Chapter 117 - The Great Education Debate

Lu Jia didn’t know all the characters either, or rather, he didn’t know them all. He was currently at a semi-literate level, but he had already memorized them in class. So he pretended to be able to read and pointed at the regulations with his finger, “reading” them to him line by line.

Halfway through his “reading,” the sound of a cloud gong came from outside. The children cheered: it’s time to eat! Seeing their joyful expressions, it was clear that the food here was good.

There was no cafeteria here. Everyone took their bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen to queue for their meals. Each person received a portion and took it back to the dormitory to eat. Fu Wuben was surprised to see that they were having dry rice! There was also a small steamed fish, boiled vegetables, and some scrambled eggs with fishmeal. He couldn’t help but feel a little excited. He couldn’t even eat this kind of food during the busy farming season.

“Three meals a day: one dry, two thin. The food is very good!”

When it was Fu Wuben’s turn to get his meal, the person serving the food said, “Newcomer? Let me see your tag.”

After looking at the bamboo tag around his neck, the cook asked:

“Have you had diarrhea?”

“Yes, yes.” Fu Wuben wondered why they would ask this question when serving food.

“Drink this.” So he drank the bitter medicinal water he had drunk during the “purification” again.

After the cook saw him finish drinking, he gave him an extra piece of fish cake.

“You can have the recuperation meal for ten days!” he said, writing a few symbols on a wooden board with chalk.

“You still get to eat the recuperation meal,” Yuan Fei said with some envy. This kind of treatment was usually only enjoyed by those who were sick.

“I was sick,” Fu Wuben said, his heart warming and tears almost welling up. For the first time in eleven years, he felt like he was living like a human being. Someone genuinely cared about him as a person, not just as another mouth to feed or a semi-able-bodied worker.

Xiao Zishan got up particularly early that day. He had not attended the welcome banquet for the returning island circumnavigation expedition team yesterday—it was said that the atmosphere at the banquet was so lively that four people’s commissioners were carried out from under the table afterwards. The Leizhou Sugar Company had sent a large amount of rum fermented from molasses from Xuwen, and this stuff immediately flowed like water at the banquet.

He walked out of his office-cum-dormitory—most department heads preferred to live in their offices rather than the dormitories. In fact, living in the office was not necessarily more comfortable, especially since he had to walk further to take a shower every day. But it could show a different status.

The occupancy rate of the dormitories was getting lower and lower. He remembered that yesterday he had seen a “not returning at night” list from the dormitory administrator, Fang Yijing. Not counting those who occasionally stayed out, the number of people who did not live in the dormitories for a long time had exceeded thirty percent. Some people were migratory birds, staying in the dormitories for a few days and outside for a few days.

Those who didn’t live in the dormitories naturally had their own places to go. Most of the administrative cadres of the Executive Committee lived in their offices. The officers in the army basically lived in the barracks and only returned to the dormitories on weekends. Needless to say, the people from the farm were even more reluctant to leave their cozy little nests. Even many people under the Industrial and Energy Committee lived in the factories—as everyone’s professional direction gradually became clear, it seemed that everyone was more willing to rest near their workplace rather than return to the collective dormitories.

This phenomenon seemed to indicate that everyone was very motivated, but Xiao Zishan knew that if this continued, the call for housing allocation would soon come.

Phenomenon one: The number of emails requesting the fulfillment of the promise of a life secretary had increased significantly, and there were also many discussions on this topic on the BBS.

Phenomenon two: The trend of applying to take on “apprentices,” “adopted sons,” and “adopted daughters” had already appeared. Although the Executive Committee had not yet opened up “heterosexual adoption” except for a few special cases, otherwise there would probably be many people raising lolis now.

However, the transmigrators were now beginning to disperse. If they encountered a major incident, it would be a big problem to gather people. Xiao Zishan wondered whether to raise this issue at the expanded meeting of the Executive Committee. He rode a Model 28 heavy-duty agricultural bicycle—he was going to the site of the new school today—one of the key projects of the transmigrator group, the National School, was about to be completed.

Since the transmigrators began to take in orphans in Guangdong, they had made cultivating the next generation of successors from the natives a top priority. The currently adult population, regardless of age group, was already tainted with the various habits, ways of thinking, and lifestyles of this time and space. No matter how much indoctrination and brainwashing was done, there would always be remnants. The best way was to start with the children and cultivate a new generation of laborers, soldiers, and administrative cadres after ten or twenty years.

This educational vision would first benefit the so-called “system-internal” children of the transmigrator group. They had two sources: the children of the native employees working for the transmigrators, and the orphans taken in from the mainland and locally. The latter, in particular, were the key targets of their cultivation—they had clean backgrounds, no family connections to take care of or be influenced by, and they regarded the transmigrators who had saved them from a sea of suffering as their parents and gods.

