Chapter 115: The Poorest Model of Compulsory Education

  Chapter 115 The Poorest Compulsory Education Model

The bottom line of politicians is usually very low, Franz’s proposal everyone has no objections, for the sake of Austria’s long-term stability, a little bit of fooling around is nothing.

Anyway, the top of the cabinet are all from the German region of the aristocracy, is the root of the Germanic nation, Germanization movement and will not hurt their national feelings.

However, the Minister of Education was baffled, tampering with the origins of history is simple, the history of thousands of years ago would have been difficult to say, but what the hell is Austrian?

“Your Highness, what is Austrian?” Count Leo von Tusch-Hohen asked, puzzled.

Franz explained, “Simply promoting the German language will easily cause imbalance in the hearts of other minorities, in order to take care of their emotions.

I am going to gather Austrian linguists and historians to create a set of Austrian languages and scripts with German as the core and the languages and scripts of the minorities.”

Prime Minister Felix frowned and said, “Your Highness, German is the most common language in Austria, if we get another Austrian language out, everyone will have to learn it again, isn’t it too troublesome?

Moreover, a unique Austrian language will deepen our separation from the German region, allowing those little Germanist traitors to gain!”

Franz laughed and said, “It all depends on how the Ministry of Education’s Austrian language is coded? If we apply German directly and only change individual unfamiliar nouns, it won’t affect daily communication, will it?

Isn’t there also a difference between German and German? As long as we, the Austrian language, can be used normally with German, there is no such thing as a communication gap.”

The faces of the crowd returned to normal, if they only changed unfamiliar nouns that ordinary people would never use in their entire lives, then there would be no problem.

Now the words were in the hands of the Austrian government, and it was up to them how to change them. The promotion of German became the promotion of Austrian, which was really just a change of words.

The opposition? It seems that at this time, the Austrian opposition is the weakest, those who dare to make trouble have met God in the rebellion, and the remaining ones are at most in the stage of talking.

It is impossible to get everyone’s support for any one policy. Conservative Austria was not France, and the people’s enthusiasm for revolution was not so high.

As long as their interests are not jeopardized, the people will not rise up and cause trouble or even revolt because of such a small matter.

Franz knew that the Austrian language he proposed was only for political show, to show that the central government valued every nation and respected their language and cultural traditions.

It didn’t satisfy everyone, but it was better done than not. The Austrian language did incorporate the words of each ethnic group’s language, albeit with unfamiliar terms.

“Your Highness, the assimilation of languages and scripts is a long-term investment, to complete this plan, it will take at least twenty years, during which time a large amount of money must be invested without interruption.” The Minister of Education, Count Leo von Tuss-Ho Hum, thought about it and said

Once the unification of language and culture is included in the state policy, then the Ministry of Education’s voice will increase greatly, and in the next few decades, the Ministry of Education is the most important department in Austria.

Franz nodded and said, “Of course, the issue of funding has already been discussed between the Prime Minister and I. The government will find a way to solve it.

This move to unify language and culture will be combined with Austria’s compulsory education.

Before the implementation of compulsory education, we still lack a large number of qualified teachers, the Ministry of Education must solve this problem as soon as possible.

If there is not enough recruitment, the standards will be lowered for short-term training, and as long as they have the right three views and can master elementary school knowledge, they will be allowed to take up their duties.”

Correct three views?

What is three views?

Undoubtedly, naturally, it’s Franz’s version of social views, values, and outlook on life.

To summarize, one must embrace the great Habsburg dynasty, one must be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, one must abide by Austrian laws and regulations, and one must have no bad habits.

As long as the loyalty was enough, the lack of personal ability could still be compensated for by finding ways to make up for it.

The big thing is to open teacher training courses, it does not matter if they are slow, we must not let the black sheep bring down the next generation.

Prime Minister Felix said, ”That’s right, the Cabinet has already formulated a preliminary plan to build 3,000 new public elementary schools nationwide to promote compulsory education for all.

In the new public schools, all of them are going to offer the two main subjects of Austrian language and math. National language classes will also be offered in minority areas, although the local national language will be optional and will not be counted as a grade in the promotion exam.

Compulsory education in Austria is temporarily set at six years and is compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 12.

Adolescents over that age who wish to attend school must also be enrolled.

