Chapter 159 Li Qiwei’s Outline of Educational Reform
When Li Qiwei revealed his ideals and ambitions with an innocent heart, Yu Shimei was completely impressed.
For such young Han talents, he has only appreciation and support.
If young people in China can be like Li Qiwei, why can't they revive and restore the glory of the Han and Tang Dynasties?
Yu Shimei solemnly took the paper from Li Qiwei and began to read it carefully.
Since it is to be presented to the emperor and the queen mother, there are naturally many language restrictions and requirements.
Li Qiwei studied abroad and must know nothing about this.
He needs to check the other party, especially those radical views, which must be deleted.
Moreover, the content of Shangdatian Listening must be concise and clear, and cannot be stinky and long, which would appear that the level of the performer is too low.
As Yu Shimei continued to go deeper, his expression gradually relaxed and he felt very satisfied.
The entire reform outline is detailed and detailed, with real data from Western countries noted by Li Qiwei in key places, which makes people unconvincing.
To summarize Li Qiwei’s education reform outline, there are five core contents.
1. Rename the existing professional terms in the education field and change it to an education system similar to that of the West to facilitate future integration with international standards.
Li Qiwei believes that the purpose of education is to popularize the public. If many names are made extremely complicated, ordinary people will not be able to understand them.
For example, the various primary schools and colleges are dazzling.
Therefore, in this outline, he proposed various modifications:
[University hall: university;
Middle school hall: middle school;
Small hall: elementary school;
Mengxuetang: Mengxue. 】
[General Supervisor: Principal;
Teaching: Professor;
Gezhike: Science. 】
And so on.
Moreover, he also added many new terms to facilitate the systematic assessment and management of schools.
Li Qiwei basically copied the set of titles from later generations.
After the modification, the professionalism in the education field will be more highlighted.
2. Modify the academic system divisions in the "Imperial School Charter" to:
Elementary school (four years), primary school (six years), middle school (six years), university (four years) ), divided into levels by grade within a single academic system.
It is stipulated that all children over 6 years old can enter the first grade of primary school.
The enrollment status of elementary school depends on the level of local education and economic development, and the state is not responsible for unified management.
3. Li Qiwei believes that what China needs most is university education, and what university education needs most is science education.
Only when science is well developed can a large number of mathematics and physics talents be produced to complete the development and application of various factories and machines.
Thereby improving domestic industrial production capacity and getting rid of dependence on imports from Western countries.
He gave an example of science in the UK, which is even directly related to factories.
When the school invents a technology, it will be mass-produced by factories, thereby increasing national power.
Basically it is the integration of industry, academia and research in later generations.
Therefore, Li Qiwei suggested in the outline that the top priority in the country now is to establish a university of science and technology.
To this end, he suggested that a pilot plan could be implemented in Guangdong first, and gave a specific plan:
Establish Guangdong University to offer physics, chemistry, civil engineering, metallurgy, mining, geology and other science subjects major.
Other majors will continue to operate as usual.
Li Qiwei also has to consider leaving some opportunities for others, otherwise he will easily arouse resentment, be attacked by groups, and receive no support.
Anyway, the so-called Guangdong University was not established with his own money, but in the name of the Qing government.
Wouldn’t it be nice to spend the Qing Dynasty’s money to cultivate engineering talents for yourself?
Because he knew that the Manchus would not be able to fully agree to his plan immediately, so he proposed the so-called pilot project to confuse the other party.
In real history, in 1910, the Capital University began to divide its subjects into seven subjects: economics, law and politics, liberal arts, general science, agriculture, engineering, and business.
And there are thirteen disciplines (majors).
Economic Sciences: Book of Songs, Zhou Rites, Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan;
Legal and Political Science: Politics, Law;
Liberal Arts: Chinese Literature, Chinese History;
Gezhike: Geology, Chemistry
Agriculture: Agricultural Science
Engineering: Civil Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy
Business: Banking and Insurance.
