6B

Training the Cadres for Socialist Large-Scale Production: Education

In 1952, agricultural master schools were established on the basis of a government resolution and subsequent reorganisation of agricultural education. During this reorganisation, the existing lower vocational schools were transformed into one- and two-year master institutions designed to train qualified workers for socialist large-scale agricultural production. Admission was primarily open to applicants from families of small- and medium-sized farmers and labourers, aged 17–40, who had completed secondary education and had at least two years' experience in agriculture. The curriculum combined theoretical instruction with professional examinations and the required political education, ensuring that graduates could manage JZD operations, as well as those of machine and tractor stations and state farms. However, as the prestige of these hastily established schools gradually declined, so did their significance, and their activities were definitively terminated after 1970.