The Rise of Australia

Chapter 760 Free Education—Middle School

Britain, France and the World Alliance were engaged in a tug-of-war over the treatment of Italy, and Arthur was not surprised by this.

Because it is far away from Europe, Australasia is happy and sober. Coupled with the policies of white supremacy prevalent among Australasians, there was not much aversion to Italy's massacre of the Abyssinian Empire.

This also gave Arthur a sigh of relief. After all, Arthur did not want to interfere in the Italian war at this time.

Although Italy is only a very weak enemy, as long as it interferes in this war, it is equivalent to participating in the chaotic European situation.

This will not only make Britain and France more defensive, but also make the newly emerging forces regard Australasia as an enemy.

Arthur would not do this obvious act of taking the blame for Britain and France unless public opinion really was like this.

In order to divert the attention of Australasians, Arthur began to work on Australasian education policy.

July 20, 1930, Palais des Nations, St. Arthur's Castle.

"Your Majesty, please take a look. This is the new education plan that our Ministry of Education has revised to the current free education policy according to your instructions. Please take a look at it." Cabinet Secretary of Education Kylo Jefferson handed Arthur a A thick piece of information and introduction.

Arthur nodded, took the information from Kylo Jefferson's hand, and read it roughly.

Although it is only about the policy reform of free education, the information is by no means a few thin pages.

Even if it was just a cursory reading, it took Arthur more than ten minutes to get an overview of the new education reform plan.

"Expand free education to the middle school level?" Arthur frowned slightly and looked at Minister Kailuo.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Kailo Jefferson explained: "Some of our administrative districts with good financial conditions have now extended free education to the junior high school level.

The plan for this free education reform is to extend free education to junior high school levels nationwide. "

"It's too slow." Arthur's brows were still furrowed, and his dissatisfaction was self-evident: "Currently, the number of our high school students and college students has been rising steadily, and the per capita academic level is about to reach the high school level.

Under such circumstances, if we only implement free education to junior high school, it would be a waste of time.

Minister Kelo, has the Ministry of Education considered a plan to extend free education directly to high schools? "

Hearing Arthur's inquiry, Kailo Jefferson's expression became serious and respectful, and replied: "I have considered it, Your Majesty. But judging from the financial level of each state, except for a few administrative regions such as Sydney and Victoria, , if other regions implement free education up to high school, they will need a large amount of financial subsidies from the government.

At present, our education budget is not that large, and it is also a huge burden on the Royal Government’s finances. "

Although there is only one word difference between free education in junior high school and free education in high school, the actual results are very different.

In Australasia, current junior secondary qualifications are no longer valuable. The per capita academic level has generally reached junior high schools, and it can be said that there are a large number of junior high school students.

Under such circumstances, if free education is only extended to junior high schools, it is equivalent to depriving low-income people of a large part of the hope of changing their destiny.

After all, although a high school degree was not so rare at this time, it was enough to find a job.

"How much financial investment will be needed each year if we increase free education to the high school level?" Arthur asked.

Even though Australasia only has a population of over 30 million, its investment in education is already comparable to that of other major powers.

Of course, the improvement is also huge. In just 30 years, the per capita educational level in Australasia has risen from the uneven level of below primary school to above junior high school.

Arthur's annual investment in educational scholarships starts at least several million Australian dollars.

"Compared with free education at the junior high school level, the annual financial deficit is at least 25 million Australian dollars." Kailo Jefferson explained.

Arthur nodded.

Although 25 million Australian dollars after currency devaluation is not a large amount of money, it is indeed a figure that is difficult to come up with for the current education department.

After all, the government's financial budget is proportional. More investment in the education sector means less investment in other departments.

But currently, all departments are developing vigorously, and no department can allocate so much funds. This is the real reason why Kailuo Jefferson established a free education plan at the junior high school level.

"I will set up a royal education foundation to bear the cost of books and materials for all students. If I remember correctly, the cost of these things is about 25 million Australian dollars, right?" Arthur thought for a moment and proposed a plan that could properly way of solving the problem.

"Yes. According to our estimates, after free education is upgraded to high school level, the annual book and material fees will be approximately 25.22 million Australian dollars." Kailo Jefferson responded quickly.

