Chapter 986: Social Education
The eighty-year-long War of Independence was considered a tribulation of great duration for any country. However, it was during these decades of war that the Dutch extended their influence to all parts of the world through sea routes and built the largest commercial network covering the most geographical areas in this era. This ability is worthy of praise. In this process, how the Netherlands handles the nationality issue of its citizens has also become one of Haihan's research materials.
It has to be said that the measures taken by the Dutch in this regard are far less astute than their savvy in the business field. In the decades after the beginning of the War of Independence, the people in the war zone had a completely chaotic state of self-identity, and the so-called New The country did not take any effective measures in time to win over these people, but simply emphasized the need to draw a clear line with Spain. The people could not find a sense of belonging and could only abandon their homes and flee to avoid the war. As a result, production in the war zone basically came to a standstill, which also had a significant negative impact on the social stability and economic development of the Netherlands.
In this regard, Haihan's measures were obviously much smarter. He first used the special household registration system of naturalization to stabilize the public sentiment in the areas under his control, and at the same time bribed and won over the local Ming government officials, so that the conflict between the two sides in terms of governance was not resolved. It broke out fiercely and avoided enmity with Ming Dynasty in the initial stage. The naturalized people became the labor force used by Haihan and created considerable value in a short period of time. It can be said that Haihan was able to develop very smoothly in the early stages, largely due to the population and household registration policies formulated by the Executive Committee.
During his visit to Hainan Island, Van Diemen naturally noticed the policy differences between the two sides in the field of population control. Since Ning Qi took the initiative to talk about this topic, he did not intend to avoid it, but wanted to discuss it with Ning Qi. Fan: "Our country did not have a relatively complete nationality management policy in the early stages of the War of Independence. Your country's approach in this regard is indeed very smart. If the pioneers who launched the War of Independence could have thought so carefully, maybe we could end this war earlier. Damn war.”
Ning Qi smiled and said: "It is a pity that the founders of your country were just a group of businessmen, not real politicians and military strategists. What they saw was the economic benefits they would gain after independence, but they lacked knowledge on how to govern a country. Long-term planning. When businessmen are in power, many things will not go so smoothly. The war between your country and Spain will not end in the short term. If the war continues as it is, it will last for at least ten more years. "
Van Diemen couldn't help but ask: "I have always been curious, why does your country know so much about what is happening in the distant continent of Europa? Even if the Portuguese can provide you with information, it is difficult to be timely. What do you think? How did you get the news? ”
Ning Qi thought that there was no way to explain this question to you in detail. Even if I explained it truthfully, you would probably think that I was talking nonsense. He just smiled slightly and said: "This question... you can understand that it comes from above. instructions.”
After Ning Qi said that, he raised his hand and pointed upward. Fan Diemen frowned and said, "God's will?"
"You can understand it this way." Ning Qi did not explain, and continued: "We have far more news than you can imagine. Regarding the changes in the situation and the progress of the war on the European battlefield, we got the news approximately It will be anywhere from half a year to a year faster than you.”
"You... must have mastered some kind of black magic, or there is a witch casting spells secretly!" Van Diemen showed an unconcealable look of horror on his face.
"Mr. Van Diemen, please stop making blind guesses." Ning Qi was angry and funny at his reaction: "We Haihan don't do ridiculous things like magic and witchcraft. This is just some kind of advanced technology that needs to be kept secret. .”
Van Diemen was still dubious about Ning Qi's explanation, but he remembered that he had heard from the Han people in Batavia that the Hai Han people indeed had some magical ability to predict, and could even predict events thousands of miles away. When I return to Sanya after my trip to Hainan Island this time, I want to find Su Keyi, who is staying there for business, to find out more.
"Okay, let's get back to the topic." Van Diemen knew that there would be no results if he continued to ask, so he decisively returned to the topic: "Since you understand the situation in Europe so well, how about the international situation our country is currently facing? What do you think? ”
Ning Qi said: "If the Netherlands wants to fight for independence in Europe, it must first win the war. However, this war will not end in a short time. As I just said, it will have to last at least more than ten years."
