Chapter 201 Compulsory Education and Three Meals a Day

The purpose of Education Secretary Gerald Wilson's meeting with Carlo was not to report on the steady results of literacy education every year, but to ask Carlo to promote the next step in education reform, which is to fully implement compulsory primary education in Spain.

Comprehensive literacy education and comprehensive primary school compulsory education are two completely different levels of education reform.

The comprehensive literacy education currently implemented in Spain only provides a short training lasting 3 to 5 months to ensure that the trained illiterate population can master a certain number of commonly used Spanish words and understand some simple, easy-to-understand knowledge and common sense. .

People who have completed literacy education are essentially still a low-educated population, only slightly better than the illiterate.

The comprehensive compulsory primary education that Gerard Wilson wants to promote is to popularize it again on the basis of literacy education, ensuring that all children and young people of school age in Spain can receive compulsory education at at least the primary school level.

Since education is compulsory, it must be free, which is why Gerald Wilson came to see Carlo.

Judging from Spain's current financial investment in education, it is very difficult to establish compulsory primary education nationwide.

Although Spain has a small population, it currently has a population of close to 18.25 million. Although more than 65% of Spaniards have been lifted out of illiteracy, the vast majority of them rely on literacy education to complete this arduous task.

Only about 20% of the Spanish population has completed primary education, and even less than 10% has completed secondary education.

This is also one of the important reasons plaguing the expansion of Spanish universities and higher education. There are not enough people with primary education, so how can we get enough students for higher education?

This is also the reason why Gerald Wilson insists on promoting compulsory primary education in Spain. Because more people receive middle and lower-level education in primary and secondary schools, more outstanding students will apply for college.

No matter how well the university is built, it doesn't matter how many laboratories and outstanding educational talents there are. Only when there are more students with high school diplomas can universities have enough students to ensure their income and operations.

"Your Majesty, this is the development plan for compulsory primary education formulated by the education department. If this plan can be fully implemented, it will greatly change the current situation of our education and allow us to close the gap between us and the great powers in education." Minister of Education Gerald Wilson once again handed over a development plan for compulsory primary education and introduced it to Carlo.

Carlo took over the development plan for primary school compulsory education and read it carefully.

The current number of primary schools in Spain is definitely not able to support the development of compulsory primary education across the country. Therefore, before promoting compulsory primary education, the Ministry of Education must first build at least thousands of public primary schools and prepare enough teachers to provide compulsory primary education. Education lays a solid foundation.

Even if all these primary schools adopt relatively simple construction methods, the total cost of building thousands of schools is not a small amount no matter what.

If you add in the teachers prepared for thousands of primary schools, as well as the corresponding textbooks and materials, etc., this will be a huge expense.

Compulsory education is free, which means that these thousands of primary schools will bring almost no financial return to the government.

Although this is beneficial to the development of Spain, it is obviously difficult to expect the government to spend so much money at once to promote the development of compulsory primary education.

Carlo also understood the reason why Gerald Wilson was looking for him. It was obvious that he wanted to influence the government through himself, so that the Archduke Serrano, who was the Prime Minister, and the Count Connovas, who was the Deputy Prime Minister, agreed to this compulsory education. development plan.

After all, the two leaders of the cabinet government belong to the Conservative Party and will theoretically follow Carlo's orders.

This was indeed the case at the last cabinet meeting. This is probably why Minister Gerald Wilson first submitted the development plan to Carlo instead of discussing it in the cabinet meeting.

Carlo did not rush to ask about the financial investment required for compulsory primary education. Instead, he asked a few questions that he was more interested in: "How does the Ministry of Education plan to implement this plan?"

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Education's consideration is to give priority to young people between the ages of 6 and 12 to enter primary school. In accordance with the guidelines for compulsory education, the Ministry of Education will exempt them from tuition fees to ensure that the public is willing to accept the provisions of compulsory education.

For teenagers who are over 12 years old but have not completed primary school education, we still encourage them to enter primary school, and all primary schools in Spain are not allowed to refuse these over-age students.

After completing primary school, graduates can advance to higher-level secondary schools through unified examinations organized by the government.

If students achieve excellent results in the unified examination, the Ministry of Education will waive part of their middle school tuition fees and grant a certain amount of scholarships to students with extremely excellent results.

If you have poor results in the unified examination, you will not have the opportunity to be exempted from tuition fees and scholarships, but you can still enter middle school to study.

Of course, students who have completed primary school education can also enter technical schools for training. Technical schools will have corresponding subsidies, and the education department will not intervene in how to choose.

