Chapter 163: Education Reform

Facts have proven that Prime Minister Primo dared to put forward such an ambitious five-year development plan goal because he had made practical considerations and was well-prepared to handle it.

The total fiscal expenditure of the Spanish government for the entire year of 1873 reached as high as 743. million pesetas; since the Spanish Revolution, the Spanish government had never faced such a high amount of fiscal expenditure.

But compared to this year's total fiscal budget, 743. million pesetas is no longer a large number.

Because this year, the total government fiscal budget is as high as 897. million pesetas, an increase of over 150 million compared to last year.

Such an ample fiscal budget indeed instantly resolved the worries of the cabinet ministers and also gave the ministers of the second cabinet government sufficient expectations for the completion of the second five-year development plan.

Under the insistence of Prime Minister Primo, the House of Representatives quickly passed the 1874 fiscal budget submitted by the cabinet government. However, this did not quell the public discussion regarding this fiscal budget; after all, such high fiscal expenditure is almost double the annual fiscal expenditure during the first five-year plan period.

For the Spanish government, this definitely counts as a massive gamble. If this fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas can indeed bring in more returns, then the public will naturally be full of praise.

But if the fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas cannot achieve any good results, then all kinds of questioning directed at Prime Minister Primo will surely follow.

What is the confidence behind Prime Minister Primo's such high-profile expansion of the government department's fiscal budget?

It is, of course, the various enterprises and equipment purchased at low prices from various countries, including the technical materials, production data, and those technical workers with production experience possessed by these enterprises.

Don't look at how the Spanish government is openly and constantly poaching those excellent engineers and scientific research personnel; behind the scenes, it is also continuously absorbing the employees of these purchased companies to come to Spain.

The role played by one or two technical workers might not be significant, but what if there are hundreds or even thousands? Concentrating these technical workers in any factory can extremely effectively improve that factory's production experience and productivity.

And for some of Spain's existing factories, what is currently most lacking are workers with this production experience and excellent technical capabilities.

In order to attract these excellent technical workers, the Spanish side has offered very generous conditions. For example, providing these technical workers and their families with free housing for three years, offering new jobs with higher incomes than their original ones, and ensuring the medical and educational conditions for their families, etc.

In normal times, such conditions would already have a certain level of attraction, let alone when all countries are mired in the quagmire of an economic crisis.

Facing Spain's high-profile talent-attraction policy, the one that is perhaps the most uncomfortable is Spain's neighbor, Portugal.

Because while talent from other countries still has to consider the issue of language communication, the Portuguese basically do not need to consider it. Portuguese and Spanish can be used for brief communication, and there is absolutely no problem for the Portuguese to understand Spanish.

These two languages are more like dialects of two similar regions in later generations; there is a tiny bit of difference, but it does not affect communication and exchange between them.

Although Portugal has not been greatly affected by the economic crisis, it depends on who you compare it with. Apart from imports and exports, Spain has basically not been affected by the economic crisis in other aspects.

On the contrary, because of the various constructions and great development within Spain, the unemployed population is not only becoming fewer and fewer, but there is also an urgent shortage of experienced employees for many positions that do not have low incomes.

In 1873 alone, the total population attracted by Spain from Portugal was already close to 10, 00. Except for a small number of scientific research talents and senior engineers among them, the other several thousand people were workers and other talents with certain technical capabilities.

As long as the economic crisis continues, the situation of Spain absorbing the population from Portugal will not change. This is of course a good thing for Spain, but for Portugal, it is not so pleasant.

However, the Portuguese government has no way to solve it for the time being; after all, although what Spain is doing has the suspicion of kicking someone when they are down, it has not violated the laws of any country.

Of course, in this era, relying on laws cannot restrain any country. Only strong strength can achieve that; all other treaties and decrees are just empty talk.

Last year, the funds spent by Spain on absorbing talent and purchasing foreign enterprises were not much, only 130. million pesetas.

Of course, the main reason for this is that the economic crisis broke out in the middle of the year, and the time actually used to purchase enterprises and attract talent was less than half a year.

This also means that 1874 will be an extremely important year. This is the second year after the economic crisis, and also a complete year. The government must complete the enterprise purchase plan formulated last year this year, and absorb enough technical talents, senior engineers, and scientific research personnel.

If another year passes, all countries will have a certain degree of control over the economic crisis, and it will not be so easy to purchase enterprises or absorb talent again.

It is precisely because of this that this year's so-called external action budget is as high as 270 million pesetas. If added to last year's budget, the total expenditure on purchasing enterprises and absorbing talent will exceed 400 million pesetas, of which the expenditure on purchasing enterprises is about 300 million pesetas, and the expenditure on absorbing talent is about 100 million pesetas, which is not much different from what was previously estimated.

