Chapter 67 Education II

"In addition, there are some children living on the islands of the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Due to inconvenient transportation, these places are difficult to cover in the early promotion of compulsory education," Ikios said regretfully.

As a Greek cultural elite, every time I think of ancient Greece, the world-famous ancient Greek culture has been lost in the long history, and I feel infinite regret in my heart.

As the current president of the University of Athens, Ikios has a strong sense of mission in his heart to restore the glory of the University of Athens.

In the Greek city-state era two thousand years ago, Athens' educational thought was already quite advanced, and even in later generations, it is still not outdated.

In the city-state era, Athens' education not only attached importance to military training, but also attached more importance to the coordinated development of body and mind, that is, the comprehensive development of body, intelligence, morality and beauty.

It is precisely this advanced education that has enabled Greece to breed cultural celebrities as numerous as stars.

For example, philosophers and thinkers of world civilization such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates.

Even after being conquered by the ancient Roman Empire, Greek culture still has an important position in the Mediterranean, and the upper class elites of Rome are still keen to go to Greece to study.

Just like the Jixia Academy of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Until later, the Roman emperor ordered the closure of the Academy of Athens, and the light of wisdom that once illuminated the entire Mediterranean dimmed and extinguished.

After receiving Constantine's invitation to serve as the executive director of the Education Foundation, Ichios immediately engaged in the sacred education cause with full enthusiasm. The great mission of restoring Athens' former position in the intellectual world called him all the time in his heart.

"In the preliminary plan of the committee, the courses for children in the compulsory education stage mainly include Greek, mathematics, geometry, physical education, history, geography, music and other subjects." Ichios reported the preliminary plan of the foundation to Constantine.

Constantine and Coledis had no objection to the setting of subjects.

"According to estimates, there are more than 100,000 children of school age in Greece, and all of them need to receive compulsory education. However, the funds of 100,000 pounds are far from the amount required for compulsory education," Coledis said immediately.

"Britain established its own compulsory education system in 1880 and France in 1882, following Germany's example. Compared with these Western European powers, Greece has fallen behind in time. Your Highness, it is crucial for Greece to vigorously develop education, which is related to the revival of the entire Greek nation. Do you think this fund can be increased?" Ikios looked at Constantine eagerly and said.

Hearing this, Constantine laughed dumbly.

It seems that these two people dislike the fact that the money invested in education is too little, and they think Constantine is not working hard enough in developing education.

Banning allocated a total of 150,000 pounds, of which 50,000 is the return on the royal family's investment over the years. Compared with the royal family's investment of more than 10 million francs, it is unknown when it can be recovered.

One hundred thousand of them have been handed over to the foundation.

The two of them sang a double act together and also set their sights on the remaining money.

"The prosperity of a country does not depend on the wealth of its treasury, nor on the splendor of its public facilities, nor on the extravagance of its rulers; it depends on the civilization of its citizens, that is, on the education of the people, the foresight and character of the people. This is the real interest and the real power," Ichios continued.

"Duke, Greece must not slack off in education. The government itself owes a huge foreign debt, and we can't count on it. Duke, the royal family must strongly support our foundation," Coledis also took the opportunity to say.

"It's not impossible to give you the other 50,000 pounds, but, Ichios, you have to agree to one condition of mine"

Constantine looked serious and examined Ichios.

"What condition?" Ichios couldn't help but feel surprised when he heard Constantine mention the condition.

"I want Greek universities to increase the number of teachers in science and engineering and increase the number of science and engineering talents," Constantine said to Ichios.

The University of Athens is the first university in the entire Balkan region, but the vast majority of students in the university are liberal arts students, such as economics, politics, history, law, literature and other subjects.

Not only are there very few majors in science, but the number of students enrolled is also very small.

College students of this era are almost all from wealthy families with relatively wealthy family conditions.

Students from such families are influenced by various aspects and prefer to choose liberal arts majors.

For example, families with political backgrounds or wealthy families engaged in business.

In addition, there are objective reasons for this situation.

Due to the underdeveloped industry in Greece, even students who have studied science and engineering may not find a place to use their skills.

Since Constantine has specially established a foundation to help develop education, it is naturally impossible for him to turn a blind eye to this situation.

"The Royal Education Foundation must allocate funds to support a group of talented science and engineering students to study chemistry, physics, mathematics, metallurgy, mechanics, mathematics and other science and engineering majors," Constantine said.

"The source of these students does not have to be limited to Greece. If you can do it, your foundation can completely select talented students from all over the world to study at your University of Athens."

Hearing Constantine's request, the two couldn't help but be a little stunned.

In less than a moment, Ikios came to his senses and connected Constantine's request with his dream of reviving the influence of Athenian culture.

For students studying liberal arts, academic performance and whether they can achieve a career cannot be said to be completely unrelated, but the correlation is indeed not great.

In contrast, for a science and engineering student, the connection between academic performance and career is undoubtedly closer.

Science and engineering pay more attention to the students' own talents, and Greece has a population of just over a million. Even if the geniuses among these people are screened by the foundation, how many can there be?

Therefore, it is very necessary to recruit talents from all over the world.

"Of course, this is a long-term task, that is to say, the responsibility of your Royal Education Foundation is not only to promote the development of education in Greece, but also to focus on overseas and subsidize some talented science and engineering talents from abroad," Constantine said seriously.

Originally, the two just wanted to get another 50,000 pounds from Constantine so that more children could go to school.

But they didn't expect that the conditions proposed by Constantine made them dumbfounded.

"But Your Highness, even if these students are trained, how do you plan to place them? Greece doesn't have so many positions for them," Kolodis asked in confusion.