For some extremely poor families, the education department considers granting a certain amount of bursaries in primary schools to ensure that teenagers from these poor families can complete at least primary school level studies.

Considering the government's finances, grants only exist in primary schools, while scholarships exist from primary school to middle school, high school and university, which is also a reward for students who are more outstanding in their studies. "Education Minister Gerard Wilson answered his plan in a clear and coherent manner.

Carlo nodded and continued to ask: "This plan is very good, but there are also several difficulties at present. Has the education department considered the issue of funding? If compulsory primary education is fully popularized nationwide, will the funding of the education department increase several times?

Can our finances support such a huge education expenditure? It takes at least six years for compulsory primary education to see results, but we need to maintain extremely huge education costs during these six years.

If these problems cannot be solved, I am afraid that Archduke Serrano and Count Canovas will not easily agree to this plan. "

The conservative status of Archduke Serrano and Count Canovas is not just talk. They are definitely more conservative than Prime Minister Primo.

Minister Gerard Wilson's compulsory primary education development plan is indeed beneficial to Spain, but it will take at least six years to see results.

And Spain's current finances are not so rich. Each department needs a large amount of financial budget. It is obviously not easy for the education department to have the biggest piece of cake.

After all, Archduke Serrano, as Prime Minister, and Count Canovas, as Deputy Prime Minister, both hold other cabinet ministerial positions. They are definitely The development of other departments should also be taken into consideration.

If the education department occupies an extra budget, it means that the budget of other departments will be much less. The education department will indeed gain great achievements because of this plan, but it is not certain whether other departments are willing to sacrifice their own interests to help the education department.

Hearing Carlo's question, Gerard Wilson also understood that this was his only chance to persuade Carlo. After thinking about it seriously, he answered: "

If our school construction adopts the lowest-grade configuration, it can effectively reduce our early expenses for universal primary compulsory education.

The popularization of compulsory education does not need to be promoted all over the country at the same time. One or two regions can be selected as pilot areas to reduce our early consumption.

If possible, I think Madrid and Catalonia can be used as pilot areas for compulsory education. According to the Ministry of Education's estimate, we only need to build 200 primary schools in these two regions to consider promoting the popularization of compulsory education.

If only the pilot is implemented in these two regions, according to our estimate, the annual increase in education funds can be limited to 15 million pesetas.

Even if it is implemented nationwide, the additional expenditure of compulsory education will not exceed 60 million pesetas. As long as we can persist for six years, Spain will be completely different from now.

Your Majesty, it only takes 15 million pesetas. The Ministry of Education is confident that it can fully promote the popularization of compulsory education in Madrid and Catalonia in a pilot manner, and set a good example for the popularization of compulsory education in other regions.

Only if we train enough primary school students can we have enough middle school students. Only if we train enough middle school students can we have enough high school students and college students.

Now is our best chance, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Education is confident that it will complete this plan and bring you a perfect answer in six years. "Gerald Wilson's words were sincere and heartfelt. He was very confident about the compulsory education development plan for primary schools formulated by the education department.

This will not only be a great achievement of the education department, but also an important step for Spain to transform from a weak country in education to a strong country in education.

Carlo had a blank expression on his face, but he was very satisfied with the Minister of Education in his heart. In Carlo's view, although this compulsory education development plan is not perfect, it is indeed in line with the current Spain.

If this education plan is implemented, Spain will be able to gradually close the gap with other powers in education in the future.

The importance of education is self-evident. Education can bring a large number of local talents, and with talents, it can promote the development of science and technology and all walks of life.

The biggest problem in Spain at present is the lack of talents, especially the lack of local talents. Education can undoubtedly make up for this shortcoming, although it will take a long time to be effective, But what Spain lacks the least at present is time.

For Spain, the most important wars are nothing more than the Spanish-American War at the end of the century, and the two world wars that affected the whole world.

Even the Spanish-American War is still more than 20 years away from the outbreak in history. Although the situation and history of this world are not exactly the same, Spain does not lack these years.

What's more, the current Spain in the world is more than a little stronger than the historical Spain. Spain's decline has stopped since the outbreak of the revolution, and its industry, economy and comprehensive national strength have turned from negative to positive and began to enter positive growth.

Under such circumstances, the United States may not be confident of defeating today's Spain. What's more, the Spanish-American War is still more than 20 years later. Carlo is confident that Spain 20 years later will grow into a powerful country comparable to the five traditional powers in Europe, and naturally there is no need to fear the United States at that time.