Further on, it will be the patching up of technical talents and trying our best to win over relevant scientific research talents. Because of the uncertainty of the talent gap and the possibility that other countries may issue decrees to prevent talent-poaching actions like Spain's, there is no specific budget for this aspect; everything must be judged according to the situation at that time.

Even after deducting the 270 million external action budget, the Spanish government's total fiscal budget for this year still reaches as high as 727. million pesetas.

Because of the large expansion of the army, Spain's military expenditure is still the largest part of fiscal expenditure. In 1874, the Spanish Ministry of Defense's fiscal budget reached as high as 197. million pesetas, accounting for 27. % of the total fiscal budget.

Next is the investment in industrial construction. Even without counting the expenses for purchasing enterprises and absorbing talent, the industrial department's budget still reaches as high as 145. million pesetas, which is exactly one-fifth of the fiscal expenditure.

As a newly established cabinet department, the transportation department's fiscal budget ranks third among all cabinet departments, with a total budget of nearly 130 million pesetas.

After all, it is necessary to build more than 3, 00 kilometers of railways and a large number of highways, so other departments have no objections to giving the transportation department such a large fiscal budget.

Just building 3, 00 kilometers of railways is enough to give people a headache, let alone the fact that the transportation department also needs to be responsible for the construction of highways, as well as the construction of train stations, the deployment of train routes, the transportation of materials, etc.

For a newly established department, the first year of its establishment will face quite severe tests. But if these tests are completed, the credit that the transportation department can obtain will definitely be one of the most among the cabinet departments.

Further on, the livelihood department, the public security department, the education department, the medical department, and the agricultural department also have their own fiscal budgets, and the total scale is definitely much larger than in previous years.

The diplomatic department is relatively independent, and its fiscal budget is also not small. After all, the diplomatic department needs to maintain diplomatic embassies stationed in various countries, as well as conduct some diplomatic activities, etc.; insufficient funds will lead to big problems.

For such a huge fiscal budget, Prime Minister Primo certainly reported it to Gao Da. Considering that the temple treasure did indeed bring the government no small amount of confidence, Gao Da went with the flow and approved this fiscal budget report.

After all, with that temple treasure, the Spanish government can at least issue billions of pesetas in currency. Although the fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas looks exaggerated, the Currency Issuance Committee had previously had plans regarding the additional issuance of pesetas.

This fiscal expenditure that looks exaggerated is actually just to circulate these additionally issued pesetas into the market through reasonable means.

However, Gao Da did not do nothing. Under Gao Da's suggestion, Prime Minister Primo appropriately increased the fiscal budget for the education department to help the education department better carry out the popularization of literacy education, as well as promote the popularization of higher-level education, etc.

Before Gao Da succeeded to the throne, Spain's illiteracy rate was as high as 70%, and it could be considered a pair of brothers in misery with Italy.

And after experiencing five years of development, Spain's illiteracy rate has also been effectively reduced. Currently, according to the Spanish government's statistics, in these five years, the population that has received literacy education in Spain has reached nearly 4 million, with an average of over 800, 00 people receiving the government's literacy education every year.

Especially after Gao Da decided to provide a free lunch to everyone who received literacy education, even more people participated in literacy education.

Currently, Spain's illiteracy rate has dropped to below 45%; having achieved such results in just five years, the credit of the education department is indeed not small.

But an illiteracy rate of 45% still cannot satisfy Gao Da's expectations. The reason why Gao Da asked Prime Minister Primo to increase the education department's fiscal budget is precisely to completely reduce Spain's illiteracy rate to below 20% by the time the second five-year plan is completed.

You must know that Spain also has many elderly people and disabled people who are not suitable for education. Considering the existence of these people, an illiteracy rate of 20% is actually already a quite low level.

On this basis, vigorously developing middle school and high school education, and promulgating a series of policies to reduce tuition and miscellaneous fees for higher education, is the effective way to cultivate local talent for Spain.

Talking about the issue of cultivating university students before the illiteracy rate has completely dropped is actually unable to solve the root cause.

After all, the prerequisite for having enough university students is to have enough high school students. The prerequisite for having enough high school students is to have enough middle school students.

This is also the importance of laying a good foundation. Only by building primary education well can we seek higher-level middle school and high school education.

Only by building middle school and high school education well can we seek more university students. If the goal is only set on the development of universities and the cultivation of university students, Spain's education will eventually just be a castle in the air.

After all, under the premise that most people are illiterate, how can we ensure that Spain can cultivate enough excellent university student talents every year?

Not long after the fiscal budget was passed by the House of Representatives, Spain's new Minister of Education, Ye Weiqi, personally requested an audience with Gao Da and reported the specific development goals of the education department regarding the five-year development plan.

Reporting the current status and plans of the Ministry of Education to Gao Da was something Ye Weiqi decided after long deliberation.

