Chapter 203: Compulsory Education and Three Meals a Day

The purpose of Minister of Education Gerald Wilson's request to see Gao Da was not to report on the steady progress of the annual literacy education results, but to request that Gao Da push forward the next phase of education reform: the comprehensive implementation of compulsory primary education within Spain.

Comprehensive literacy education and comprehensive compulsory primary education are two entirely different levels of educational reform.

The comprehensive literacy education currently implemented in Spain is merely a short training period of 3 to 5 months, ensuring that the illiterate population undergoing training can master a certain number of commonly used Spanish words and understand some simple, easy-to-grasp knowledge and common sense.

Those who complete literacy education are essentially still a low-education population; they are just a tiny bit better off than the illiterate.

The comprehensive compulsory primary education that Gerald Wilson wants to promote is a further popularization based on the foundation of literacy education, ensuring that all school-age children and youth in Spain can receive at least primary-level compulsory education.

Since it is compulsory education, it is naturally free of charge, which is also the reason Gerald Wilson came to see Gao Da.

If one looks at the current level of Spanish fiscal investment in education, it is very difficult to establish compulsory primary education nationwide.

Although Spain does not have a large population, it currently has a population of nearly 18. 5 million. While more than 65% of Spaniards have already shed their status as illiterate, the vast majority of them achieved this arduous task through literacy education.

The population that has completed primary education in all of Spain is only about 20%, and secondary education is even less, not even reaching 10%.

This is also one of the important reasons plaguing the expansion of Spanish universities and higher education. If the population receiving primary education is insufficient, how can higher levels of education obtain enough students?

This is also the reason why Gerald Wilson is determined to promote Spanish compulsory primary education, because only when more people receive low-to-mid-level primary and secondary education will there be more excellent students applying for university.

No matter how well universities are built, or how many laboratories and excellent educational talents they have, it is useless. Only when there are more students with high school diplomas will universities have enough of a student base to ensure their own income and operations.

"Your Majesty, this is the development plan for compulsory primary education formulated by the Ministry of Education. If this plan can be fully implemented, it will greatly change our current educational situation and allow us to bridge the gap between us and the great powers in terms of education." Minister of Education Gerald Wilson handed over another development plan regarding compulsory primary education while introducing it to Gao Da.

Gao Da took the development plan for compulsory primary education and began to read it carefully.

The current number of primary schools in Spain certainly cannot support the development of nationwide compulsory primary education, so before promoting compulsory primary education, the first thing the Ministry of Education must do is build at least a thousand public primary schools and prepare sufficient teaching staff to lay a good foundation for compulsory primary education.

Even if these primary schools all adopt relatively simple construction methods, the total cost of over a thousand schools is by no means a small figure.

If one adds the teaching staff prepared for over a thousand primary schools, as well as the corresponding textbooks and reading materials, this will be another huge expenditure.

Compulsory education is free, which also means that these thousand-plus primary schools will almost never bring any financial return to the government.

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

Gao Da also understood the reason Gerald Wilson came to him; it was clearly to influence the government through him, so that Prime Minister Duke Serrano and Deputy Prime Minister Count Canovas would agree to this compulsory education development plan.

After all, these two controllers of the cabinet government both belong to the Conservative Party, and theoretically, they would certainly obey Gao Da's orders.

The last cabinet meeting was indeed the case, and this is likely the reason why Minister Gerald Wilson submitted this development plan to Gao Da first, rather than discussing it during the cabinet meeting.

Gao Da did not rush to ask about the funding required for this compulsory primary education, but instead asked a few questions he was interested in: "How does the Ministry of Education intend to execute this plan?"

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Education's consideration is to prioritize requiring teenagers in the 6 to 12 age group to enter primary school for study. According to the compulsory education guidelines, the Ministry of Education will waive their tuition fees to ensure that the public is willing to accept the compulsory education regulations.

For teenagers over 12 who have not yet completed primary education, we still encourage them to enter primary school to study, and all primary schools in Spain must not refuse these over-age students.

