Chapter 629 Education
The Austrian businessmen’s plan is to bring students from East Africa to Austria to work as workers. This contrast is actually not surprising, just like many Filipino maids in previous generations had university degrees, plus the promotion of East Africa itself Although they have compulsory education at the middle school level, it is difficult for the local people to absorb it, and many people still have to engage in agriculture, so becoming an industrial worker in Austria is also a good choice.
Middle school students like those in East Africa who have academic qualifications, certain cultural literacy, and most importantly speak German can become high-quality industrial workers with a little training, and the price will definitely be lower than that of talents with the same level of education in Austria. , cost-effective, so it makes sense.
“Mayor Kranis, I would like to ask, have all your cities in East Africa, like Mogadishu, implemented universal compulsory education in such cities?” Austrian businessman Teller is still not convinced. It is believed that East Africa has the ability to universalize the compulsory education system at the secondary level across the country.
No matter how small the city is, Mogadishu is also the capital of a province in East Africa, so its status is very different from other cities, so it is not surprising that there is a middle school.
Mogadishu's urban population is less than 10,000. It is indeed a small city, so one middle school is enough.
As for the first baby boom in eastern East Africa about ten years ago, in four or five years, this new generation should be almost at the age of middle school. By then, the number of middle school students in East Africa will usher in a qualitative increase. leap.
The city of Mogadishu will not be affected, because East Africa annexed and developed the Northern Province much later than the east, especially in the inland and southern areas, even later than Mogadishu. some time.
But even so, there are a lot of middle school students in East Africa. There are now more than 1.7 million people (approximately 12 to 17 years old), which is larger than the population of some small countries. Every year The number of graduates is around 300,000.
East Africa mainly attracts middle school students from several aspects. First, to continue their studies. Several local universities cannot recruit many people. The number of local college students in school has not exceeded 10,000, with only more than 3,000. They go to one school. The enrollment for each grade is only about a hundred, and the entire school only has a few hundred students. In addition, there are 4,000 international students every year, and the total number is only more than 7,000.
This number is not small. You must know that when Germany was unified in 1871, the number of higher education students in the country was only more than 13,000. By 1880, the number of college students in Germany had only grown to more than 20,000. East Africa can save so much wealth. It has been quite difficult.
This is because East Africa is a German country. Otherwise, even if you want to send international students, there is no way. Monarchy countries such as Germany, Austria, Sweden, etc. are all important destinations for East African students.
For example, Japan can only send thousands of international students to Europe and the United States every year, and the price is not cheap. However, East Africa has cooperation with international students from several friendly countries, which saves costs greatly and provides more places.
The second is the army, with the navy being the bulk. Among them, the navy and army academies, namely the Hechingen Military Academy and the Ferdinand Naval Academy, occupy a certain share and belong to the military system.
The third is factories. Factories absorb some of them, but in areas like Mogadishu where there is no industry, there is no relevant demand. Generally, most jobs can be completed with low or even no academic qualifications. Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Mbeya and other industrial cities have much higher levels of absorption.
Kranis didn't think much about it, and just said in response to Teller's question: "This is natural. The popularization of compulsory education in East Africa is very strong, and it is relatively early. Although it is not as compared to the developed areas of your Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is still better. Those backward areas are much better. Basically every East African city has universalized compulsory primary and secondary education.”
Compulsory education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is more mature than that in East Africa only in Austria, the Czech Republic, and other regions. As for Hungary. A little bit worse, the popularity of other economically backward regions cannot be compared with East Africa.
“How many cities in East Africa have universal compulsory education at the middle school level?”
“Of course it is all, maybe some remote areas, or our undeveloped areas, which have not yet been universalized. Compulsory education, but there is definitely no problem in many older cities. Every city will build a school immediately, so every city in East Africa has a middle school." Kranis didn't know how to explain East African administration to Teller. The difference between cities and European cities is because East African cities, like the previous Far Eastern Empire, also manage a large number of areas, including towns and villages, while European cities and villages are very clearly distinguished.
Because of this, Kranis doesn’t know how many cities there are in East Africa, but according to European standards, the number must be no less than fifty. After all, there are more than twenty provincial capital cities alone. Some provinces are well developed and have a large number of cities. There will be more, such as the Central Province, which has six cities.
And the administrative divisions of East Africa change frequently. Take the Plateau Province as an example. The Plateau Province includes the original Plateau Province, Kilimanjaro Province, Southern Great Lakes Province, (old) Hohenzollern Province, and the Great Lakes Province. The Prairie District of the district era. So now there are five cities in Plateau Province that have served as provincial capitals or regional capitals.
However, administrative divisions change frequently, which also shows that the self-regulation ability of East African countries is currently in a healthy state. After all, East Africa is a new country, and its territory is constantly expanding, so the original administrative divisions will not keep up with the development of the times.
What Teller wanted to ask was not this, but the specific number of cities in East Africa. He could estimate the number of middle school students in East Africa, but he subconsciously ignored the existence of rural middle schools in East Africa.
Although I visited the No. 1 Middle School in Mogadishu, Mogadishu is a provincial capital and an ancient city, so the existence of a middle school does not surprise the Austrians.
However, Teller didn't quite believe Kranis' previous statement about universalizing compulsory middle school education across the country, even after visiting Mogadishu City's No. 1 Middle School.
This is the prejudice of Europeans. Although East Africa calls itself a German country, this will not affect the stereotype of East Africa by traditional German countries such as Germany and Austria. That is, East Africa is a colony, even though it is now a large area. It's nothing more than a larger colony.
After all, top powers like the Austro-Hungarian Empire have not completely popularized compulsory education at the primary school level. How can a colony in East Africa further promote compulsory education at the middle school level throughout East Africa.
This point actually makes sense. Whether East Africa can be regarded as promoting compulsory education at the middle school level needs to be verified. At least according to European standards, middle schools in East Africa can only be regarded as semi-finished products. The expenditure on compulsory education at the middle school level in East Africa It is not much more than compulsory education at the primary school level. It is nothing more than preparing textbooks for another five years and doubling the number of teachers.
If Kranis knew about Teller's psychological activities, he would definitely have to refute it. Economically, East Africa was naturally not as good as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but politically the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not necessarily any better than East Africa.
Compulsory education, for example, does not entirely consider economic issues. It is also a political project that tests the national government's ability to allocate resources. In this regard, East Africa is much better than the noisy Austro-Hungarian Empire in the country.
It is conceivable that if East Africa and the Austro-Hungarian Empire carry out national mobilization at the same time, East Africa will completely defeat the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, both in terms of efficiency and scale, because the populations of the two countries are now at the same level.
East Africa also pays attention to standardization, including public infrastructure such as telegraphs, railways, and roads. In contrast, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there are various railway gauges, and various telegraph companies also work on their own. That is to say, the territory of East Africa is too It may be a drag on the operating mechanism of East Africa in this regard.
But on the other hand, the land area gives East Africa a great sense of security, and it can effectively use space in exchange for time. Tsarist Russia must be deeply aware of this, that is, the construction of highways and railways between the two countries is better than other countries. It is more difficult for the country, after all, the amount of work is larger.
(End of this chapter)