The implementation of ideological and moral education in China's Gansu province

This paper will take the case of Gansu, one of China's poorest provinces, to examine provincial-level measures designed to implement recent centrally-promulgated guidelines on ideological and moral education. In 2004 the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council jointly promulgated "Some Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Development of Ideology and Morality Among Minors." These guidelines, the latest in a steady series of political education policy documents issued by the Party and central government, incorporate the latest Party ideologies and call for schools and other societal actors to address the needs and problems arising from the latest national developments. They call for schools to undertake a variety of measures including developing new teaching materials, improving teaching methods, revising school rules for students, and carrying out research into students' ideological and moral development. This paper analyzes the measures taken by the Gansu provincial government to put these central guidelines into effect. Based on published accounts, the paper first describes the general practice of ideological and moral education in Gansu's schools, focusing on characteristics which differentiate it from the practice in more prosperous provinces. The paper then describes the "Gansu Province Action Plan for the Healthy Development of Minors," put forth by the Gansu People's Government and Party Committee, as well as other associated documents specifically addressing the implementation of the central government's "Opinions." Analysis will focus on the measures taken by the provincial government to implement national-level ideological and moral education policies in a resource-limited environment.