"God! Is there no way to end this damn war as soon as possible?" Although Fan Diemen didn't completely believe Ning Qi's words, he was a little disappointed to hear such a judgment. Of course, he also knew that the war between Protestant countries and Catholic countries did involve too many aspects. The root cause of hatred and conflicts came from religious and international political conflicts accumulated for hundreds of years. A short-term partial armistice was possible, but A complete end to the war is far away.
"There is a way..." Ning Qi only said half a sentence before he stopped abruptly.
Van Diemen waited for a long time and saw that he had no intention of continuing, so he couldn't help but urge: "If you have a way to come in handy, I am willing to pay a consulting fee in the name of the East India Company as a reward. ”
Ning Qi waved his hand and said: "You are overthinking. Money means nothing to me personally. I don't say it because it is too difficult to handle and the possibility of realizing it is not high." The more Ning Qi became pretentious, the more Fan Fan Dimen became more and more anxious. Before he could continue to ask questions, the carriage had stopped, and the guard outside reported: "Chief, we are here."
Ning Qi smiled and said: "About this matter, we will find a chance to talk about it later. Now let's visit the next academy!"
As the cultural and educational center on Hainan Island, Danzhou has quite a few academies. If you had to visit them one by one, you might not be able to see them all in a week. Ning Qi's time was limited, so Zhang Xin only arranged a few representative academies. The academy we are visiting now is called Qiongxi Academy, which means the west of Qiongzhou. The principal and teachers of the academy had also been waiting outside the gate early, respectfully waiting for the arrival of Ning Qi and his party. Van Diemen originally wanted to discuss a few words with Ning Qi, but after parking the car and seeing the scene outside, he could only sigh and swallow the words back in his stomach.
Compared with the White Deer Academy we visited previously, Qiongxi Academy has taken a significantly different path. If Bailu Academy is a relatively traditional old-style academy, then Qiongxi Academy can be said to be a new-style academy operating according to a new model in the new era. Of course, the academy itself is not newly established, and its history can be traced back to the Jiajing period a hundred years ago. However, its operating level and scale are far inferior to that of Bailu Academy, which has produced dozens of academic candidates. In the past, it was only considered to be second-rate, lower-third-rate, or upper-level in Danzhou. It had no reputation at all, and its enrollment targets were mainly Mainly children from poor farm families. In the past three Ming Dynasty Provincial Examinations, Qiongxi Academy failed to produce even one imperial examination result, and it really had no impressive results in terms of imperial examination results.
However, Zhang Xin arranged Qiongxi Academy as a stop for Ning Qi's inspection schedule, not because he made a mistake, but because the current operating conditions of this academy are indeed unique and can be used as a reference for the education department.
The name of the headmaster of Qiongxi Academy is Zhang Jinbao, which sounds like the name of a nouveau riche or a rich country man. He is also chubby and looks more like a pampered wealthy gentleman than an old scholar who manages an academy. However, this Jinbao's social ability is obviously better than that of Fan Changyi, the principal of White Deer Academy. A red cloth banner saying "Welcome the Chief Minister of Sanya to come to guide the work" was hung outside the gate of the academy, and a red cloth banner was also splashed on the street with clean water and a loess pavement. The road outside the academy was also tidied up very cleanly. Zhang Jinbao was also a familiar person. When he saw Ning Qi and others getting out of the car, he took the initiative to say hello warmly. After introducing himself, he invited everyone to visit the hospital.
"At the end of the third year of Chongzhen's reign, the militia army entered Danzhou and drove away the pirates. I decided that only Haihan could be relied on to protect the country and the people. Later, the superiors issued a document to restructure the academy and increase the teaching of practical subjects. He thought that we should train more craftsmen for Haihan, so he stopped the original classes and let the academy transform to teach students practical skills." Zhang Jinbao introduced while leading the way: "Now the academy has smelting, navigation, and shipbuilding. There are more than 300 students in more than ten majors, such as medical, nursing, and cooking. We will recruit another batch of students when the new year starts and strive to expand the number of students to 500 this year.”
