Chapter 192 Six years of compulsory education, girls’ school charter, self-financing
April 1, 1905, Guangdong Education Department.
As the new education envoy, Li Qiwei needs to sort out and solve various problems left by his predecessor.
Fortunately, Yu Shimei is an old acquaintance and will not hide anything from him. Otherwise, something would happen as soon as he took office, which would be a huge blow to his authority.
The biggest problem facing the Department of Education at present is insufficient local funding.
Don't look at the vigorous and drastic new policies of the Qing Dynasty. The establishment of the Ministry of Commerce and the establishment of academic departments, establishment of enterprises, and construction of schools were in full swing.
It seems like it will become a world power next year.
But these are all face-saving projects.
Anyway, it doesn’t cost money to set up a new department, just put a few people in and it’s done.
As for building schools, I’m sorry, but I ask each province to think of its own solution based on its own conditions.
The Minister of Household Affairs has already announced that there is a lot of waste in the country waiting to be renovated, and it is really impossible to find the money to build so many schools.
Even the Capital University, which is directly under the central government, is the same.
In real history, after the establishment of Capital University, in addition to funding from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Qing government also required all provinces to provide financial support.
From 1902 to 1906, the funding situation of each province to support Capital University in the four years is as follows:
Zhili, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Guangdong: 10,000 taels per year.
Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Yunnan, Shanxi: 5,000 taels per year.
Guizhou: 2,000 taels per year.
The provinces are suffering terribly.
Take Guangdong as an example. It must not only support Beijing Normal University but also build Guangdong University in the province. Educational funds are really stretched.
It doesn’t cost much to simply build a school. In this era, coolies are worthless and can even be free.
But if you want schools, especially universities, to operate normally, it is a bottomless pit.
Li Qiwei's Huangpu University of Technology has spent 50,000 pounds, about 330,000 taels of silver, from the beginning to the present.
Although this is related to Li Qiwei's high standards, various teaching buildings and laboratory buildings are built according to the best materials and craftsmanship.
A lot of teaching equipment has also been purchased.
But personnel expenses are the biggest factor, and they cannot be saved at all.
No matter how beautiful the university is, it is useless if the teachers' salaries are very low. No one will apply for the job, and the school will become an empty shell.
To maintain the normal functions of a university, security, food and accommodation, maintenance, administration, etc. are all huge expenses.
As the only university directly under the central government in the Qing Dynasty, Guangdong University was the face of the Qing Dynasty, so naturally its qualifications should not be too low.
Therefore, most of the education funds in Guangdong are invested in the construction of Guangdong University.
Even though Guangdong Province is a wealthy province, there are many places where money is spent.
After calculating all kinds of expenses, the final funds that can be allocated to the Education Department are only 1,100 taels, and the rest needs to be figured out by oneself.
Yu Shimei personally went to the Governor's Mansion and asked to see Cen Chunxuan, the current governor of Guangdong and Guangdong and governor of Guangdong.
As a result, the dignified official in Xinjiang could only say: I have no money.
The key point is that Shimei can't complain, because the same is true for other yamen at all levels. Everyone is short of money, not just you.
Logically speaking, Yu Shimei should go to the Chief Envoy of Guangdong, because the Chief Envoy is responsible for the finance and administration of a province, and of course also manages education funds.
But the current chief envoy to Guangdong is Hu Xianglin, a native of Fujian.
He and Yu Shimei had personal conflicts for unknown reasons, so the latter naturally did not want to humble himself and ask for help.
But since ancient times, it is the uncle who is in charge of money. If you do not ask for the chief envoy, you will not get the money.
After Li Qiwei figured out the ins and outs of the matter, he couldn't help but smile.
Fortunately, I have money and can set up Whampoa University of Technology without asking for help.
Otherwise, there would probably be no students left now.
Currently, Guangdong University is able to carry out teaching work normally, on the one hand, because there are still relatively few students, all of whom are graduates of previous institutions of higher learning.
