Chapter 1631: The Development of Education

In addition to the improvement of administrative planning, there is also the balancing of educational resources and medical resources, vigorously developing Village primary schools and Town Middle Schools.

Last year, the Town Middle School was only just fully rolled out, because many "enthusiastic individuals" participated, investing in the school and providing financial support for the school's development, so the Town Middle School is already quite large in scale and has high teaching quality.

This year, support for Village primary schools began, ensuring that every village with over one hundred school-age children has a Village primary school with at least two teachers, to ensure that all children in Huaxia can develop from the same starting line and to lower the illiteracy rate in Huaxia.

Currently, the literacy rate in Huaxia has exceeded sixty percent; of course, what is counted here is that as long as one can recognize the one hundred common and frequently used characters, they are counted, so the proportion is relatively high. Many older people cannot write, but they do recognize some.

There are also many people who have not reached school age, so they do not belong to the literate population. Excluding the too old and too young, the literacy rate of the people in the middle is definitely over eighty percent. The rest are Slaves who are not qualified to learn, or those who have been eliminated, or new arrivals to Huaxia who have not yet learned before the statistics were taken.

What Baifeng wants to do is to allow the entire Huaxia to have a literacy rate of over ninety percent for all people over six years old in the future. Of course, he does not expect one hundred percent, because the rate of dementia in this era is still relatively high.

For those children with dementia, he no longer hopes that they can learn culture or anything; let alone literacy, even daily learning is very difficult for them.

Some obvious cases are dementia caused by inbreeding or various genetic diseases. This type of person has been deprived of the right to reproduce by Baifeng, because if they continue to give birth, what is born will basically be children with various defects, which is of no benefit to Huaxia and will also waste Huaxia's resources.

Even if they are normal, there is a high probability that the children they give birth to will have genetic conditions, so this problem must be eradicated from the beginning. For this generation of various types of dementia, albinism, Down syndrome, and the like, Baifeng supports them so they can live out their lives, but they are not allowed to have children.

As for those who are allowed to have children, only people like Chi, who although dull-witted, have made huge contributions to Huaxia, are allowed. Even if the children they give birth to are still dull-witted, their contributions are enough for Huaxia to support them for several more generations.

However, it is not known if Chi is a product of inbreeding; in any case, his children have not shown obvious genetic defects, and there are even those like Wuzhong who are relatively smart. Perhaps Chi is just simply of lower intelligence.

The construction of Village primary schools begins with those larger villages. The initial construction also requires the villagers to advance the funds; of course, this is the price they must pay to have the school built ahead of schedule.

Because the policy issued is to queue for construction and build according to fixed standards, some larger or wealthier villages that are dissatisfied with the planned standard Village primary school can also contribute their own funds, combined with government funding, to add a larger amount, and then they can expand the Village primary school's footprint, the number of buildings, height, and so on, all according to their own ideas.

The benefit of this is that the children in their own village can study in a better environment, and the better it is built, the more willing those teachers are to come. Even clan members engaged in education themselves might be willing to return to teach when they see a well-built school near their home.

Those poor, newly established villages naturally do not have the ability to build very good schools, and they have to wait in line. It will take three, four, or five years before it is their turn to build a school, and it won't be built very large. In the future, the teachers will also be forcibly assigned, so such villages will lag behind wealthy villages from the starting line.

Another point is to improve the education model and mechanism. Currently, in Huaxia City and Lema City, more enlightenment schools have been built. These schools are like Kindergartens, instilling in children from a young age some principles of being a person, etiquette, and so on, and also teaching some simple knowledge. However, these are fee-paying schools, and their greater purpose is to relieve the pain of parents taking care of children, allowing them to free up their hands to work. This does not fall under the category of compulsory education.

The education age is also three to six, a total of six years. Starting at six, they enter the compulsory education stage, a total of three years, which is primary school. This stage does not charge fees and must be attended; one cannot skip it. It teaches basic knowledge, and after three years of study, they are nine years old. In Huaxia, nine years old is considered half a qualified labor force.

At this time, they have three choices. First, pass the exam; the excellent ones enter Middle School to continue studying for three years.

Second, drop out completely and go home to farm or find other odd jobs.

Compulsory education is to prevent those with mild intellectual disabilities or impoverished children from being abandoned. The three-year period also raises them. The smart ones are picked out, and the not-so-smart ones go home, and because they can work, they naturally will not be abandoned again.

And the third is the latest policy. Huaxia has established vocational schools, which specifically teach technical workers such as carpenters, Blacksmiths, and civil engineers. The schools run in parallel with the old master-apprentice system, without affecting each other.

There are also majors such as nursing, pharmacy, and Weaving Department, specifically set up for those girls, because it is not easy for girls to learn jobs like carpentry or Blacksmithing, but at the age of eight or nine, they really cannot do much.

So, professions like these that are suitable for girls and not difficult to get started with are left to them. Vocational Middle Schools specifically accept children who have average or below-average grades, do not want to leave school to farm, or want to learn a craft but have no path. In three years, they can cultivate professional talents who reach the passing line.

Compared to the previous teaching model, the teaching time is shorter, and it is centralized teaching, so the output is greater, and it can quickly cultivate a large number of talents for Huaxia. Only professional fields like officials, doctors, and teachers will be taught in Advanced Schools, which will be renamed universities in the future. The current vocational schools are planned exactly like the vocational schools of later generations, and eight vocational schools are already under construction.

Among them, five are in Huaxia City, two in the city, one in each of the three larger towns; two in Lema City, and one in the town.

As for teachers, there is absolutely no need to worry. Such technical talents can be invited from anywhere; the trouble lies in the issue of textbooks.