The unique feature of Qiongxi Academy is that it is the first academy in Danzhou to respond to Haihan’s call and open classes for vocational training and education. Since 1631, Qiongxi Academy has served as Haihan's vocational training pilot academy in the Danzhou area, introducing some majors that Haihan is in urgent need of, and training technical personnel for Haihan. At the beginning, it was just to train some sailors, teach them to master the listening, speaking, reading and writing of Hainan dialect, and also teach them some simple navigation skills.
Because the academy is located close to Danzhou Bay, Zhang Jinbao rented two old boats and started this major. Most of the students enrolled in this major are the children of nearby fishermen. In order to allow parents who have doubts and are unwilling to pay for tuition to send their children to study, Zhang Jinbao even provides free admission, and students will be settled after employment. to attract students through tuition fees. As a result, the first batch of twenty-five students, after three months of short-term training courses, were all sent to work in Haihan's shipping company. Each person was paid one tael of silver per month, which was much better than being a fisherman, so The enrollment for the second phase was immediately filled up.
Of course, this kind of good thing was noticed by other academies, and they quickly imitated it, diverting many students from Qiongxi Academy. However, Zhang Jinbao was really smart and did not focus all his energy on this project. After tasting the benefits, he opened other training courses not long after. Over the past few years, it has successively sent thousands of professionals to Haihan, and it was rated as "Danzhou Advanced Academy" by the Danzhou Management Committee last year and the year before last. It can be said that it has gained both fame and fortune.
This mode of operation is naturally very new in Danzhou in this era, but in the eyes of time travellers, it is actually just a vocational training school. In the time and space before the time travel, we had seen large technical schools like Lanxiang New Oriental, and academy-style schools like Danzhou. The scale of business can only be regarded as small business. However, using private teachers to provide targeted training for Haihan professionals has indeed saved a lot of resources for the cultural and educational departments.
Although people in this era do not understand what "socialized running of schools" and "industrialization of education" mean, people with a right mind can quickly realize the benefits and business opportunities contained in this kind of vocational education. Being able to work in one of Haihan's institutions after completing their studies is a very attractive job opportunity for local students from poor backgrounds. Moreover, the training target of this kind of vocational training is only for the most basic positions, and the learning period is usually not long. It does not take several years of hard study to see hope like the imperial examination. The short return period is also what attracts students to this kind of vocational education. One main reason.
In this process, the college not only earns tuition fees, but also establishes cooperative relationships with relevant departments of Haihan, and seeks cooperation in larger areas when the time is right. Institutions like Qiongxi Academy, after being recognized by Haihan, can receive official help and technical support, such as sending academy lecturers to Sanya for further study and learning newer knowledge, or even inviting teachers from vocational colleges in Sanya. Guest teachers come for short-term teaching guidance. In addition, the establishment of some professional courses with high technical content and good employment benefits also needs to be recognized by Haihan officials. For example, Zhang Jinbao plans to have the college open a new major in steam engine operation and maintenance this year.
Although Zhang Jinbao himself did not understand the principles of steam engines, after seeing the efficiency of steam engines at Baimajing Pier, he recognized that the development prospects of this thing were worthy of investment. However, the manufacture and use of steam engines are currently in a highly confidential stage. Not everyone can access and learn the technology of its manufacture, use, and maintenance, and relevant technical workers can only be trained in Sanya. If he wants to open this professional training class in Danzhou, what Zhang Jinbao has to do is not just as simple as opening the class and enrolling students. The relevant teaching qualifications, sources of teachers, and requirements for venue and equipment all have to be handled by Haihan. Just provide enough support.
It happened that Ning Qi came to Danzhou for inspection. After Zhang Jinbao heard the news, he naturally refused to let go of such an opportunity for face-to-face public relations. He also made a lot of preparations before Ning Qi arrived, striving to take advantage of this moment to take advantage of the project. Take it down.
(End of chapter)