After the six years of compulsory education have been completed, pupils who excel in their studies can enter secondary school by passing the entrance examination.

Anyone who is admitted to secondary school on the basis of his or her personal ability and whose family is in need can be sponsored by the Government to complete their studies, and the same applies to the universities that follow.”

“Prime Minister, what about funding? Even if we use the lowest grade configuration for all of them, the annual expenses will not be less than 50 million guilders, and with the allocation for higher education, I’m afraid that the education expenses will exceed 100 million guilders in the future.

Relying on collecting tuition fees alone is just a drop in the bucket. The government’s revenue is limited, and even if we add the Hungarian region, it is at most 300 million guilders. Could the government be able to come up with one-third of the money and invest it in education?” Count Leo von Tuss-Ho hum frowned and said

Don’t think that just because he is the Minister of Education, he doesn’t care about other issues. Looking at the whole picture, it is impossible for the Austrian government to invest one-third of its finances in education.

There are many areas that the Austrian government needs to invest in, and in this age of the weak and the strong, blindly investing in education would probably end the country early before the education dividend could be produced.

Felix shook his head and said: ”There is no need to charge any fees, the general public simply can’t afford the expenses, the funding government will find a way to solve it.

The Ministry of Education will make a plan as soon as possible, we have to account for the next year’s education funding, starting in 1849 Austria will start compulsory education.”

The matter of taking the Church to task was still in the stage of secrecy. Franz’s accession to the throne was imminent, and now that stability was overriding in Austria, it was natural not to make trouble at this time.

Franz opened his mouth and said, “Well, the specific problem of funding, the cabinet government later held a separate meeting to think of ways, today is mainly the implementation of compulsory education.

Austria is not rich, we can only engage in poor education. Under the limited funding expenses, as much as possible to cultivate talents out.”

This cultivate talents? Obviously not cultivate what high-tech talents, Franz can not set such high requirements, compulsory education to cultivate only have a certain cultural knowledge of industrial workers.

Even if the industrial workers graduated from elementary school, under the huge base, will always produce a number of qualified engineers, their growth ceiling, to be much higher than the illiterate who can only do hard labor.

“Yes, Your Highness!” The Minister of Education, Count Leo von Tuss-Ho hum, replied

Compulsory education in Austria, following the example of the Kingdom of Prussia next door. The Kingdom of Prussia was the only one that had successfully completed compulsory education in this day and age; neither England nor France had begun compulsory education yet.

Learning from Prussia on the framework, when it comes to specific details, the two sides are different again.

Austria at this time to engage in compulsory education, in fact, is also poor education, simply put, how cheap how to engage in.

According to Franz’s plan, this kind of cheap compulsory education, but also really not expensive.

For example: the school, you can borrow the local church, or the confiscation of the insurgents’ property, or else mobilize the people to build a few wooden huts, to be able to make do with the first.

Another example: teaching materials, as long as the teacher to ensure that the hands of the books on the line, students can not get the textbooks also depends on the funding situation, ink, paper and inkstones are omitted, each person to bring a sandbox can go to class.

The biggest expense is the teacher’s salary, and the students’ food expenses.

Franz traveled through the hard times before, he knows that for many of the lower class people, three meals a day is a heavy burden.

To make parents bear the cost of their children’s meals is beyond the means of many families, or there wouldn’t be so many child laborers.

Who could be cruel enough to let children as young as a few years old enter a dark factory if they were financially able to do so?

You have to know that the casualty rate of child laborers is high, and it is very likely that when they leave in the morning, they are still fine, but at night, they will not see anyone.

If they die, they die in vain, and no one will hold the capitalists accountable. At most, they would casually pay compensation for a few years’ wages and be done with it.

In order not to lower the fertility rate, Franz still decided not to increase the burden of education on parents, and the compulsory education stage is still good for the government to bear.

Anyway, in this era, people will not be picky, the environment of the school, no matter what, it is still much better than inside the factory. In any case, Franz can also ensure that there is enough black bread, and will not let them go hungry.

Of course, as a high and mighty Crown Prince, this kind of solution is better not to be proposed by him, it is better to be proposed by the lower class people to be more convincing.

“Put out the news that Austria is ready to start compulsory education, we collect opinions from the people, and look for an education model that has the lowest cost and is most suitable for Austria to come out.” Franz said

(End of chapter)