Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 201: Compulsory Education And Three Meals A Day

Minister of Education Gerard Wilson sought an audience with Carlo not to report on the steady annual results of literacy education, but to request that Carlo promote the next step in educational reform: the comprehensive implementation of compulsory primary education throughout Spain.

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

The comprehensive literacy education currently implemented in Spain merely involves short training periods of 3 to 5 months to ensure that the illiterate population receives training to master a certain number of commonly used Spanish language words, and to understand some simple, easy-to-understand knowledge and common sense.

Those who complete literacy education are essentially still low-education-level population, only slightly better than the illiterate.

The comprehensive compulsory primary education that Gerard Wilson wants to promote builds on the foundation of literacy education to further popularize it, 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, which is also why Gerard Wilson came to seek an audience with Carlo.

Given the current level of investment in education by Spain’s finances, implementing compulsory primary education nationwide would be very difficult.

Although Spain’s population is not large, it currently has nearly 25 million people. Although more than 65% of Spaniards have escaped illiteracy, the vast majority achieved this through literacy education.

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

This is also one of the major reasons hindering the expansion of universities and higher education in Spain. If even the population receiving primary education is insufficient, how can higher education obtain enough students? This is also why Gerard Wilson is determined to promote compulsory primary education in Spain: only when more people receive primary and secondary lower-level education will there be more excellent students applying to universities.

No matter how well universities are built, with more laboratories and excellent education talent, it is useless without enough students with senior high school education levels; universities need sufficient student sources to ensure their income and operation.

“Your Majesty, this is the development plan for compulsory primary education formulated by the Education Department. If this plan can be fully implemented, it will greatly change our current education situation and close the gap with the great powers in terms of education.” Minister of Education Gerard Wilson handed over another development plan on compulsory primary education while introducing it to Carlo.

Carlo took the development plan for compulsory primary education and examined it carefully.

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

Even if all these primary schools adopt relatively simple construction methods, the cost of a thousand schools combined is still no small amount.

Adding to that the teaching staff prepared for a thousand primary schools, as well as corresponding textbooks and book materials, etc., this will again be a huge expenditure.

Compulsory education is free, which also means these thousand primary schools will bring almost no financial returns to the government.

Although this is beneficial to Spain’s development, expecting the government to come up with so much money at once to promote the development of compulsory primary education is obviously difficult.

Carlo also understood the reason Gerard Wilson came to him: clearly, this was to influence the government through him, so that Prime Minister Grand 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 definitely obey Carlo’s orders.

The previous cabinet meeting was indeed like this, which is probably why Minister Gerard Wilson submitted this development plan to Carlo first instead of discussing it at the cabinet meeting.

Carlo did not rush to ask about the funds needed for this compulsory primary education, but instead asked a few questions he was more interested in: “How does the Ministry of Education plan to implement this plan?”

“Your Majesty, the Ministry of Education’s consideration is to prioritize requiring adolescents aged 6 to 12 to enter primary school for study. According to compulsory education principles, the Ministry of Education will waive their tuition fees to ensure the public is willing to accept the compulsory education regulations.

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

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

If they achieve excellent scores in the unified exams, the Ministry of Education will waive part of their secondary school tuition fees and issue scholarships of a certain amount to students with extremely outstanding scores.

If scores in the unified exams are poor, there will be no tuition fee 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, and technical schools will have corresponding subsidies; the education department will not intervene in how they choose.

For certain extremely poor families, the education department considers issuing scholarships of a certain amount in primary schools to ensure that adolescents from these poor families can also complete at least primary-level studies.

Considering the government’s finances, scholarships will only exist in primary schools, while scholarships from primary to secondary, senior high school, and university will exist, which is also a reward for those relatively excellent students.” Minister of Education Gerard Wilson answered his plan clearly and logically.

Carlo nodded and continued to ask: “This plan is very good, but there are currently a few difficulties. Has the Education Department considered the funding issue? If compulsory primary education is fully popularized nationwide, won’t the Education Department’s funding multiply several times?