In 1903, the concept of so-called division of disciplines actually existed, but it had not yet been formally determined.
As for the Polytechnic University that Li Qiwei wants to build, the division of majors is more detailed, but there is no need to throw it out for the time being. 4. It is suggested that private individuals can establish private universities at their own expense to solve the problem of insufficient government funding.
This was the Achilles heel of the Qing Dynasty that Li Qiwei grasped.
Today's Qing Dynasty is suffering from internal and external troubles, and the national treasury is not enough. How can it be possible to allocate too much money to the education field.
But it is in urgent need of new talents, so it has no choice but to rely on private universities.
Let the rich spend their own money to train students who will eventually serve the Qing Dynasty.
Cixi is not stupid. This kind of good deed has all advantages and no disadvantages no matter how you look at it.
As for whether private universities will lose control and promote some bad ideas.
The old witch didn't care. She felt that a group of stinky teachers dared to rebel.
At that time, as long as the supervisors are dispatched to investigate, they will know that anyone who is disobedient will be arrested or even executed directly.
To foreign countries, Cixi was obedient and did not dare to fart; domestically, Cixi was arrogant and proud and struck hard.
So, Li Qiwei concluded that the Qing Dynasty would definitely agree to this.
At that time, you can start your own university.
He Yujie and the other three will also bid farewell to the holidays and start busying themselves with college.
5. Li Qiwei suggested that the imperial court establish an academic department to manage all schools and related affairs in the country.
Improving the independence of education is more conducive to the cultivation of talents.
To this end, he still used universities in Britain and Germany as examples to prove the benefits of academic independence.
And make different improvements to the education departments of each province, with detailed rules.
This one will definitely be supported by many people.
At least Yu Shimei smiled slightly after seeing it.
If a school division is established, their status will also rise with the tide.
Moreover, the academic department is its own system, and outsiders cannot get involved at all.
In the future, even if you are the son of a minister and want to go to Guangdong University, you have to ask me if I agree.
The above is the main content of Li Qiwei's education reform outline.
Education is a huge system, and Li Qiwei can only write roughly about it at present.
More detailed content needs to be continuously improved and perfected in specific practice.
However, this plan, which was very crude in Li Qiwei's eyes, was completely different in Yu Shimei's eyes.
As a traditional official, he had never seen Li Qiwei's format of presenting a memorial.
There is not a word of nonsense in the whole article, it is all about explaining your own thinking and specific implementation methods.
Compared with those 800-word memorials in the imperial court, 600 of which were about flattering the emperor, it was completely out of place.
At this moment, Yu Shimei no longer doubted Li Qiwei's ability.
It would be difficult to find anyone in the Qing Dynasty who could write such an outline.
The key is that none of the other party's ideas are based on my own imagination, but are based on personal experience and reference to various European and American education systems.
The various data inside are irrefutable.
Yu Shimei could even imagine that when this outline was presented, the opponents were probably dumbfounded.
Because they simply cannot find loopholes and fight back.
“Qiwei, I already thought highly of you, but I didn’t expect to look down on you.”
“With what I have in hand, I’m afraid that a deputy minister of management and education, You are undermining your talents.”
“The current minister of education can control the provincial schools in name, but in fact he can only manage the capital university.”
“I am worried about you in the future. There are many difficulties to be encountered.”
Li Qiwei didn't care. He said with a smile: "Everything is difficult at the beginning."
"As long as I focus on China, I can always attract more like-minded people."
"Look, Aren’t I going to pull Xuetai into my camp now?”
Yu Shimei laughed. "Qiwei, Qiwei, if you have this mouth, I won't worry about you anymore."
"You are still a British knight anyway. No matter how the people in the court oppose and impeach you, it will not affect you. Big.”
"According to your proposal, at worst you can run your own university."
"When the day comes when I get tired of being an academic administrator and join you, you have to leave me a position as principal."
Li Qiwei smiled and said: "Don't worry, Xuetai, my door is always open for you."
(End of this chapter)