Ye Weiqi is actually a member of the Liberal Party; because of his rich qualifications in education, coupled with some ideas about education reform, he won the favor of Prime Minister Primo, which is why he became the Minister of Education under Prime Minister Primo's cabinet.

Originally, Ye Weiqi only wanted to do his own education reform well in the Ministry of Education, but after learning that a part of the credit for the Ministry of Education's high budget came from Gao Da's request, he knew he could not remain indifferent.

After all, Gao Da is the King of Spain; even Prime Minister Primo has to maintain sufficient respect, let alone a newly promoted Minister of Education.

"Your Majesty." When requesting an audience with Gao Da, Ye Weiqi put his posture very low, without any airs of being a cabinet member.

"Minister Ye Weiqi, I am very happy to see you become the Minister of Education. I believe that under your leadership, the education department will have greater achievements." Gao Da nodded indifferently, signaling Ye Weiqi to sit on the sofa to the side.

The previous Minister of Education did not continue in office in the second cabinet government; the biggest reason was that he did not have any outstanding achievements in education.

That a non-Progressive Party member like Ye Weiqi, who advocates education reform, could become a cabinet minister also proves Prime Minister Primo's emphasis on education reform.

In the end, Spain's existing education system is still too outdated and clearly not very adapted to the new-style education of European powers.

Even many countries are already popularizing compulsory education, and Spain has not even completely reduced its illiteracy rate, which is also the reason why Prime Minister Primo is anxious.

"Thank you for Your Majesty's trust. I will definitely summarize the shortcomings of the previous government's education department, create a better educational environment for all Spaniards, and change the status quo of Spanish education." Ye Weiqi was also not overly modest, because sometimes modesty is not a good thing.

Gao Da nodded and began his test: "Minister Ye Weiqi, does the education department have any brand-new ideas regarding the direction and focus of future education reform?"

After hearing Gao Da's question, Ye Weiqi did not rush to answer, but thought carefully for a while. After organizing his language in his mind, he then respectfully replied: "Your Majesty, I think it is very necessary for Spain to carry out education reform.

I have visited Germany for a period of time, and the German emphasis on education is incomparable to any other country. The formal laws regarding compulsory education in Germany originated from the "Rural Education Regulations" promulgated by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1763, but the time when their compulsory education truly began was even a hundred years earlier.

I think that the reason why the Germans defeated the Austrians and the French one after another, besides their powerful army and excellent military technology, is also that they promoted the popularization of compulsory education early on.

The illiteracy rate in the entire German region is the lowest among all European regions; the German emphasis on education is evident.

So I think that in Spain's development, education is definitely an indispensable link. Even if we cannot formulate a compulsory education system like Germany's, we must also promulgate some policies to reduce the burden of education on the public.

Only when more and more people receive education will more and more talents be cultivated. The improvement brought to the country and society by talent is obvious; the talent brought by education will make the country stronger and stronger, which is incomparable to absorbing talent from foreign countries.

Regarding the direction of Spain's education reform, I think the primary goal should be placed on two directions: basic education and technical education.

In terms of basic education, I think we should fully popularize basic compulsory education nationwide to ensure that all Spaniards can receive about 2 years of basic education, reducing Spain's illiteracy rate from the root.

The time of about 2 years of basic education is only temporary. When the government's fiscal budget is sufficient in the future, I think the basic education time should be increased to the entire primary school stage, which is about 6 years.

Only by ensuring that all Spaniards have completed about six years of primary education can our education reform be considered a preliminary success, and education reform will have visible results.

Next is about technical education. Technical education is mainly aimed at our adults, with the purpose of cultivating enough technical talents for Spain.

It takes a long time to cultivate a talent starting from infancy, but our country currently lacks a large number of technical talents.

Aiming at such a problem, I think it is necessary to build more technical schools to help more ordinary workers carry out technical training and let them grow into technical workers.

In this way, not only can we solve the problem of our shortage of technical talents, but we can also effectively increase the wages and incomes of these people.

Aiming at the problem of the shortage of senior technical talents, I think we can also implement a dual-track education system to cultivate our excellent technical talents from a young age.

The ideas of the dual-track education system are as follows:

In the more conventional track, students can complete the conventional education from primary school to middle school, high school, and then to university; the university students finally cultivated are the senior talents we lack.

The other track, after completing basic education or primary school education, can choose to carry out basic technical education and senior technical education cultivation, finally cultivating the senior technical talents we lack.

In order to give these technical talents more outlets, students who are undergoing basic technical education and senior technical education can also enter high school or university to study through exams, and finally return to the first track of the education system.

Your Majesty, this is the direction of Spain's education reform that I have conceived, as well as some key points of Spain's future education reform." Ye Weiqi explained his goals and plans for education reform to Gao Da one by one with a respectful but very confident demeanor.

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