Chapter 133: The Reformists
Chapter 131 The Reformers
Boiling Austrian civil service exams, which lasted until February 1849 before the end, the final results came out is a few happy and a few sad.
Franz breathed a sigh of relief, finally ended successfully, with this good start, Austria’s talent selection system changed.
By the central government to unify the selection of talent, sent down to the local office, greatly weakened the local power faction, strengthened the centralized power.
On February 6, 1849, the Austrian national parliament pulled the official opening, marking the beginning of the Austrian nationalities to participate in politics and decide the fate of the country.
A total of 115 deputies from all ethnic groups in Austria participated in the meeting, and the quotas were theoretically distributed according to the population ratio, but taking into account the actual situation, it was increased to 15 people.
Many of Austria’s nationalities were scattered and concentrated, and Franz naturally could not gather them together; the election of deputies was organized by region.
Candidates were naturally nominated by His Great Imperial Majesty, and then elected by local votes. If a certain nationality was not represented, do not be anxious or alarmed; it was simply represented.
Amidst the cheers of the populace, Austria’s nominally supreme power, the Austrian National Council, was thus established.
The first thing that happened at the opening of the national parliament was the adoption of the Austrian compulsory education law. The much-anticipated compulsory education was finally established in Austria in the form of law.
The government’s collection of opinions from all sectors of society also came to an end, and hundreds of thousands of suggestions were received, most of which, of course, were duplicates.
To Franz’s surprise, the opposition to compulsory education is actually so many people, nearly half of the opinions, are to suggest that the government should not labor.
That’s right, in the eyes of many people compulsory education is a labor of love.
They also cited the example that the two most powerful countries in the world today, Britain and Russia, did not have compulsory education, while the Kingdom of Prussia next door had compulsory education and did not become the hegemon of the world as a result.
Franz, who had a strong quality of heart, decisively ignored these different opinions.
The Kingdom of Prussia’s compulsory education, the dividends brought by the present is not yet obvious, such as the outbreak of the second industrial revolution, everyone will suddenly realize that the Kingdom of Prussia actually have so many skilled workers, engineers.
Relying on the huge number of skilled workers and engineers, after the outbreak of the second industrial revolution, the German economy soared beyond Britain.
After a few rounds of screening, finally came to Franz’s hands left the more feasible five programs, including he arranged for people to put forward the sand table type teaching.
Seeing one of them, Franz was very angry.
“Half-work, half-study compulsory education”, simply put, is to let the children who receive compulsory education, first go to the factory to do half a day of work, and then half a day of school, using their income from work to pay for the expenses of compulsory education.
On the surface, there is no problem, but in reality, the problem is much bigger. Once the capitalists and the schools collude, it is expected that a good compulsory education will become a source of cheap labor for the capitalists.
Even if all of them are placed in state-run enterprises, the final result will not be much better. The managers of state-run enterprises will also pursue profits, and in the end, they will collude with each other, and a half-day’s work will become a day’s work, which is not surprising.
Franz still has a sense of decency, and he is not capable of exploiting children.
Moreover, the Kingdom of Prussia, which is even poorer than Austria, was able to complete compulsory education, so there is no reason why it would not be possible for him to implement it here.
After decisively kicking out this article, Franz found that there is no most pitiful, only more pitiful.
Someone actually proposed: church-style compulsory education, in other words, the compulsory education is entrusted to the church, the government grants to the church, let the church is responsible for compulsory education on the line.
Franz really wanted to find the asshole who proposed this opinion and dismantle him.
In terms of cost it does save some of it, churches are all over the country, students can go home and live there, saving the cost of school construction; the clergy have other incomes and don’t live off their salaries, just give out some grants.
But what about the consequences? Whether the next generation trained by the church will end up being loyal to the emperor or to the church is a serious question.
Franz did not dare to underestimate the religious influence, from the Middle Ages to the present, the European governments are trying to weaken the religious influence, driving history backwards, how is this possible?
These two seemingly feasible pitfalls of the proposal, but actually harboring evil, but there are still so many people agree, Franz can not help but sigh, “National quality education has to be strengthened ah!”
……
Excluding the two pitiful suggestions, Franz said, “Prime Minister, put these three fairly reliable opinions, submit to the parliament for discussion, from which to select a compulsory education most suitable for Austria’s national conditions.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Prime Minister Felix replied
The so-called discussion is nothing more than going through the motions, the will of the Emperor is the will of the Austrian National Parliament. It was fine to have one’s own opinion, but it couldn’t conflict with the Emperor’s.