In the past six months, the transmigrator group had already established several different systems of education. There were night schools promoted in the countryside; there was the rural cadre training institute run by Du Wen; there was the literacy education in the quarantine camps; there was the so-called military and political school run by the administrative and military systems; there was the health school run by the Ministry of Health; the National School for orphans, and finally, there was the vocational education “Apprentice General Corps” run by the Industrial and Energy Committee.

Of these various educational models, except for the training institute which used a dilapidated local temple for classes, almost none had a formal classroom. The children generally received their education in the open air. On rainy days, they did their homework and recited their lessons in their dormitories. The poor teaching conditions meant that all education so far could only be considered literacy and training. This was not a long-term solution.

Because there were too many names and it involved multi-headed management, and Zhou Dongtian was at a loss as to how to print the textbooks—it seemed that everyone was preparing to create their own set of textbooks. The Executive Committee decided to unify and reorganize all educational models in order to concentrate resources.

On the issue of how to establish the education system, as usual, it was divided into multiple schools of debate. Dr. Zhong Lishi was the most interested in this topic and was the first to propose a plan. Of course, this plan was also the most “high-end.”

Education was divided into public and private schools. Private schools were run by individuals, and the government did not specify textbooks except for Mandarin and basic arithmetic, but it used administrative and economic means to encourage private school teachers to use standard textbooks. Public school was free (taxes were still collected as usual); those who attended private schools at their own expense would receive a discretionary tax reduction.

Children entered school at the age of seven and were divided into 5 years of primary school, 3 years of junior high school, and 2 years of senior high school. All children must receive ten years of compulsory education. Those with excellent grades could be admitted to universities. Public universities were free. Universities allowed non-enrolled students to audit classes for free. University graduates would be selected for government positions based on merit. The government would provide various free literacy training classes. Teachers must be role models and enjoy extremely high social honor.

…

Hu Qingbai, the People’s Commissioner for Education, immediately raised an objection: “Let’s talk about this system when we have established the ‘Republic of Hainan’ and can actually exercise power on Hainan Island. At this stage, we should focus on universal education and adult education.”

Everyone also felt that this system was too luxurious. Providing enough teachers in the short term was an unsolvable problem. Then, with the army and navy officers as the main force, another luxurious plan was proposed. They were not very concerned about the issue of basic education, but instead took the opportunity to talk at length about military education.

“Given the grim situation our transmigrator government is facing, education must be militarized!” Zhang Bolin did not shy away from using this word. “No matter what kind of education system is adopted, military training courses must be opened! At the same time, an army preparatory school and an army officer academy should be established…” Zhang Bolin was very enthusiastic. “In the future, we can also establish an army university!”

“The navy demands the same treatment,” Li Haiping said without yielding. What the army had, the navy naturally had to have as well.

“Red Brand Port Naval Officer Academy!”

“Red Brand Naval Academy!” The so-called naval officer academy was not even a shadow yet, but there were already different opinions within the navy on the name.

“Pah, you traitor. Are you going to sing the ‘Warship March’ too?”

“The copyright of the ‘Warship March’ belongs to this officer!”

“Then I wish ‘Your Excellency’ an early ‘honorable death’ for the transmigrator group.”

…

The military academies proposed by the army and navy immediately led to a trend of various departments demanding the establishment of their own exclusive schools. The Ministry of Health wanted to establish a health school, Wu Nanhai wanted to establish an agricultural school, the exploration team wanted to establish a geology school… and so on, it was a lively scene.

“Alright!” Wen Desi interrupted everyone’s discussion. “This is not a discussion on the BBS, where you can say anything, the more magnificent the better. Everyone, be a little more realistic! Don’t just keep drawing big pies.”

“In my opinion, at present, we should focus on literacy classes and simple teacher training. We can also add a simple cadre training institute,” Ma Qianzhu said. “First, we don’t need to worry about the universal education in Lin’gao. That’s not our business. What we need to cultivate are the basic applied talents that the transmigrator group currently needs—soldiers who can write and do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within 100 are enough. At most, engineers and artillerymen should understand the four arithmetic operations and simple geometric applications. The requirements for ordinary workers will not be much higher than for soldiers. Administrative cadres should also know some abacus skills…”

“I object!” Dr. Zhong said. “The riveting workers in the shipyard alone need to know high school level solid geometry. How can workers from literacy classes learn technology?”

“Illiterate people can also be good workers. At most, they can take night classes to make up for the cultural lessons they need,” Ma Qianzhu said. “In the enterprise where my elders worked, there were many skilled industrial workers who were illiterate before liberation. After a little training in night school after liberation, they could reach a higher level.”

Dr. Zhong disagreed, “This is a low-level application of empiricism. It’s not a problem for now, but what about after industrial upgrading? Technology always has to move forward.”