Can our finances support such massive education expenditure? Compulsory primary education takes at least six years to see results, but we need to maintain extremely high education costs during these six years.

If these issues cannot be resolved, Grand Duke Serrano and Count Canovas probably won’t easily agree to this plan.”

Grand Duke Serrano and Count Canovas’s Conservative Party identities are not just for show; compared to Prime Minister Primó, they are absolutely more conservative.

Minister Gerard Wilson’s compulsory primary education development plan is indeed beneficial to Spain, but results will take at least six years.

Spain’s current finances are not that affluent, and various departments all need large fiscal budgets; it is obviously not easy for the Education Department to take the biggest cake.

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

The Education Department taking more budget means other departments will have much less. The Education Department will indeed gain great achievements from this plan, but whether other departments are willing to sacrifice their interests to help the Education Department is uncertain.

Hearing Carlo’s question, Gerard Wilson also understood this was his only chance to persuade Carlo. After thinking seriously, he finally spoke: “

If our school construction all adopts the lowest configuration, it can effectively reduce the early costs of popularizing compulsory primary education.

The popularization of compulsory education does not need to advance nationwide simultaneously; we can select one or two regions as pilots to reduce our early consumption.

If possible, I believe Madrid and Catalonia two regions can serve 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 regions to consider starting to promote the popularization of compulsory education.

If only piloting in these two regions, according to our calculations, the annual additional education funding can be limited to within 15 million pesetas.

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

Your Majesty, with just 15 million pesetas, the Ministry of Education is confident in fully promoting the popularization of compulsory education in Madrid and Catalonia as pilots, setting an example for other regions to popularize compulsory education.

Only with enough primary school students cultivated can we have enough secondary school students. Only with enough secondary school students cultivated can we have enough senior high school students and university students.

Now is our best opportunity, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Education is confident in completing this plan and delivering a perfect report to Your Majesty six years from now.” Gerard Wilson’s words were sincere; he was very confident in the compulsory primary education development plan formulated by the Education Department.

This will not only be a great achievement for the Education Department, but also an important step for Spain to transform from an education weak country to an education great power.

Carlo remained expressionless, but inwardly he was very satisfied with this Education Minister. This compulsory education development plan, in Carlo’s view, although not perfect, does indeed suit the current Spain.

If implemented according to this education plan, Spain will gradually close the education gap with other great powers in the future.

The importance of education goes without saying. Education can bring a large amount of native talent; with talent, technology and the development of all industries can be promoted.

Spain’s biggest current problem is the talent gap, especially the native talent gap. Education can undoubtedly make up for this shortcoming, although it takes a long time to see results, but what Spain currently lacks least is time.

For Spain, several relatively important wars are no more than the Spanish-American War at the end of the century and the two world wars that affected the entire world.

Even the Spanish-American War is still more than 20 years away from its historical outbreak time. Although the situation development in this world is not completely the same as history, Spain does not lack these few years.

Moreover, Spain in the current world is stronger than in history by more than a little bit. Spain’s weakness stopped after the revolution broke out, and industry and economy as well as comprehensive national strength have turned from negative to positive, entering positive growth.

In such a situation, the United States does not necessarily have confidence in defeating today’s Spain. Moreover, the Spanish-American War is still 20 years away; Carlo is confident that 20 years from now, Spain will grow into a powerful country comparable to Europe’s five traditional great powers, so there is no need to fear the United States at that time.

“As it stands now, I personally approve of this development plan.” A smile finally appeared on Carlo’s face, expressing approval for the compulsory education development plan formulated by the Education Department, and said: “Education is an important part of Spain’s development, and emphasizing education is very necessary.

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

Hearing Carlo’s promise, Minister Gerard Wilson finally breathed a sigh of relief and said excitedly: “As you command, Your Majesty.”

