Why were competitive university entrance examinations abolished during the Cultural Revolution?

During the Cultural Revolution, competitive university entrance examinations were abolished as part of a broader effort to transform China’s educational system into a less elitist, more popularly based structure.12

The decision to drop these examinations in June 1966 was driven by several ideological and political objectives:

• Reducing Elitism: The leadership sought to eliminate the "three major differences"—specifically those separating intellectual from manual labor and urban from rural populations. Traditional academic qualifications were viewed as favoring "bourgeois" interests, and the government aimed to make education more accessible to workers, peasants, and soldiers.23
• Ideological Primacy: Political fervor and ideological orthodoxy were prioritized over academic achievement. The goal was to produce zealous revolutionaries rather than a technocratic elite.3
• Emphasis on Labor: Admission to universities was shifted to a system based on recommendations from a student’s work unit, often requiring several years of manual labor in agricultural or industrial production. This was intended to ensure that students identified with the "labouring masses" and overcame the perceived harmful effects of traditional, bourgeois-dominated schooling.23

Ultimately, these changes were part of a "revolution in the superstructure," which sought to dismantle existing bureaucratic and academic hierarchies in favor of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary vision.1