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

If they can achieve excellent results in the unified examination, the Ministry of Education will waive a portion of their tuition fees in secondary school and provide a certain amount of scholarships to students with extremely outstanding results.

If the results in the unified examination are poor, there will be no opportunity for tuition waivers or scholarships, but they can still enter secondary school to study.

Of course, students who complete primary education can also enter technical schools for training; technical schools will have corresponding subsidies, and the Ministry of Education will not interfere with how they choose.

For some extremely impoverished families, the Ministry of Education is considering providing a certain amount of financial aid in primary school to ensure that teenagers from these impoverished families can also complete at least primary-level studies.

Considering the government's finances, financial aid only exists in primary school, while scholarships will exist from primary school to secondary school, high school, and university; this is also a reward for those students who study relatively well," Minister of Education Gerald Wilson answered his plan with clear logic.

Gao Da nodded and continued to ask: "This plan is very good, but there are currently several difficulties. Has the Ministry of Education considered the issue of funding? If compulsory primary education is fully popularized nationwide, will the Ministry of Education's budget increase several times over?

Can our finances support such a huge educational expenditure? Compulsory primary education will take at least six years to see results, but we need to maintain an extremely huge educational cost during these six years.

If we cannot solve the problems within this, I am afraid Duke Serrano and Count Canovas will not easily agree to this plan."

The Conservative Party status of Duke Serrano and Count Canovas is not just talk; they are definitely more conservative compared to Prime Minister Primo.

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

And Spain's current finances are not that wealthy; all departments need large fiscal budgets, and it is obviously not easy for the Ministry of Education to eat the biggest cake.

After all, Prime Minister Duke Serrano and Deputy Prime Minister Count Canovas both hold other cabinet minister positions, and they certainly have to consider the development of other departments.

If the Ministry of Education takes an extra share of the budget, it means the budgets of other departments will be much less. The Ministry of Education will indeed gain great merit because of this plan, but whether other departments are willing to sacrifice their own interests to help the Ministry of Education is not certain.

Hearing Gao Da's question, Gerald Wilson also understood that this was his only chance to persuade Gao Da. After thinking about it seriously, he opened his mouth to answer: "

If our school construction all adopts the lowest-grade configuration, it can effectively reduce our expenses in the early stages of popularizing compulsory primary education.

The popularization of compulsory education does not need to be pushed forward simultaneously nationwide; we can choose one or two large regions as pilots to reduce our early consumption.

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

If we only carry out pilots in these two large regions, according to our estimates, the annual increase in educational funding can be limited to within 15 million Pesetas.

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

Your Majesty, only 15 million Pesetas are needed, and the Ministry of Education has the confidence to fully promote the popularization of compulsory education in Madrid and Catalonia as a pilot, setting a good example for the popularization of compulsory education in other large regions.

Only by cultivating enough primary school students can we have enough secondary school students. Only by cultivating enough secondary school students can we have enough high school and university students.

Now is our best opportunity, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Education has the confidence to complete this plan and bring you a perfect answer sheet in six years." Gerald Wilson's words were sincere, and he was very confident in the development plan for compulsory primary education formulated by the Ministry of Education.

This will not only be a great achievement for the Ministry of Education, but also an important step for Spain to transform from an educationally weak country into an educationally strong one.

Gao Da was expressionless, but inwardly he was very satisfied with this Minister of Education. In Gao Da's view, although this development plan for compulsory education was not perfect, it was indeed suitable for the current Spain.

If this education plan is implemented, Spain will be able to gradually bridge the gap between itself and other great powers in terms of education in the future.

The importance of education goes without saying. Education can bring a large number of local talents, and with talents, one can promote the development of technology and all walks of life.

Spain's biggest problem at present is the vacancy of talent, especially the vacancy of local talent. Education can undoubtedly make up for this shortcoming; although it will take a long time to see results, what Spain lacks least at the moment is time.

For Spain, several relatively 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 for the Spanish-American War, there are still more than 20 years until the historical outbreak. Although the development of the situation in this world is not exactly the same as history, Spain does not lack these few years.

