Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 312 Five-Year Compulsory Education

After a heavy snowfall that lasted for three days, the entire frontier territory was covered with a thick layer of snow.

Clear ice crystal prisms condensed on the eaves, making crisp breaking sounds as the cold wind occasionally blew past.

The freezing cold weather outside does not affect the children who are concentrating on their studies in the classroom. Harvey required the Territory Public School to install warm water copper pipes since its construction. He cannot bear to let these future "seedlings and flowers" of the territory shiver in the cold wind while learning and growing.

"Teacher Sophia! Why don't we use the same word to describe "sun" and "sunshine"? Instead, why do we use two different words to describe them?"

"Teacher Sophia! Don't [flowers] and [buds] both refer to flowers growing in the garden? What's the difference between them?"

"Teacher Sophia..."

Sophia, a former tutor to aristocrats, stood at the podium, closing her textbook with a hint of resignation. Maintaining a gentle smile, she patiently explained, "Of course they're different. The words you mentioned, while similar in meaning, don't refer to the same thing... The sun emits warm sunlight, and flowers develop buds before blooming..."

Although the Wastelanders and the Southerners belong to the same human ethnic group, over the thousands of years, due to the differences in their living areas and surrounding environments, their language systems have gradually become quite different - at least in terms of accents and some commonly used vocabulary, there are many differences.

Sophia discovered that the older the local wilderness people were, the more different their words and accents were. Sometimes they spoke so fast that she could hardly hear them. She could only understand the general meaning, but it was not completely unclear what they were talking about.

In this regard, she had to admire the lord's foresight in education - starting from the childhood, letting these children who have lived in the new territory since childhood learn and use the same language and writing system, so that they can integrate into the whole more quickly and no longer have prejudices and discriminations between regions.

At least it's not like it is now, where most of the local wastelanders and the new immigrants from the south who have gradually migrated in always look down on each other, and there are subtle contradictions over some trivial aspects of living habits and concepts.

In the primary education outline written by the Lord himself, the concept of "New Northerners" is repeatedly mentioned at the beginning. It is an attempt to instill in this new generation of children a basic concept of unity and solidarity regardless of regional origin.

Sophia is currently still in the internship stage as a trainee teacher. Although there is a severe shortage of teaching positions in public schools, her superiors have only assigned her a small amount of teaching tasks in Chinese and grammar subjects in primary education. At present, she is only responsible for teaching the children in three classes, and the enlightenment courses of literacy, reading, writing and grammar interpretation.

The salary was not less, but the work was indeed several times easier - compared to Mr. Colen who taught mathematics next door, at least she did not have to stay up late to recite and understand the "Multiplication Table" compiled by the lord. As a formal teacher, she needed to study new knowledge on her own before she could pass it on to the students she was responsible for.

I heard that Mr. Colen also teaches at an adult night literacy school. His daily teaching schedule is almost full. He is old and his legs and feet are not very nimble, so it is really hard work.

"Well, my dear children, that's all for today's grammar lesson..."

"Teacher Sophia?" A colleague from the junior teaching department poked his head into the classroom and called out to Sophia, who was about to pack up and leave. "When the city hall just sent the message, you were still in class and didn't receive it. Please stay in school for a while after class..."

"What's wrong?" Sophia asked doubtfully.

The colleague put away his smile and whispered solemnly, "The Lord and the Dean of the Academy, Mr. Asdaren, will come to the school for an inspection at 5:00 PM. The heads of the three teaching departments, junior high, middle school, and high school, are on high alert and have asked all teachers to stay and listen to the Lord's instructions."

……

Just as the fifth afternoon bell rang, Lord Harvey and Chief Advisor Asdalen appeared in the auditorium of the Pioneer Territory Public School. Looking at the dozens of teachers from various departments seated solemnly, they stated directly, "Before the end of winter, I require that the public school's elementary and secondary departments expand enrollment to include the children of the newly arrived southern immigrants."

Asdalen slowly flipped through his work manual and reported clearly and rationally, "Sir, with the current size of the school's teaching staff, I'm afraid we won't be able to meet the requirements in the short term... A territory with a population of 20,000, and nearly 3,000 children eligible for admission. The primary education department's current maximum teaching capacity can only accommodate 50% of them..."

The population statistics work of the two alchemical beings, Reiner and Asdalen, are very accurate, with the error generally not exceeding double digits. In the pioneering territory with a population of 20,000, in addition to teenagers who are 16 years old and can participate in labor and work, there are indeed more than 3,000 children aged 8 to 16 who are eligible for education.

However, the only public school in the territory currently has less than fifty teachers in all teaching departments. The teachers responsible for literacy and reading enlightenment education in the primary teaching department alone account for more than half of them. They can only barely open twenty enlightenment classes, which are responsible for less than a thousand children enrolled in school.

The head of the elementary education department also whispered bluntly, "My Lord, there are simply too many children. School is free, and the school also provides a hearty, nutritious lunch. Almost all families with adults in formal jobs are happy to send their children to school... The existing teachers simply can't handle it all, and there aren't enough classrooms, unless..."

"Unless the Ministry of Education triples its staff and doubles the number of public schools..." Asdalen answered meticulously.

Harvey scratched his head in annoyance. Where could he find more staff for the Ministry of Education? In this ignorant and dark world shrouded in religious beliefs and supernatural magic, and ruled by feudal aristocrats, the per capita education and literacy rate was a pitiful less than one percent.

In order to set up an education department and carry out modern universal education, he almost scoured the entire pioneering territory to gather this group of "feudal intellectuals" who could master basic literacy, grammar and arithmetic. For this purpose, he even lowered the recruitment requirements for teachers, and even recruited retired stonemasons who could carve words on stone tablets as teachers.

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then said decisively, "Change the existing teaching model. I have a way to solve the problem of insufficient teachers... Let these children learn on their own as much as possible!"

"Self-taught?"

"How can this be?"

"Great, self-study! Elementary education has an open class every day, teaching the most basic literacy. Textbooks printed by the Ministry of Education are distributed uniformly so that they can practice on their own. There's no need for junior teachers to constantly monitor them, and there's no mandatory requirement like assessments or tests."

Asdalen was stunned for a moment, then argued, "The teaching effect would probably be very poor if we do that. It's like a nighttime adult literacy class. Without anyone to supervise, it's all up to the children to learn on their own. If only one out of ten children can learn it, we'd be lucky."

Harvey chuckled and said calmly, "It doesn't matter. Every one counts. It's better than the current situation where we limit the number of admissions due to staff shortages and turn away more than half of the illiterate children. Free education at least gives them a chance."

The parents of these children are adults who work and live in the territory. They understand better than anyone that in order to get a high-paying job, they must reach a certain level of education. These people who have satisfied their basic needs will naturally not sit idly by and watch their offspring do the same low-paying jobs.

"Starting today, the Ministry of Education will re-enact the education system according to my plan..." Harvey clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "From now on, public schools will only offer five years of free education. The first three years will be elementary education. After passing the test and assessment, students will move on to secondary vocational and technical education in the fourth year... After two years, they will graduate and be able to join various production departments."

"After completing their intermediate vocational education, a small number of outstanding students will be admitted to the advanced teaching department. These young people will serve as reserve talent for future territory administration."

"My Lord...the Spellcaster Academy..." Durt Holden, the dean of the Spellcaster Academy affiliated with the Ministry of Education, asked in a low voice.

Harvey glanced at the young dean and said with a smile, "I have some additional arrangements for you. I'll talk to you privately later."

(End of this chapter)