Chapter 269: The Women's College of Arts and Sciences

Dong Weiwei felt it was her turn to speak. After some calculation, she said, “After the school is restructured, the training of life secretaries can be simplified by setting up a training class under the General Office within the school. Only when an Elder submits an application will a person they have already selected be accepted for training, or we can gather ten for a training session. This can significantly save on expenses.”

“The remaining resources of the maid school can be distributed to the newly established classes mentioned above, expanding the enrollment. After all, the female personnel trained in these new classes are very necessary. If they are elite naturalized citizens, they can of course try to pursue one or two of these women, but it would be a two-way choice, not like the Elders who can have whomever they want. Plus, there would be no need for General Office training.”

At this point, someone else proposed a new plan: “My view is to maintain the complete structure of the maid school. The length of schooling can be longer, three or four years, or even five or six, but the main extension should be the so-called internship period. After centralized, full-time training, students would be sent as a unit to intern in the relevant departments, based on the General Office’s statistics on the proportion of departmental Elders purchasing maids and the applications submitted for additional maids. A longer internship period with the Elders would help them better observe details like character.”

“If an Elder takes a liking to one during the internship, they follow the standard maid purchase procedure. Those not chosen wait for the internship to end and return to the school to await the next internship assignment.”

“If after six rotations, about two years, no Elder has purchased them, they enter the regular job allocation process for naturalized citizens.”

Yang Yun sneered, “Maids are the Elders’ sex slaves. What they need is strict discipline from their masters, not some other nonsense. If an Elder needs a clerk, they should naturally choose from Fangcaodi graduates. Using these potential bedmates is just asking for trouble. If she makes a mistake, do you punish her or not? If you don’t, what will others think? Putting these women into the management team for ‘internships,’ I see the result not as them shifting their focus from currying favor to work, but as corrupting the atmosphere of the agency, making a bunch of female cadres shift their focus from work to showing off and seducing Elders.”

The atmosphere in the conference room became awkward again.

This once again touched upon the thorny issues of the maids’ status and their relationship with the Elders.

At this moment, Hu Qingbai broke the silence in the room.

“Regarding this matter, the education department has a plan. Please take a look,” Hu Qingbai said, taking a document from his folder and distributing it.

“This is just a draft. I will collect it after you’ve finished reading. Please do not take it with you,” he reminded them.

Hu Qingbai had long had a draft plan for reforming the maid school. As early as a few months ago, when Xiao Zishan issued the “top secret” investigation into the situation of maids and maid students to the relevant ministries and commissions, Hu Qingbai had already realized the Executive Committee’s intentions.

He did not approve of abolishing the maid school—and his reasons were not as simple as the Elder teachers having to teach while holding back their urges. If the school were directly abolished and merged into Fangcaodi, a large group of maid students with ambitions as high as the sky, who had prepared to be the chiefs’ concubines but failed, would suddenly flood into Fangcaodi, instantly ruining the good learning atmosphere that he and his colleagues had painstakingly built. Zhang Zhixiang had already complained multiple times that some of the transferred students were “emotionally volatile,” “ideologically complex,” and “had a very bad influence.”

The number of transferees was still small now, and it didn’t take much effort to get them back on a “normal student track.” But if the school were abolished outright, hundreds of them would instantly arrive at Fangcaodi. The education department simply didn’t have enough energy to spare. Moreover, the influx of former maid students into Fangcaodi—where management was far less closed off than at the maid school—would inevitably cause some Elders to come “seeking fragrance” based on their reputation.

After careful consideration, Hu Qingbai felt it was more appropriate to establish a separate women’s vocational school. Not all graduates of the primary and high schools could advance to higher education. Apart from some who would directly enter the workforce, most would need vocational training. Currently, Fangcaodi had too many and too varied vocational training tasks. A women’s college could divert some of them. The vacated spots could then be used to further expand basic education, namely primary school students.

After a comprehensive consideration of the existing buildings, facilities, equipment, and faculty of both Fangcaodi and the maid school, he drafted a restructuring plan.

“My plan is this: The name ‘Maid School’ will no longer be kept. It will be changed to the Lingao Women’s College of Arts and Sciences or a similar name…,”

After the restructuring, the target students would be females who have completed primary education or have an equivalent level of education, with no age limit. The school would offer courses mainly in four professional directions: Administrative Management, Health and Nursing, Simple Normal School (Teacher Training), and Arts.

“Wait, Arts? Isn’t that a bit early?” Sun Xiao had always been uninterested in such “non-productive” things.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter whether we open it or not,” Hu Qingbai said. “But the maid school currently has existing cultural and sports facilities like dance and deportment classrooms, as well as relevant faculty. It would be a pity not to use them. Besides, the Culture Department also has a need.”