At the cabinet meeting a few days later, Minister Gerard Wilson proposed this compulsory primary education development plan as instructed by Carlo, and submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.

Because of Carlo’s instructions, Count Canovas expressed a supportive attitude, while Grand Duke Serrano did not express any opinion.

However, the cabinet ministers all knew that Count Canovas, as deputy prime minister, was actually the main person in charge of the cabinet government. Although Grand Duke Serrano was prime minister, he played more of a symbolic and stabilizing role, and would not overly intervene in the development of various departments.

After Count Canovas expressed support, the other cabinet ministers were not fools and all expressed their support.

However, while supportive, certain details of this development plan were modified to some extent.

For example, the original plan intended to build at least a thousand primary schools across Spain to meet the school needs for popularizing compulsory primary education.

After discussion by the cabinet ministers, building new primary schools was changed to making full use of existing buildings for renovation, such as properties in the hands of rebel nobles and officials, as well as capitalists.

Some properties are in cities, large in scale and low in value. Although abandoned for a while, the buildings overall can still be used.

With just some renovations, these abandoned properties can be transformed into new schools.

Since it is popularizing free compulsory primary education, schools do not need brand-new ones; renovated second-hand houses can fully suffice.

Of course, if the house itself is extremely unsafe, it naturally cannot be renovated for use as a school.

Those that can be renovated must be ones confirmed safe and sturdy after inspection. Comfort aside, they must be sturdy enough to ensure the safety of teachers and students in the school.

Just on schools alone, saving 100 schools means saving a large education budget for the Education Department. These education budgets can be invested elsewhere to better promote the development of compulsory education.

Besides saving money on schools, savings can also be made on textbooks and books. Primary education does not involve overly complex knowledge; the main focus is teaching the Spanish language course and simple mathematics.

In this case, it is completely possible to abandon the one-textbook-per-student approach and switch to several students sharing one textbook.

Even as long as ensuring teachers have one textbook each, course teaching can be promoted. Primary school knowledge is not difficult overall, and with only two main subjects, there is plenty of time to teach all students this simple knowledge.

The costs saved from school construction and textbooks can be invested in other expenditures, such as teachers’ wages and food provided to teachers and students.

Compulsory education certainly does not need to provide three meals a day to students. But given the current income levels of the Spanish public, if three meals a day are not provided to these students, many people will refuse enrollment and send their children to factories to earn money.

Although doing so for family livelihood is understandable, if some of this population can be saved, that is naturally better.

Precisely because of this, when seeing this plan, Carlo considered providing three meals a day to these compulsory education students in an official capacity.

Of course, these so-called three meals a day will not be luxurious, just enough to ensure these growing students are full and not hungry.

With the large expenditure saved from school construction and textbooks, it is indeed possible to provide three meals a day to these students, giving children from poor families sufficient opportunities for education instead of spending their lives like slaves in dim factories.

In this regard, Carlo considered more. If three meals a day are provided in the government’s name, the royal family cannot gain much reputation.

But if provided in the royal family’s name, these children will naturally be full of gratitude toward the royal family, and their parents will be grateful to the royal family.

Of course, to gain such reputation, the royal family naturally cannot contribute nothing. Therefore, at the cabinet meeting, Carlo proposed that the royal family bear part of the expenditure for students’ three meals a day.

This would exempt part of the government’s expenditure, so the officials were naturally happy. Of course, Carlo also made his request: that the three meals a day must be provided in the royal family’s name.

With both Grand Duke Serrano and Count Canovas agreeing, such a proposal was quickly voted through by the cabinet ministers.

The royal family will cover the expenditure for students’ breakfast and lunch, while the government covers dinner. Of course, these free three meals a day provided to students are all in the royal family’s name, and as long as it is school time, there is a share every day.

Since it is provided to all students, the food naturally cannot be too good. However, Carlo also has relevant minimum regulations: school students must eat meat at least once a week, after all, they are in their growth phase.

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