Chapter 118 - The School System

“In my opinion, our goal is to revive as many technologies as possible that are useful to us in our lifetime, and to adapt them to the environment, rather than blindly restoring technology,” Ma Qianzhu said. “The different environment means that our technology will inevitably take a completely different path from that of another time and space…”

“The Viceroy’s steampunk obsession is at it again,” someone whispered from below.

Steam-powered gear computers, high-speed double-decker steam trains, and floating battleship airships. These were the three “future technology” plans that the steampunk faction, led by Ma Qianzhu, was most enthusiastic about.

At this point, Hu Qingbai, the head of the Education Committee, stood up. “Based on everyone’s proposals,” he said, “my colleagues in the Ministry of Education and I have discussed it and believe that in terms of education, we can adhere to the principle of walking on two legs.”

The so-called “walking on two legs” meant pursuing both crash-course popular education and formal education. The former was to meet immediate needs, while the latter was to cultivate talent for future development.

This seemingly eclectic plan was comprehensive, feasible, and in line with their current material capabilities. In the end, it was accepted and confirmed by all: the transmigrator group would establish a mixed education system, with national education for children and crash-course education for adults.

First was the National School, the foundation of their national education. It was intended for the orphans they had taken in and the children of the natives who directly served the transmigrator group. It was compulsory. All children between the ages of eight and twelve had to enroll. For those over the age, they were allowed to participate in the adult crash-course literacy study and obtain a basic C-level diploma.

The National School was a complete school, divided into two stages: primary and secondary, with a total of nine years of education. Hu Qingbai, however, divided it into three stages: lower primary, upper primary, and secondary. A nursery school was also established for preschool children.

The two-year lower primary curriculum consisted of basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and civic education—including a simple general history of China, basic morality and social ethics, and simple natural science knowledge. Labor skills classes were set up to teach useful work skills, improve hands-on ability, and prepare for future work. Finally, a certain amount of physical education was included to strengthen their physique and to combat the traditional Chinese disregard for labor and hands-on practice from a young age.

Upon completion of this stage, a B-level diploma would be issued. Graduates could enter the army, vocational schools, or military and political schools, or directly join a department under the transmigrator group. The education department planned to make popularizing the B-level diploma its primary task in the coming years, including in the army, factories, and farms.

Children with the ability to continue their studies could be promoted to upper primary, which had a three-year system. After graduation, they would receive an A-level diploma.

Those with an A-level diploma could choose to continue to secondary school, vocational and technical schools, or military and political schools. Secondary school was for four years. According to the transmigrators’ plan, those who could study in secondary school would be cultivated as key targets. The curriculum was biased towards more theory and basic science, so that these children could eventually master the advanced science and technology, ideas, and culture brought by the transmigrators. In other words, students who could complete the nine-year national education and obtain a secondary school diploma would become the social elites and successors of the transmigrator group.

Adult crash-course education was the focus at this stage. Hu Qingbai, based on the requirements and opinions put forward by all parties, came up with a plan: all native soldiers and employees would undergo a one-month “purification” quarantine after being recruited.

During the quarantine period, they would have half a day of military training and labor, and half a day of cultural study. The military training was in the charge of the army, and the cultural education was conducted by people sent by the Ministry of Education. The educational content was Mandarin, five hundred basic Chinese characters, and basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A test would be conducted at the end. Those who passed the test would be issued a C-level diploma.

Those who failed the test could receive re-education in the department that received them—the army or the factory—and take a cultural proficiency test every six months. The re-education was arranged by each department itself, with assistance from the education department.

The C-level diploma was the most basic diploma under the transmigrator regime. It was almost impossible to get anywhere without it. Those without a C-level diploma could not be promoted to formal workers, first-class soldiers, could not enter vocational and technical schools, and certainly could not serve as grassroots cadres. In other words, without this diploma, one could only be a low-level laborer within the transmigrator group. No door to promotion would be open to him.

Originally, according to Hu Qingbai’s idea, those who failed the test would be kicked out, but with the current strong demand for labor and soldiers, doing so was too wasteful.

Those who obtained a C-level diploma could continue to participate in further adult training to improve their cultural level as long as they were interested and had time, but it was not compulsory. However, when a native was promoted to a certain level, the diploma would become a threshold—certain types of work, positions, military ranks, or training for a certain advanced vocational skill required a certain level of diploma. This was to stimulate everyone’s enthusiasm for learning through their ambition.

The education department would arrange a cultural proficiency test every six months, and anyone could participate.

