Chapter 927: Big Spending on Higher Education
Why Galvestein singled out the central agricultural region and the Mozambique region for discussion, it certainly makes sense.
The biggest factor affecting agricultural distribution in East Africa is actually precipitation. Except for the Mesopotamia region (Somalia), among the nine major agricultural regions, precipitation is basically more than 400 millimeters, while Mozambique and the central agricultural region The precipitation is between 600 millimeters and 1,500 millimeters, and the climate above is a real tropical rainforest climate.
Generally speaking, the precipitation in tropical rainforest climates is more than 2,000 millimeters all year round. Of course, the Congo rainforest in East Africa is an exception, and its precipitation is generally around 1,500 millimeters to 2,000 millimeters. Under special circumstances, special areas may exceed 3,000 millimeters. For example, most areas of the Amazon rainforest are basically stable at above 2,000 millimeters.
Only when the rainfall exceeds 400 mm is suitable for the development of planting industry, and when the rainfall exceeds 800 mm, it is considered a humid area. Therefore, the annual rainfall in East Africa can reach more than 800 mm. Except for the tropical rainforest area, it is generally the same as East Africa. Population and economic distribution coincide.
The Katanga Plateau and the Great Lakes region are humid areas close to the tropical rainforest, which are most suitable for agricultural cultivation. Although the Mozambique region is far away from the tropical rainforest, it has relatively abundant precipitation due to factors such as topography.
Of course, among the nine major agricultural regions, there is also the Mesopotamia, a special place. Somalia’s ability to rank among the nine major agricultural regions depends entirely on its developed commercial agriculture, which is the closest to the Eurasian market and the quality of its agricultural products. Excellent products, cotton, and melons and fruits are the major exporters.
“Dividing the country into these nine major agricultural regions basically means that East Africa’s agricultural policy is tilted towards these regions. The focus is to vigorously promote mechanized farming models in these regions and coordinate them according to the agricultural characteristics of each region. Unified management. "
"Similarly, industrial supporting facilities such as chemical fertilizers, agricultural machinery, pesticides, and repair shops are mainly deployed in these areas to ensure our country's food security, improve production efficiency, reduce production costs, and promote our country's agriculture. Modernization development and promoting the progress of related technologies.”
This is a clear picture. The fundamental reason for promoting agricultural reform in East Africa is to promote the development of related industries, especially chemical industry, machinery manufacturing, automobiles, tractors, and petrochemicals. and other industries.
At the same time as agricultural reform, we should cultivate these emerging industries to take root in East Africa and develop and grow. After all, in these fields, although East Africa is not lagging behind the times for the time being, it will take a long time to stabilize its position and rely on the accumulation of time and policies.
Ernst: "Workers and peasants are not separated, especially in East Africa, a large agricultural country that is undergoing transformation. There is no doubt that East Africa is still a backward agricultural country and has become a country that has initially achieved industrialization. Becoming a world power is our goal in the next few decades.”
“Although we have made some achievements that cannot be ignored in the field of industrial development, we still have a long way to go compared to European and American countries. "
"For example, in many powerful countries in Europe and the United States, urbanization has exceeded 40%. In the United Kingdom, it has exceeded 70% and is close to 80%. Germany has also reached 5%. Around 10, the average level in Europe except Tsarist Russia is around 30%.”
“According to our data in the past two decades, the urbanization level in East Africa has increased from 100% in the early 1980s. By the early 1990s, it had dropped to about 17%, so the industrialization process in East Africa had a long way to go.”
The reason why East Africa's urbanization level is developing regressively is not because East Africa's industrial development is slow, but because East Africa's population is increasing too quickly, which slows down the progress of industrialization.
Of course, the previous achievement of 20% was also related to East Africa’s outstanding performance during the world economic crisis in the 1970s.
Furthermore, the total population of East Africa in the 1970s was far less than that in the 1990s, so the 17% in the 1990s represented an industrial volume that was far from comparable to the 20% in the 1980s. .
And the South African War was an important turning point. Before that, in addition to building its own economy, East Africa was also hindered by factors such as expanding its territory, focusing on developing military industry, developing the army, and ensuring national security. After the South African War, the focus of the East African government's work has been fully shifted to economic construction. In addition to overseas territorial expansion, East Africa's local territory has basically taken shape. With the end of the South African War, East Africa's external threats have been lifted.
Therefore, in the 1990s, the focus of East Africa's work was to catch up with developed countries such as Europe and the United States. Of course, it is a fantasy to catch up within ten years, but narrowing the gap between the two sides is Ernst's focus.
“By the end of this century, East Africa’s urbanization level should break through 20% again. At the same time, it will continue to exert efforts in various basic industrial fields and build a relatively complete industrial system. In emerging industries such as electricity and automobiles, The field will continue to maintain its dominant position in East Africa, and at the same time, it will become bigger and stronger in the petroleum, chemical and other industries, focusing on traditional industrial fields such as shipbuilding, steel, railways, and textile industries. . ”
“In the field of education, in the next three years, our country will build at least more than 100 institutions of higher learning according to administrative divisions, becoming a new world academic and educational center.”
Higher education. Education has always been a shortcoming in East Africa, but the conditions for building higher education in East Africa are now mature. First, after decades of development, East Africa has accumulated sufficient high-level talents.
Secondly, after the adjustment of administrative divisions, a number of new provincial capitals and cities will be born in East Africa, and educational resources will naturally be developed with the development of these new cities.
According to Ernst’s idea, each province must build at least three higher education institutions, with priority covering the fields of agriculture, industry, and medical care. At the same time, a number of higher normal colleges must be established for teacher training.
In this way, the forty-five provincial administrative regions in East Africa, plus several key cities, as well as the new capital of East Africa, Rhine City, will not be enough without the establishment of hundreds of new higher education institutions.
This is definitely a leapfrog development for higher education in East Africa. As of 1897, the total number of formal universities in East Africa, including colleges and universities, was only forty-three, and they were concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the country. Regions, of which there are twenty-six in the east alone, and below there are only technical schools with quasi-higher education level. The level of these technical schools is between technical colleges and East African practical high schools, and they are not considered regular higher education colleges.
However, these "pheasant" technical schools also play a big role in cultivating talents in East Africa, especially in cultivating basic technical workers. The most famous one is undoubtedly the Mbeya Electric Power Technical School.
From this point, we can also see the hard work of East Africa in the field of electric power. Among the universities in East Africa, the Electric Power University of East African Countries enjoys the most generous resources and the highest level. In addition to the University of Radio and Television, the construction of related institutions It is also the most complete, which is also an important reason why East Africa’s power industry ranks first in the world.
Not only are East Africa’s higher education resources scarce, they are also unevenly distributed. Of course, the uneven geographical distribution cannot be blamed on the East African government. After all, East Africa’s territorial expansion is too fast.
Ernst continued: "Of course, in addition to the additional universities established in accordance with administrative adjustments, the country has also built a number of departments based on key disciplines, covering electric power, petroleum, chemical industry, steel, textiles, automobiles, and shipbuilding. and other industrial fields, as well as medical, military, and theoretical fields. As the vanguard and vanguard of my country's future scientific and technological development, the number of college students in East Africa is actually not inferior to that of other countries. country, and after this meeting, East Africa’s higher education will surpass other countries in scale.
Of course, the price of doing this is that it is definitely not easy to improve the quality. In fact, compared with other countries, what East Africa lacks is not higher education talents, but top scientific and technological talents. Those who single-handedly promote scientific and technological progress are dean-level bosses in various countries.
Of course, it is not that there are no such big guys in East Africa, but no country has too many of them.
(End of this chapter)