"This fund will be borne by the royal family, but my request is that free high school education must be implemented nationwide. Is there any problem?" Arthur nodded and looked at Minister Kailuo with a slightly confused expression. asked seriously.

"There is no problem, His Majesty the King." Minister Kailuo nodded quickly and showed his most confident expression: "Please rest assured, I will definitely complete the plan and wait for your inspection."

The establishment of a special foundation for royal education was the result of Arthur's careful consideration. First of all, the royal family's funds should not be too confused with the government's financial budget.

Of course Arthur's money can be invested in government work, but it must bring sufficient returns to Arthur.

The return here does not refer to financial return, but to reputation, influence and various things that can bring actual benefits to Arthur.

Since it is the money invested by the royal family, the reward for fame should naturally be the past.

It is precisely because of this that the Royal Education Special Foundation was established to distinguish it from the government's education policy.

The president of the foundation is of course Arthur. After Arthur, the next president was William.

This can ensure that every penny invested by the royal family can be returned to the royal family as fame, ensuring that the money is not wasted.

If the money is handed over to the government, firstly, it will make the government the object of gratitude of the people. Secondly, there is no guarantee that the government will spend money, which will put the royal family in a relatively passive position.

"Does the education department have any relevant considerations regarding the imbalance of state fiscal revenue and expenditure?" Arthur then asked.

Free education definitely does not rely solely on the efforts of the education department, but is the result of the joint efforts of the cabinet government, the education department, states and municipal governments.

Generally speaking, the cabinet government and the education department will contribute a large share of the budget for educational policies, while the state governments will contribute a portion, and the remaining small portion will be allocated to the municipal governments.

But each region is different, and the fiscal budget it can provide is naturally different.

Developed areas like Sydney can easily spend tens of millions of dollars on education.

However, in some cities with smaller populations, the educational funds they can allocate are only a few hundred thousand Australian dollars at most, which has resulted in a relatively large difference.

There are also colonies. Some colonies had a population of only a few thousand people and little fiscal revenue.

Most of the uses of these colonies are strategic, which also means that the government and the education department have to subsidize money, and even have to be fully responsible for the education budget of these areas.

"Your Majesty, for our special colonial areas, the education department plans to jointly run schools to reduce our expenditure on education." Minister Kailuo said his plan.

"Jointly run a school? With whom specifically?" Arthur continued to ask.

"The direction currently being considered is probably the Ministry of Education, states, municipalities and local enterprises." Kailo Jefferson explained: "In some more remote areas, we have to consider more The problem is the education of the children of factory workers.

There are two types of questions.

The first problem is that many workers' children are too far apart from their parents. Many of the factories built in the colonies and overseas territories had workers mostly from our homeland.

For the sake of their children's education, the children of these workers basically stay in their hometowns, which also leaves them without family care.

The Ministry of Education's plan is to cooperate with local governments and enterprises to build schools in areas close to the enterprises so that the children of these workers can reunite with their parents.

In order to ensure the enthusiasm of enterprises, the current plan is to require enterprises above a certain size to bear 20% of the cost of building schools in their areas.

If it is distributed to each large-scale enterprise, the burden will be greatly reduced, and there will basically be no burden on major enterprises. "After taking a look at Arthur and making sure that Arthur did not show any dissatisfaction, Kailo Jefferson continued to say confidently and boldly:"

The second situation involves some colonies with a large number of local residents. In this case, the proportion of funds borne by the enterprise will be reduced to a certain extent, which will be around 15%.

The cabinet government bears 70%, and the remaining 15% is borne by local state and municipal governments.

In this way, our free education policy can be extended to more remote and impoverished areas, benefiting every Australasian as much as possible. "Minister Kailo introduced.

Arthur nodded, quite agreeing with this plan.

Letting enterprises bear part of education is actually very promising. After all, part of the education problem is that employees in companies and factories work far away and are forced to be separated from their families.

However, if such a policy is enacted, there are still some problems that must be guarded against, such as some companies shifting the burden of funds to their employees and workers.

Such examples have not happened before, and they must be prevented. After all, the purpose of free education is to enable more children of poor civilians to afford school, not to increase the burden on civilians.

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