structural:summarization, structural:scholar_edition
Academics and education

Academics and intellectuals were regarded as the " Stinking Old Ninth " and were widely persecuted. Many were sent to rural labor camps such as the May Seventh Cadre School. The prosecution of the Gang of Four revealed that 142,000 cadres and teachers in the education circles were persecuted. Academics, scientists, and educators who died included Xiong Qinglai, Jian Bozan, Wu Han, Rao Yutai, Wu Dingliang, Yao Tongbin and Zhao Jiuzhang. As of 1968, among the 171 senior members who worked at the headquarters of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, 131 were persecuted. Among the members of the academy, 229 died.

As of September 1971, more than 4,000 staff members of China's nuclear center in Qinghai had been persecuted. More than 310 were disabled, over 40 committed suicide, and 5 were executed. During the CR, scientists tested the first missile, created China's first hydrogen bomb and launched China's first satellite in the Two Bombs, One Satellite program. Significant achievements came in science and technology.

In the CR's early months, schools and universities were closed. Secondary school classes of 1966, 1967, and 1968 were unable to graduate on time later and became known as the Old Three cohort. Primary and middle schools gradually reopened, but colleges and universities were closed until 1970, and most universities did not reopen until 1972. University entrance exams were cancelled after 1966, replaced by a system whereby students were recommended by factories, villages and military units. Entrance exams were not restored until 1977 under Deng. Traditional values were abandoned.

During the Cultural Revolution, basic education was emphasized and expanded. While schooling years were reduced and education standard fell, the proportion of Chinese children who completed primary education increased from less than half to almost all, and the fraction who completed junior middle school rose from 15% to over two-thirds. Educational opportunities for rural children expanded, while education of the urban elite were restricted by anti-elitist policies. Industrial Universities were established in factories to supply technical and engineering programs for industrial workers. These study programs were inspired by Mao's July 1968 remarks advocating vocational education. Mao had given the instruction to emulate the model of the Shanghai Machine Tool Factory university. Factories around the country therefore established their own educational programs for technicians and engineers. By 1976, there were 15,000 such July 21 Universities.

In the Down to the Countryside Movement's initial stages, most of the youth who took part volunteered. Later on, the government forced them to move. Between 1968 and 1979, 17 million urban youth left for the countryside. Living in the rural areas deprived them of higher education. This generation is referred to as the 'lost generation'. In the post-Mao period, many of those forcibly moved attacked the policy as a violation of their human rights.

The Cultural Revolution's impact on accessible education varied across regions. Formal literacy measurements did not resume until the 1980s. Some counties in Zhanjiang had literacy rates as low as 59% 20 years after the revolution. China's leaders denied illiteracy problems. This was amplified by the elimination of qualified teachers—many districts were forced to rely on students to teach.

Though the Cultural Revolution was disastrous for millions, positive outcomes advanced some groups, such as those in rural areas. For example, the upheavals and the hostility to the intellectual elite is widely seen to have damaged education, especially at the upper end of the education system. Radical policies provided many in rural communities with middle school education for the first time, which is thought to have facilitated rural economic development. Rural infrastructure developed during CR, facilitated by the political changes that empowered ordinary rurals.

Many health personnel were deployed to the countryside as barefoot doctors. Some farmers were given informal medical training, and health-care centers were established in rural communities. This process led to a marked improvement in health and life expectancy.