same time the theoretical knowledge acquired is promptly checked on and applied in productive practice so that the knowledge acquired is at once more profound and practical. The running of the three types of farms, while playing a role in the transformation of teaching methods, also serves to promote scientific research and agricultural production. In I972, teachers and students of the college worked one hectare with two production teams while conducting thirteen experimental projects. The next year they worked 2.6 hectares on the co-operative farms while conducting thirty experimental projects. Between them they wrote seventeen scientific treatises and reports in all. The contents of most of the papers have been applied in farm production. Furthermore, after two years of experimentation, the teachers and students have worked out methods and techniques to carry out doublecropping of paddy rice in Hangchung, providing a scientific basis for enlarging the doublecropping area and raising output in this region. On the other hand, the two production teams
themselves benefited from participating in running the three types of farms and were enabled to practise scientific farming. As a result, they harvested 43 and 24 per cent more per hectare respectively in I973 than in z971 and changed from backward to advanced units. An agricultural college run in the countryside enables the students to receive re-education by former poor and lower-middle peasants and to get tempered in the course of the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle, struggle for production and scientific experiment. This also helps them foster the notions of learning from, cherishing and serving the peasants. The Northwest Agricultural College students, by combining theory with practice in the course of struggle for production, have not only grasped the basic theory connected with their specialized courses but also developed their ability to analyse and deal with problems. Last year, a large area of newly transplanted rice seedlings owned by a production team showed stunted growth, to the great concern of the peasants. To deal with this disease, teachers and students together with experienced peasants applied their theoretical knowledge and made a comprehensive investigation and study of the problem. They finally found the cause of the plant disease and were able to take prompt measures to save the crop. This was followed by careful management. As a result the production team harvested 34 per cent more grain that year than in the preceding year. On the basis of their success in saving the stunted crop, the teachers and students wrote six investigation reports and articles and held a scientific discussion meeting attended by the entire student body. A college run in the countryside means that former poor and lower-middle peasants can take a direct part in the revolution in education. At the Northwest Agricultural College, apart from the peasants who joined the leading group in running the three types of farms, eight others 493
Tung Yi
have been engaged as part-time or full-time teachers. The college's teaching centre has in the past two years run sixty-two short-term courses in different subjects and in co-operation with the authorities of an administrative region, a county and a people's commune has trained thousands of agro-tectmicians. Jointly with near-by production teams, it runs a one-year night school and also carries on other forms of teaching and scientific and research activities. All this has served to train a large number of technical persounel, improve the teaching quality and promote the revolution in education.
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To run schools on an open-door principle is a new thing born of the cultural revolution. The running of agricultural colleges in the countryside has been achieved step by step. The Northwest Agricultural College's experience in running the school on an open-door principle shows that the orientation of running agricultural colleges in the countryside is correct. The teachers and students, however, are of the opinion that they have made no more than a beginning in the transformation of teachmg content, methods and curriculum. Much remains to be done, they feel, to achieve steady progress through practical work.
