Chapter 1045 Education
An important reason why East Africa can thrive in front-end scientific research fields such as nuclear physics is the continuous development of higher education in East Africa. Although East Africa is relatively lacking in top leaders and is currently unable to compare with Europe and the United States, East Africa has the largest number of college students in the world. As well as young scientific workers, take the East African Institute of Nuclear Physics as an example, they are all 100% young people, with the maximum age not exceeding forty-five years old.
In 1905 alone, there were 370,000 college students in East Africa. At that time, there were only more than 7,000 college students in the United Kingdom. Among European countries, the number of college students in Germany was only about 40,000 to 50,000. The number of college students in the United States was also about 40,000. Quite a lot, more than 150,000.
Although there are many universities in the United States, there are many business schools in American universities. This also reflects the pro-business social atmosphere in the United States. Most families hope to copy the entrepreneurial legends of those American tycoons.
At present, there are indeed many wealthy people who have risen from the grassroots in the United States, so the "insightful people" in American society naturally follow the public opinion and build business schools to collect tuition fees. At the same time, high-income groups such as lawyers and doctors are also very popular in the United States. In this way, in the United States In university education, a large part of the population belongs to non-science and engineering subjects.
East Africa's investment in education has naturally given East Africa a very high return. Especially during the First Five-Year Plan, local talents from East Africa took on the absolute majority, which was unimaginable in the 1970s and 1980s.
East Africa currently trains more mid- to high-end talents every year than all European countries combined, so East Africa can achieve a major explosion in the field of scientific research.
It is foreseeable that when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, coupled with a more favorable industrial base, East African industry and society will accelerate development again.
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Through the expansion of universities in the 1990s, the scale of higher education in East Africa has increased significantly, and the weight of the Ministry of Education has also increased.
Minister of Education Muric reported to Ernst: "By the time the First Five-Year Plan is completed, the number of colleges and universities in our country will be 217. Although it is not as good as the more than 1,000 in the United States, our colleges and universities are large in scale and centralized. development, so the number of college students is also large.”
East African universities are mainly public, so no matter how small the universities in East Africa are, they cannot be as perfunctory as those in the United States.
In the United States, education can be treated as a business, and the results of private investment will naturally lead some people to adopt opportunistic methods to build so-called "universities." Some universities may not even have exclusive venues. In order to save costs, they simply rent private buildings to run their schools. It's not impossible, so the differences between American-style universities and East African universities are quite big.
"Currently, our country's universities adopt a strict-in-strict-out model. Middle school or social personnel pass the college entrance examination to obtain the qualifications to enter universities. These people are originally the elites of East Africa, and within the universities these elites gather together and are further screened. After entering society, most of them are still excellent.”
“With the implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan, my country’s industry has an increasingly high desire for talents. Many jobs have been created and more professional management and technical talents are needed.”
“Higher education is also the main force in my country’s scientific research field, and scientific laboratories and research institutions across the country need to supplement talent.”
To sum up, East African society has a strong demand for talents. Of course, East Africa does not need to be too urgent in investing in education.
It is no exaggeration to say that East Africa ranks first in the world in investment in the field of education. Take the population of East Africa as an example. The population of East Africa is larger than that of the United States, but the number is limited. The population of higher education in East Africa is indeed twice that of the United States. There are many, and it is even more exaggerated when it comes to primary and secondary education groups. After all, East Africa is not as wealthy as the United States. This also intuitively reflects the importance that the East African government attaches to education. Ernst said: "We made a major upgrade in higher education in the 1990s. Now, although the training of high-end talents in our country cannot fully meet social needs, there is no need to expand enrollment on the scale of the 1990s. Educational resources are in Our country has already accounted for the bulk of government spending, and now we are more focused on digesting the returns on education investment in the 1990s.”
“Of course, after the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, we will make adjustments based on the economic situation. After all, with the development of the times, countries with larger talent reserves will have greater advantages.”
Ernst is quite satisfied with the current scale of education in East Africa. Although the number of universities in East Africa is far from being compared with that of later countries, it also depends on the era. East Africa, which has not yet completed industrialization, cannot absorb more higher education talents. Therefore, appropriately slowing down the expansion of education is a good thing for East Africa today.
Furthermore, the scale of higher education in East Africa is already the largest in the world, and there is no incentive to invest more resources in higher education.
East Africa’s investment in education is not just universities, but also includes primary and secondary school systems. At its peak, East Africa’s investment in education even exceeded military spending, and even now it is one of the main items in East Africa’s government expenditures.
Hence, in terms of national strength and financial pressure, the current educational resources in East Africa can basically meet the overall needs of society. As for the demand for high-end talents in various departments and enterprises, it is bluntly said that it will not change in any era.
Ernst continued: "As for education, we should also change our attitude in due course. In the past, East African education focused on quantity rather than quality. Now the national economy has developed somewhat, and industrial progress has been particularly rapid. Under this circumstance, the original It is inevitable to optimize educational resources.”
“Including upgrading campus hardware facilities, improving teacher quality, innovating textbook knowledge, etc. In the past, our industry was difficult, so many campuses had poor basic conditions, and adjustments should be made at this time.”
As a colonial country with a short history, East Africa has never been considered a poor country. It can only be said that its industry is not strong. It is generally richer than many countries in Eurasia, including South American countries. Of course, the small population of East Africa in the early days was also the main reason. reason.
The current population size of East Africa is actually relatively moderate. Although the population has experienced large-scale growth, exceeding that of most European and American countries, while the population of East Africa is growing, the industry is also growing. In this case, the population increase of East Africa has not The impact on East African society has actually boosted East Africa's industrialization.
If it is a traditional agricultural country, the extremely rapid population growth in East Africa will naturally bring more negative effects. After all, land resources are limited. When the land is not enough to bear the excess population, social problems will occur.
But the land carrying capacity is not static, and industrialization is the main way to increase the land carrying capacity. The industrialization of East Africa has absorbed the wealthy agricultural population of the country.
Moreover, as a colonial country, the East African government holds a large amount of assets, so even if East Africa is really poor, the East African government is not poor. This is also the main reason why East Africa can invest ahead of time in the field of education. It is mainly caused by the money in hand, while traditional agricultural countries Although there is a lot of social wealth in China, it is completely concentrated in the hands of a few people. Even if the government has surplus revenue, it will eventually flow into the hands of the upper class of society through various forms.
Of course, according to the rules, East Africa will definitely be like this in the future, but this is not an issue Ernst has to consider. East Africa has a short history now, and various social problems are far from reaching the stage of outbreak. Even if East Africa is as unprogressive as the Soviet Union in the middle and late period , as long as there is no war, it can last for many years.
All in all, under the coordination of various factors, the current financial situation of the East African government is very good, which also allows the East African government to focus on developing the economy and industry, and industrial development in turn promotes the progress of East African society.
(End of this chapter)