Another part of adult education was vocational skills education. The current vocational education was quite well-organized. The apprentice general corps was very large. All the orphans taken in from the mainland who were judged to be unsuitable for cultural study were assigned to the apprentice general corps. The children of many native employees within the group also joined this corps.

Hu Qingbai planned to establish a vocational school on the basis of this general corps. This vocational school would follow the system and educational model of the original apprentice general corps. It would recruit from all natives who had obtained a diploma: whether it was an A, B, C, or secondary school diploma. Of course, the types of work that could be learned with different diplomas were also different. A polisher and a nurse only needed a C-level diploma, while a teacher and a medical assistant must be a B-level diploma holder or above, and a doctor must be a secondary school diploma holder.

The vocational school focused on cultivating jobs with higher technical content that required a longer period of training to be competent, including skilled workers, teachers, and medical personnel. It also cultivated talent for the future. According to the different types of work, the training time ranged from three months to three years. During this period, there was both cultural study and internship labor in various departments.

Finally, there was the military and political school. The original military and political school and the rural cadre training institute were merged and reorganized into the Lin’gao Military and Political Cadre School, which focused on cultivating native military and political cadres. The school was divided into three levels: A, B, and C. Class A recruited those with a secondary school diploma; Class B recruited those with an A-level diploma; Class C recruited those with a B-level diploma—limited to in-service employees and soldiers, who were recommended by the organization for admission.

This education system, which took into account both short-term practical skills and long-term subject cultivation, was relatively satisfactory to all parties, though some had slight criticisms about the transmigrator group returning to a model where diplomas were everything.

With the education system in place, the teaching infrastructure had to be built. The place Xiao Zishan was going to was the site of the new school. Many long dormitories had already been built here. This place was far from the industrial area, the environment was relatively good, and there were some miscellaneous woods. The terrain was high and there was a lot of sand and gravel, which was not very conducive to farming, but it was just right for a school. Now, the Lin’gao Construction General Company was carrying out large-scale construction on this piece of land, building a brand-new school.

Due to limited manpower and material resources, it was not possible to build three schools separately, so this piece of land was called the “Education Park” in the fashionable way of another time and space. The various teaching and living facilities inside could be shared. This education park was named “Fangcaodi Education Park.”

When Xiao Zishan arrived here, the teaching area of Fangcaodi was almost complete. Looking from the road from a distance, more than a dozen two-story red brick and wood buildings had already risen from the ground. Xiao Zishan felt that these buildings were very familiar—the primary and secondary schools he had attended in his youth had similar teaching buildings: long boxes with an open corridor on one side. A staircase was set up every two classrooms. A building could accommodate at least four to eight classes, and some even had twelve or sixteen classrooms.

Mei Wan, the People’s Commissioner for Education Hu Qingbai, and the clerk Bai Yu were waiting for him. Logically speaking, he, the director of the general office, was not responsible for education, and inspecting the school construction was even less his duty. But as the director of the general office, Xiao Zishan was responsible for solving the education problem of the next generation of the transmigrator group, so it was logical for him to inquire about the school construction.

The school still looked very shabby. Due to the lack of building materials, there were no walls, which was in line with the idea of “open education.” However, in this time and space, having no walls was quite dangerous. Mei Wan’s alternative plan was a dense bamboo fence. There was a lot of bamboo here, and it was easy to process.

“…At that time, we will plant some climbing Rosaceae plants along the bamboo fence. In a few years, neither people nor animals will be able to get close, and it will become a real natural ‘barbed wire fence’!” Mei Wan introduced.

The main gate was very imposing, using large stones specially quarried from the Bairen Quarry. It was a three-arch European-style building—according to Mei Wan, it was a copy of the main gate of Tsinghua University. However, two blockhouse-style buildings were incongruously added on both sides of the main gate. Four signs had already been hung at the entrance: “Lin’gao National School,” “Lin’gao Military and Political School,” and “Nanhai Vocational and Technical School.”

The last sign was “People’s Committee for Education.”

Xiao Zishan asked, “What’s this all about?”

“Oh, Wu Nanhai promised to allocate some extra food for the students from the farm’s surplus agricultural products. So this is a way of returning the favor,” Hu Qingbai quickly said. “Chief Wen has already agreed.”

Hearing that Chief Wen had already agreed, Xiao Zishan said nothing more. Seeing that the sign of the Education Committee was also hung here, he said, “The environment here is quite good. It’s a good place to work.”