Some counties in Zhanjiang had illiteracy rates as high as 41% about 20 years after the revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, basic education was emphasized and rapidly expanded. School was no longer as popular as it once was and education began to decline. The number of Chinese children who had completed primary school increased from less than half before the Cultural Revolution to almost all after the Cultural Revolution (Lieberthal 34). The number of children who have completed middle school has increased from 15% to over two-thirds (Lieberthal 34). “Educational opportunities for rural children expanded considerably while those of the children of urban elites were limited by anti-elitist policies” (Liu 67). Chinese leaders at the time denied that there were illiteracy problems from the beginning. This effect was amplified by the elimination of qualified teachers: many districts were forced to rely on select students to educate the next generation. In the post-Mao period, many of those forcibly displaced have attacked this policy as a violation of their human condition.