Of course, if there was a good reason to convince His Majesty, Franz was also receptive to good advice, as long as it was good, he was happy to adopt it.
The Minister of Education, Count Leo von Tuss-Ho hum, handed over a thick document and said, “Your Majesty, the Ministry of Education has made a plan for compulsory education, please take a look at it.”
Franz took the document, there were about two to three hundred pages, he did not rush to open it, so much content could not be read in a moment.
Austria is a multi-ethnic country, the national situation is very complex, in different ethnic areas to implement compulsory education, the ways and means used are also different.
Involving more aspects, the final program will become thicker.
“Count Huo Hum, initially tell us about your plan, have you already prepared to that point?” Franz asked with concern
Huo Hum hurriedly replied, “Your Majesty, after the Ministry of Education sent people to conduct field research throughout the country, it was decided to use batch compulsory education, starting with the large urban areas where the population is concentrated, and gradually popularizing it to the countryside.
This year, our goal is to carry out the compulsory education in major cities such as Vienna, Prague, and Pecce …… and strive to popularize compulsory education to the whole country within five years.
The sites for the schools in these major cities have basically been identified, and in principle we are remodeling existing buildings in view of the financial implications.
The construction of 1,023 schools has been completed, and a total of 34,216 teachers have been recruited; these teachers are undergoing emergency training, which is expected to be completed in May.
The Ministry of Education plans to officially open compulsory education in June this year. In the early stages, considering the carrying capacity of the schools, we will first recruit students who voluntarily enroll, and then wait for five years before making compulsory education mandatory for all school-age children.”
Franz nodded, his greatest fear was that the officials would blindly embark on projects for the sake of their political achievements, tossing the good compulsory education.
“Has the Ministry of Education considered students from better off families, who have the money to pay tuition on their own and need better educational conditions.
There is no need to grab resources for compulsory education with ordinary children, has the Ministry of Education differentiated between them?” Franz asked suspiciously
Poor education, naturally, is the monopoly of the poor, can’t let the offspring of capitalists and aristocrats, also bring a sandbox to class, right?
Count Huo hum explained, “Your Majesty, Austria originally had fee-paying schools, we did not make major changes, these schools are not included in the compulsory education management system.
Considering the fairness of the choice, the future Ministry of Education’s allocation to these schools, will also be gradually reduced, all the schools the Ministry of Education will be in accordance with the number of students, a unified standard allocation of education funds.”
Perhaps this is not the best option, but the most appropriate one. The Austrian central government gives equal funding to every student in compulsory education, taking the principle of equity into account to the greatest extent possible.
If the family has money, then they can pay to go to a school with better conditions, these are their freedom. After the government reduces the funding for these fee-paying schools, the tuition fees will naturally increase.
Times have changed, the original Austrian Empire only need to pay for the education of the 200,000 to 300,000 students, and now we have to pay for the education of millions of students, the polarization of education has become inevitable.
Of course, local finances also have education funding, rich areas a little more, the financial difficulties of the region a little less. The central government’s allocation of education funding can only ensure that the most basic students complete compulsory education.
“Let’s do that for now, and continue to solicit opinions from education experts in the country; we can accept any opinion that is practical and beneficial to Austria.” Franz thought about it and said
Since we want to political showmanship, it is necessary to do a full set, the first stage has solicited opinions from the private sector, and now it is natural to continue as well.
Regardless of whether it will be adopted in the end, at least after a round of heated discussions, the relationship between the Austrian government and the experts and scholars in society has eased a lot.
The Austrian government’s suppression of the rebellion last year caused a gap with people in the cultural sector, which has gradually been eliminated.
Many people are dissatisfied with the Austrian government because they are dissatisfied with the rigid system that hinders the development of the country, not that these people are unpatriotic or want to revolt.
In fact, Austria was quite conservative. The revolutionary ideas that prevailed in France could hardly survive over here, and people wanted reform, not revolution.
During the Metternich era, reform was used as a slogan every day, but when it came to action, the government did not make any move, which made everyone very dissatisfied.
To Franz era, the Austrian government’s reform has not stopped, first the abolition of serfdom, and the implementation of the labor protection law, followed by the civil service examination, the promotion of compulsory education and so on.
Although these reform measures, have left a lot of leeway, and did not cut to the bottom, but such progress, has been enough to satisfy the reformers.
With the exception of middle-aged and second-aged teenagers, there was no thought of going one step at a time. Especially the older ones preferred to boil the frog in warm water and make social changes step by step.
(End of chapter)