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

Under such circumstances, the United States is not necessarily confident of winning against today's Spain. Furthermore, the Spanish-American War is still more than 20 years away; Gao Da is confident that in 20 years, Spain will grow into a powerful country comparable to the five traditional great powers of Europe, so naturally, there is no need to fear the United States of that time.

"As far as the current situation is concerned, I personally agree with this development plan." A smile finally appeared on Gao Da's face, expressing his approval of the compulsory education development plan formulated by the Ministry of Education, saying: "Education is an important link in Spain's development, and it is also very necessary to attach importance to education.

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

Hearing Gao Da's promise, Minister Gerald Wilson finally breathed a sigh of relief and said with excitement: "As you command, Your Majesty."

At the cabinet meeting a few days later, Minister Gerald Wilson proposed this compulsory primary education development plan according to Gao Da's instructions and submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.

Because of Gao Da's instructions, Count Canovas expressed his approval, while Duke Serrano did not express any opinion.

However, the cabinet ministers also knew that Count Canovas, as Deputy Prime Minister, was actually the main person in charge of the cabinet government. Although Duke Serrano was the Prime Minister, he played more of a symbolic and stabilizing role and would not interfere too much in the development of various departments.

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

It is just that while they agreed, certain details of this development plan were also modified to a certain extent.

For example, the plan originally intended to build at least a thousand primary schools throughout Spain to meet the school demand required for popularizing compulsory primary education.

After discussion by the cabinet ministers, the construction of new primary schools was changed to making as much use of existing buildings as possible for renovation, such as the real estate in the hands of rebellious nobles, officials, and capitalists.

Some of the real estate is located in cities, is large in scale, and is not of high value. Although it has been abandoned for a period of time, the building as a whole can still be utilized.

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

Anyway, it is the popularization of free compulsory primary education, and schools do not need to be brand new; second-hand houses can be renovated and used perfectly well.

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

Those that can be renovated and used must be inspected to ensure that the house is strong enough. Whether it is comfortable or not is another matter, but it must be strong enough to ensure the safety of the school's teachers and students.

Just on the point of schools, for every 100 fewer schools built, a large amount of educational budget can be saved for the Ministry of Education. These educational 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 education does not involve overly complex knowledge; the most important thing is to teach the Spanish language course and simple mathematics.

Under such circumstances, it is entirely possible to abandon the method of one textbook per student and change it to several students sharing one textbook.

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

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

Compulsory education, of course, does not need to provide three meals a day to students. But looking at the current income level of the Spanish public, if three meals a day are not provided to these students, many people will refuse to enroll and let their children go to factories to earn money.

Although doing so for the sake of family life is understandable, if a portion of this population can be saved, that is naturally better.

It is precisely because of this that when seeing this plan, Gao Da considered providing three meals a day to these students in compulsory education in the name of the government.

Of course, this so-called three meals a day will not be very luxurious; it is just to ensure that these students who are growing up can eat their fill and not go hungry.

In the case of saving a large amount of expenditure 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 receive education, instead of spending the rest of their lives in dim factories like slaves.

In this regard, Gao Da 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 full of gratitude to the royal family, and their parents will also be grateful to the royal family.

Of course, to gain such a reputation, the royal family naturally cannot pay nothing. Therefore, at the cabinet meeting, Gao Da proposed the suggestion that the royal family should bear a portion of the expenses brought about by the students' three meals a day.

Doing so can exempt a portion of the government's expenditure, and the officials are naturally happy. Of course, Gao Da also put forward his own requirements, which is that the three meals a day must be provided in the name of the royal family.

With the agreement of both Duke Serrano and Count Canovas, such a proposal was quickly passed by the cabinet ministers.

The royal family will be responsible for the expenses of breakfast and lunch in the students' three meals a day, while the government will be responsible for the expenses of dinner. Of course, these three meals a day provided free of charge to students are all provided to students in the name of the royal family, and as long as it is a school day, there is a portion every day.

Since it is provided to all students, the food naturally cannot be too good. However, Gao Da also has relevant minimum regulations for this, which is that the 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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(End of this chapter)