Sun Xiao said no more. The matter of an arts direction had been applied for multiple times by the Propaganda Department to the Planning Office to establish a professional arts troupe, but it had always been shelved. It seemed their lobbying was quite intense.

“These four directions can utilize the existing facilities and faculty of the maid school. For any shortage of faculty, we can transfer them from Fangcaodi or set up temporary training classes.”

“The existing maid students will be streamed after a unified examination, based on their results and preferences, to Fangcaodi and the Women’s College. At the same time, some similar classes already at Fangcaodi will be transferred to the Women’s College. Of course, this means the Women’s College will have to be expanded to meet the needs of vocational education.”

According to Hu Qingbai’s plan, apart from the arts direction with its uncertain prospects, the administrative management direction would offer five majors: administrative management, secretarial studies, personnel, accounting, and propaganda. The nursing and healthcare direction would offer three majors: nursing, pharmacy, and healthcare. The simple normal school would offer three majors: early childhood education, and primary education management.

“…All these majors are for normal training, just like the regular teaching at Fangcaodi. There’s no need for any screening with the purpose of becoming a maid, let alone mentioning things like ‘life secretary candidate.’ The students will study according to the normal professional curriculum. Considering they might be chosen by Elders to be life secretaries, we can add deportment and home economics to the curriculum. These classes won’t require many hours and won’t take up too many resources. If the Elders have a need, they can observe the various classes in the school, select one, and then train them in life secretary skills. This way, the students will all have their own professional skills and can find normal employment even if they are not chosen by an Elder. The Elders can also choose according to their needs, and the process might not be any more troublesome than going to the General Office’s maid school to select a life secretary in the past.”

When students enrolled, they would no longer undergo complex health checks, background checks for three generations, or ideological assessments. They would be reviewed according to the standard for general Fangcaodi students. Only after being selected by an Elder would a detailed screening be conducted. After the students have been in school for a long time, any problems, whether physical or ideological, would have already been exposed in their daily lives. Once the political review is passed, and the individual’s consent is obtained, they would undergo some targeted education: home economics, secretarial skills, deportment, and special needs, etc.

“This education doesn’t need much time. Intensive cramming education, a crash course of three to six months, will suffice. During the training period, they will also receive preferential treatment in their meals—”

“Yes, that can save a lot on food expenses!” Sun Xiao interjected. “The food and clothing standards at the current maid school are too high!”

“Personally, I believe that besides effectively utilizing resources and saving expenses, the biggest benefit of doing this is to eliminate the mentality among the students of always being ready to become an Elder’s concubine. It allows them to realize that their employment prospects and life paths are broader than just being a life secretary, which is conducive to ideological transformation. This way, these students will be closer in their thinking to ordinary Fangcaodi female students, or ‘modern people,’ rather than having their heads full of feudal remnants like being a common-law maid fighting with the main wife…” Seeing the approving expressions on everyone’s faces, Hu Qingbai felt increasingly pleased. “In fact, even if they are not selected by an Elder during their time at school, as long as they are not married after employment, Elders can still court them through ‘free love.’ Of course, whether they succeed depends on the Elder’s own emotional intelligence. If higher-level naturalized citizens have a need, they can also pursue them in their work and life. After all, marriage is free. We can organize some social events to solve the marriage problems of the elite naturalized citizens.”

“What about the European female slaves?” Xiao Zishan reminded him.

“The Western women can be considered specialized sex slaves, so we can just operate under the old model,” Hu Qingbai said. “After conditioning and purification, they can be sold directly to the Elders, who can train them however they want… If they are willing to hand them over to the Women’s College for cultural and professional course training, we can also accept them.”

Xiao Zishan thought, This is effectively abolishing the school. But that was fine too. He had always felt that keeping the maid school under the General Office was a potential source of trouble. If this root of trouble could be eliminated now, it might not be a bad thing. As for the Elders’ welfare, having more female students to choose from would be a satisfactory explanation. Besides, there was the supplementary resource of the Western women; he figured the Elders’ bodies couldn’t handle too much “felling” anyway.

“I think Comrade Qingbai’s plan is good. Does anyone have any objections?” Xiao Zishan saw that no one else was speaking and felt it was about settled. He waited a moment, and after confirming that no one wanted to add anything, he said to Hu Qingbai, “Comrade Qingbai, please organize and refine this plan, and have it formally printed. We will submit it to the Executive Committee and the Standing Committee for small-scale discussion in the next few days.”