Chapter 408 Pilot Education (N)

Franz's six-year pilot education experience in the Tyrol region taught him that if he wanted to solve the education problem, he had to solve the economic problem first, with the focus on the food and clothing problem of ordinary people.

In fact, most people in Innsbruck don't have to worry about not having enough food, but humans are always lazy and there are always people who want to get something for nothing.

Moreover, these people often have loud voices, which makes people easily mistakenly think that they are the mainstream. The best way to deal with such people is to deal with them strictly and quickly, otherwise once they gather a crowd, things will become very difficult to deal with.

After long-term practice, the church and teachers have found that the measure of providing free food is more harmful than beneficial. Cases of embezzlement and deduction are endless, and there was even a situation where fourteen children in a school ate 25 tons of bread in a month.

That is, a student has to eat 1.78 tons of bread a month. Even if there is no rest day, eating two meals a day at school, each meal must eat 60 kilograms of bread, which is almost the same as the weight of children at that time.

It is also not advisable to limit the amount of food. Students of the same height and weight may have different amounts of food. One may be too hungry to walk, while the other may be too full.

The so-called moderate adjustment, that is, giving more food to students who can eat more, is also not advisable. Because this involves the issue of fairness.

And from a lot of feedback, the grassroots workers in charge of basic education generally feel that universal compulsory education is a waste of the country's limited resources.

As a later generation, of course, I know that the views of this group of people are wrong, but it is imperative to select them purposefully in light of the background of the times and the special national conditions of the Austrian Empire.

First of all, in order to popularize education and promote German as much as possible, four years of compulsory education in primary school is necessary. At the same time, in order to increase the quality of the population and select talents, the reward and punishment mechanism should be strengthened in the four years of middle school, combining the last elimination with the selection of the best.

How to do it? Give money! Yes, it is the most undesirable approach in the mouth of economists.

All primary schools in the Austrian Empire, excluding rest days and holidays, have a total of 186 days of school a year. Every thirty days, one florin cash and one florin expected banknote are subsidized, so that a child can receive a subsidy of 12 florins a year.

The expected notes cannot be used or exchanged temporarily. They need to wait until the child has completed all four years of schooling before they can be exchanged. For an ordinary family, the expected notes of 24 florins for four years are still unwilling to give up this kind of income.

In this way, as many children as possible can complete their primary school studies, and the occurrence of children and parents making trouble can be reduced. At the same time, gender discrimination and racial discrimination can also be reduced. After all, making money is not shabby.

As for the so-called last-place elimination and merit-based selection in middle schools, in simple terms, excellent students not only have full tuition exemption but also receive bonuses, and the second-best students are charged a small symbolic tuition fee to retain their chance of having a bright future.

Ordinary students need to pay normal fees, and those who are more inferior need to pay additional fees. As for those who are really poor, they either pay high tuition fees or leave on their own. After all, the country's resources are limited.

The advantage of this approach is that poor students can be used to subsidize excellent students and the normal operation of schools, but this method is only applicable to middle schools.

It is too cruel for primary school students and is not conducive to social peace and national integration. As for Austrian universities, they have always been engaged in elite education, with the purpose of selecting the best from the best, facing the future, the market and society, rather than cultivating a group of test-takers.

Universities have special financial aid programs and financial aid contracts, and the parts that do not belong to basic education will not be discussed for the time being.

The wool always comes from the sheep. The country has so many resources, but things still need to be done. At this time, the "rich" have to work hard.

In addition, the number of new students at the Royal Women's College is also more than in previous years. This is a good sign. First, it proves that people have realized that the importance of education has changed. Second, Austrians are getting richer and richer, and a strong country and a rich people are also good things.

At this time, Austria's economy is much stronger than in history, so the steps can be taken a little bigger. However, the areas for basic education are still Netalenia and Chenla, and education in Africa and Transleithania should be temporarily shelved.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as the royal estates in Hungary, and the royal territories such as Vojvodina and Belgrade, which should still start basic education as soon as possible.

In addition, several of Austria's most prosperous cities have carried out German (Austrian) adult education, which is mainly for the convenience of immigrants and migrant workers.

At the same time, Flemish refugees willing to migrate to Austria have greatly promoted Austria's overseas colonial cause.

Although most of them were born as farmers or fishermen, they were much more adventurous than the Austrians who lived in the inland.

They were particularly interested in becoming farmers in Africa and Central America. The people were willing and needed the support of relevant national policies.

Franz would naturally not miss this opportunity. He still had autonomy over Austria's overseas colonies. After all, Franz was the Minister of Colonies at that time, and he was also the largest shareholder and CEO of the Austrian Royal Overseas Development Company.

So an Austrian version of the Homestead Law was born. Of course, it was still a measure to benefit the people in name only. As long as you participate in overseas development, you can get shares. The more land and mines you develop, the more shares and dividends you will get.

Although this is a naked empty-handed trick in the eyes of capitalists, it is still very attractive to ordinary people, especially those from Flemish who grew up listening to the legend of the East India Company.

Because Austrian shipping is hot again, even the navy has set up a transportation company to take on some private goods to solve its own funding problems.

This is understandable, because the navy is too expensive, and the Austrian army is too large to allocate too much money to the navy.

Friedrich's family is rich, but the annual investment of tens of millions is really unbearable.

Moreover, the Austrian navy has no tradition of robbery, and of course there is no place to rob, otherwise it can slightly alleviate the current dilemma.

Another benefit of the navy in shipping is to prevent the shipping industry from overheating. Because capital is always blind, those businessmen can do anything to make money.

For example, hiring foreign ships, even selling orders to foreigners, or directly purchasing scrapped ships from abroad for shipping.

They are so casually attacking Austria's own shipbuilding industry, which is relatively backward and small in scale. If it is hit again, it will probably fall further and further behind other powers.

At the same time, those who want to make quick money don't care about safety at all. Overloading and illegal operations are almost inevitable.

And once their misdeeds are exposed, the Austrian shipbuilding and shipping industries will pay the price in the end.

This is a disguised aid to the enemy.