On the other hand, teachers’ salaries are currently in arrears.
This is an old tradition. Until the Republic of China, it was common for teachers to be owed salary.
After all, soldiers carry guns and start mutinies if they are not paid.
If you are a teacher and you don’t pay for books, then I will just wait.
Li Qiwei vigorously promotes education reform, and of course he does not want to see only the show.
His career cannot be satisfied by just one Whampoa University of Technology and requires the strength of the entire country.
And he also wants to promote six-year compulsory primary education and girls’ education, which requires huge amounts of funds.
Relying solely on funding from the Chief Envoy will not work.
Li Qiwei's temporary solution was to raise donations and call on celebrities from all walks of life in Guangdong and overseas Chinese to donate money to run schools.
In this era, thanks to the invention of the telegraph, overseas Chinese basically had contact with the country.
Especially in the coastal provinces, those who go out to fight are fierce people who dare to fight.
With the hard-working and perseverance spirit of the Chinese people, even if they are discriminated against overseas, they can still build a family fortune.
Many people have gained great wealth.
As early as more than ten years ago, overseas Chinese in Guangdong had begun to help the country and promote the development of Western learning in the hometown of overseas Chinese.
This also promoted the modernization of education in Guangdong in disguise, making Guangdong one of the most developed areas in education in modern China.
However, the donations Li Qiwei needs are not trivial.
He wants to create an atmosphere where education comes first, and he wants people to be willing to donate every year, and they want to compete to donate.
For this, he has already thought of a way.
On April 30, 1905, the Guangdong Education Envoy appointed Li Qiwei, the right minister of the academic department, and reported to the imperial court.
Request to pilot six-year compulsory primary education in Guangdong Province and to open a girls’ school.
When the news came out, it immediately caused a huge sensation across the country.
From the elite to ordinary people, everyone talks about this policy.
The newspapers of the revolutionaries even publicly published articles praising Li Qiwei as the first person in the Qing Dynasty who had a long-term educational vision.
The reason why Germany is strong is all because of education, and they even have nine years of free and compulsory education.
Although with the current financial situation of the Qing Dynasty, it was impossible to implement nine-year compulsory education.
However, if six years of compulsory education are tried out in Guangdong Province alone, it is completely feasible and can accumulate experience and lay a solid foundation for more provinces to follow suit.
Besides, this will definitely stimulate poor families to send their children to school and increase the base of citizens receiving education.
Nowadays, the imperial examination has been banned, and there are more and more new enterprises, which need new talents.
So, this gives ordinary people the motivation to aspire to go to school. Li Qiwei also suggested in the memorial that compulsory education should be implemented in primary schools like Germany.
In this regard, some educators pointed out a sharp problem.
Although the Qing Dynasty has begun the New Deal, traditional power is still very strong in the vast inland areas.
When boys reach the age of eleven or twelve, they become the family's labor force.
Their parents do not want their children to study.
If I have the time, I might as well cultivate two more acres of land for my family.
If compulsory measures are implemented, I am afraid it will cause dissatisfaction and backlash among the people.
The children are always the ones who get hurt in the end.
For a time, various discussions emerged one after another.
As for Li Qiwei's second suggestion, opening a girls' school, it caused an even greater sensation than the first one.
In today's Manchu Qing Dynasty, although there were special girls' schools many years ago, they were all privately established, such as the girls' school run by Wang Jilie's mother.
There is also a girls’ school run by foreign missionaries.
In this era, families willing to send girls to study are basically wealthy families.
He loves his daughter very much and wants her to learn knowledge.
In the eyes of countless ordinary people, letting their daughters study is simply the biggest loss-making business.
Because the daughter will eventually marry someone else.
What’s the use of studying more?
It is virtue for women not to have talent, which is still the mainstream of the times.
While everyone was speculating on how the court would treat these two suggestions, Empress Dowager Cixi directly issued an order to approve Li Qiwei's memorial.
