Many changes occurred in China in the 1950s.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2021). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] There was a campaign to teach Chinese people to read and write.
2. [1] In 1949, only 20% were literate. By the 1960s this had increased to 90%.
3. [1] Teachers were sent to the villages, teaching children by day and the adults in the evening.
4. [1] Students received an education in communism. They read from the works of Lenin, Marx and Mao.
5. [1] They were encouraged to be hard-working, cheerful, loyal to their leaders and helpful to others.
6. [1] All those in education were reminded of the importance of manual work.
7. [1] They brought free health care to the masses.
8. [1] They had short training so were able to get to work quickly.
9. [1] They ran public health campaigns to improve sanitation and prevent epidemics.
10. [1] They focused on prevention rather than cure.
11. [1] The death rate decreased.
12. [1] They helped people in rural China.
13. [4-5] The barefoot doctors were important because they brought free medical care to the peasants and were able to help stem the spread of disease by providing basic healthcare. They focused on prevention rather than cure and ran public campaigns to encourage good hygiene. Their work led to a decline in the death rate, particularly in infant mortality.
14. [1] Communes seemed to be the ideal way to organise China's vast peasant labour force.
15. [1] They were large enough to tackle large projects such as irrigation works.
16. [1] Communes had an industrial purpose – to mine coal and iron and to set up their own blast furnaces.
17. [1] It was believed that communes would be more efficient for agriculture.
18. [1] Everyone had to live communally with childcare and schooling provided.
19. [1] Communes were designed to speed up the change to communism.
20. [1] The introduction of Communes meant great changes for the Chinese people.
21. [7-9] Communes were introduced to improve agriculture. They were made up of collective farms: 750 000 collective farms were merged into 26 000 communes. The system was directed by central government so that farming methods, pricing, sale and distribution could be centrally controlled. Private farming was ended. It was thought this would make agriculture more efficient and ensure an equal supply of food throughout China.
22. [7-9] Communes were designed not only to improve agriculture, but also industry, education, local government and medicine. Communes established 'backyard furnaces' which produced an estimated 11 million tons of steel. They also were a way to control the peasantry and increase productivity. They were large and so could undertake large projects such as irrigation work.