"As of now, I personally agree with this development plan." Carlo finally smiled, expressing his approval of the compulsory education development plan formulated by the education department, and said: "Education is an important part of Spain's development, and it is necessary to attach importance to education.

Minister Gerard, you can propose this plan at the next cabinet meeting. I will inform Archduke Serrano and Count Canovas to let the government support this plan."

Hearing Carlo's promise, Minister Gerard Wilson finally breathed a sigh of relief and said excitedly: "Yes, Your Majesty."

At the cabinet meeting a few days later, Minister Gerard Wilson proposed this elementary school compulsory education development plan according to Carlo's instructions and submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.

Because of Carlo's instructions, Count Canovas expressed his approval, but Archduke Serrano did not express any opinions.

However, the cabinet ministers also knew that Count Canovas's deputy prime minister was actually the most important person in charge of the cabinet government. Although Archduke Serrano is the prime minister, he plays a more symbolic and stabilizing role, and will not interfere too much in the development of various departments.

After Count Canovas expressed his approval, other cabinet ministers were not stupid and expressed their approval.

However, some details of this development plan have been modified.

For example, the plan was originally to build at least a thousand primary schools throughout Spain to meet the school needs for universal primary education.

After discussions among the cabinet ministers, the construction of new primary schools was changed to the use of existing buildings for renovation, such as the properties in the hands of rebellious nobles and officials, and capitalists.

Some properties are located in the city, with large scale and low value. Although it has been abandoned for a period of time, the overall building can still be used.

It only needs some renovation, and these abandoned properties will be transformed into a new school.

Anyway, it is universal free compulsory primary education, and schools do not need those brand new ones. Second-hand houses can also be renovated.

Of course, if the house itself is already extremely unsafe, it is naturally impossible to renovate it as a school.

The houses that can be renovated must be inspected and ensured to be strong enough. Whether it is comfortable or not is another matter, anyway, it must be strong enough to ensure the safety of teachers and students in the school.

In terms of schools alone, every 100 schools built less can save a large amount of education budget for the education department. These education budgets can be invested in other places to better promote the development of compulsory education.

In addition to saving money on schools, money can also be saved on teaching materials and books. Primary school education does not involve too complicated knowledge. The most important thing is to teach the Spanish language course and simple mathematics.

In this case, it is completely possible to abandon the method of each student holding a textbook and change it to several students sharing a textbook.

Even as long as the teacher has a textbook in his hand, the teaching of the course can be promoted. The knowledge of primary school is generally not difficult, and because there are only two regular courses, there is plenty of time to teach all students these simple knowledge.

The cost saved on school construction and teaching materials can be invested in other expenses, such as teachers' salaries and meals provided to teachers and students.

Of course, students in compulsory education do not need to be provided with three meals a day. But according to the current income level of the Spanish people, if these students are not provided with three meals a day, many people will refuse to enroll and let their children go to factories to make money.

Although it is understandable to do this for the sake of family life, it would be better if a part of the population could be saved.

That is why, when he saw this plan, Carlo considered providing three meals a day to these students in compulsory education in the name of the official.

Of course, these so-called three meals a day are not so luxurious, just to ensure that these growing students can eat enough and not go hungry.

While saving a lot of money on school construction and teaching materials, it is indeed possible to provide these students with three meals a day, so that children from poor families also have enough opportunities to get an education, rather than spending the rest of their lives like slaves in dim factories.

In this regard, Carlo considered more. If three meals a day are provided in the name of the government, the royal family will not gain much reputation.

But if it is provided in the name of the royal family, these children will naturally be grateful to the royal family, and their parents will also be grateful to the royal family.

Of course, if the royal family wants to gain such a reputation, it is impossible for them to pay nothing. Therefore, at the cabinet meeting, Carlo proposed that the royal family should bear part of the cost of students' three meals a day.

This would exempt the government from part of the expenditure, and the officials were naturally happy. Of course, Carlo also put forward his own request, that is, three meals a day must be provided in the name of the royal family.

With the consent of Archduke Serrano and Count Canovas, such a proposal was quickly voted and passed by the cabinet ministers.

The royal family will be responsible for the expenses of breakfast and lunch in the three meals a day of the students, and the government will be responsible for the expenses of dinner. Of course, these three meals a day provided to students for free are provided to students in the name of the royal family, and they will be provided every day as long as they are in school.

Since it is provided to all students, the food is naturally not very good. However, Carlo also has a relevant minimum rule, that is, students in the school must eat meat at least once a week, after all, they are in the stage of growing up.

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