And urged Li Qiwei to handle all matters as soon as possible.
But at the same time, an additional condition was given. The court would not allocate one tael of silver.
This surprised everyone. When did the ignorant Manchu Qing Dynasty become so open-minded?
In fact, in real history, in 1907, Cixi agreed to issue the "Regulations on Women's Education" in order to enlighten women's knowledge and preserve ethics and education.
This may be related to the fact that Cixi is also a woman.
So just a few days later, Li Qiwei came up with a detailed charter.
The women's school has temporarily established a women's normal school and a women's primary school, which are set up separately from the men's school and cannot be mixed with each other.
It also stipulates that the normal subjects are: self-cultivation, education, Chinese language, history, geography, arithmetic, drawing, housework, tailoring, crafts, etc.
This move aroused heated discussion among the people, and Li Qiwei directly became the object of worship of all women in the country.
He transformed into a fighter for women's rights, worked for the welfare of women in the country, and called for equality between men and women.
If he hadn't already married a wife, I'm afraid the door to his family would have been blocked by the matchmaker.
For a time, the whole society was full of public opinions discussing Li Qiwei.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Qiwei played again on May 15th.
This time it’s about donations.
In this memorial, he requested the court to introduce a specific donation reward policy.
Guangdong is still used as a pilot project. Those who donate more than 10,000 taels and less than 20,000 taels will be granted official titles by the imperial court.
If a one-time donation exceeds 50,000 taels, Guangdong Province will name a new primary school after the donor.
The Qing government felt that this method was very good. It did not require the court to pay any money, and it would also bring the Qing Dynasty a reputation for attaching importance to education.
Why not.
So he agreed to Li Qiwei’s suggestion without hesitation.
And the scope of rewards is directly set nationwide, not just in Guangdong.
The education leaders in each province all applauded and tried their best to get this thing done.
It only costs a few dollars to build a primary school, so the remaining money can be used to fill vacancies elsewhere.
Nowadays, college is the top priority and the debt is the largest.
When the news spread, all those rich and unknown people couldn't sit still.
This is a good opportunity to leave a mark in history.
A school named after myself, and it is officially recognized.
For people who are still in the Qing Dynasty, this attraction is fatal.
Many wealthy families are gearing up, and 50,000 taels is nothing more than a drop of rain to them.
However, they want someone to take the lead. Who knows whether what the government says is true or false.
On May 20, Shanhe Industrial Group, a well-known domestic private enterprise, donated 50,000 taels of silver to Guangdong Province in the name of the company.
And requires that the money must be used for education, and accounts must be disclosed regularly and subject to supervision.
In this regard, Guangdong Chief Minister Hu Xianglin first expressed his gratitude to Sunward Industrial Group.
Then he publicly stated that he would definitely use the money in the field of education.
More than ten days later, a primary school named Shanhe Primary School was opened in Guangzhou. Only then did everyone believe that the imperial court was serious this time.
All of a sudden, all kinds of donations came pouring in.
Li Qiwei did not expect that there were so many rich people.
Donations from Guangdong Province alone reached an astonishing 1.5 million taels of silver.
Including donations from overseas Chinese, the total donation this time exceeded two million taels of silver.
This made the education envoys from other provinces stare blankly.
"For God's sake, education funding can still be raised like this."
Big bosses have mobilized their personal connections and held various publicity meetings just to call on wealthy people to donate.
At this time, Li Qiwei was sitting alone in the yamen of the Department of Education, looking out the window with a smile.
Compulsory education will be implemented from now on. Even if it encounters great resistance, given the huge population base in the country, the number of students may be comparable to the entire population of a European country.
Sixteen years later, these children will graduate from college.
Coupled with the continuous flow of students in the past 16 years, by then, the entire country will have millions of talents learning Western scientific knowledge.
No other country in the world can match China's terrifying growth rate.
With Li Qiwei as the leader, domestic education has officially begun to accelerate.
The rise of China is unstoppable!
(End of this chapter)