Chapter 109 Christmas
After visiting the teaching of the East African school in the first town, Maximilian I and the two were still very touched.
Top aristocrats like the two have received royal court education since childhood, and it is difficult to sink into such a grassroots education model in East Africa.
Besides, East Africa, as a colony, does not need to cover up the two. What the two see is the most authentic daily life of East African schools.
East African schools have few courses, only German and mathematics are the two main courses, followed by history and physical education.
The content is also extremely simple, and even each grade has a lot of repetitive content. After finishing school in East African schools, at most, they can master German reading and writing and simple mathematical operations.
The content of the entire set of East African education is even less than one-third of that of Ernst Primary School in the previous life (third grade level).
This is decided to adapt to the weak teachers in the East African colonies, and the colonies in East Africa are currently only capable of this kind of poor education.
Of course, the end point of this kind of education in East Africa also has a rising channel. After passing the final exam, the group with the best grades can get the opportunity to study in Germany.
In terms of difficulty, it is very simple to pass the exam and get a place to study abroad with the average level of elementary school graduates in the previous life, but immigrants in East Africa may not realize the importance of education.
This has led to the fact that only families that value education have a better chance for their children to study in Germany, while families that do not value education, even if their children graduate with good grades, they may just stay in East Africa to work in agriculture. After all, going to Germany requires the consent of their parents.
Ernst is too lazy to correct this situation. Anyway, he only needs to cultivate a group of enough talents. If there is a surplus of talents, sometimes it is a disaster.
After all, compared with those jobs that require a high degree of education, the occupation that is currently in demand in East Africa is the farmer, who develops the land. In the industrial countries of Europe, workers are most needed.
With the level of industrialization in the current era, only the UK has completely completed industrialization (the urbanization level has reached more than 50%), while other countries are even lower, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Workers in these industrial countries do not require a high level of education, not to mention the East African colonies that are still centered on the development of agriculture.
The reason why compulsory education is opened in East Africa is to assimilate and cultivate the talents needed in the future, which is the need for a stable rule. In fact, it is not to really change the fate of these people (although it has changed objectively).
Just as Prussia launched compulsory education in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, the motivation for compulsory education in East Africa is not pure.
You have to ask how much Ernst attaches importance to education, in fact, that is the case, although Ernst received a complete nine-year compulsory education and higher education in his previous life.
But Ernst's identity in this life is a nobleman, and what he is doing now seems to be very grand (enclosing land and establishing a country), but the premise is to maintain the interests of the Hechingen royal family and continue to prosper in the future.
The experience of India and other countries in his previous life told Ernst that as long as the country has a large body and a large population, even a country with a low-quality population can accumulate a large amount of wealth at the top.
So the aristocracy represented by Ernst does not need too many highly educated people in essence, but needs obedient people who can create wealth.
This is essentially the same routine as why the ancient rulers liked to fool the people and why the West was anti-intellectual.
The education in East Africa is somewhere in the middle, with a lukewarm attitude towards education, neither teaching much nor teaching too little, actively lowering the standard.
As long as you are a German honestly, nothing else matters, who cares whether your moral character is noble or not! Is it kind! …This part of education is still left to the family to complete.
So the East African education system, which looks simple and full of loopholes, is actually political wisdom behind it.
Of course, Maximilian I couldn't see it. After visiting the education in East Africa, he couldn't help making suggestions with the East African government personnel around him. This kind of simple and rude education seemed to Maximilian I There is huge room for improvement.
And the staff, the left ear goes in and the right ear goes out, they say yes, but they don’t promise anything.
The managers of the entire East African government and army, except for the employees of the Hexingen Consortium (basically all with a high school education or above), the others, including the students of the Hechingen Military Academy whose name sounds bluffing, are actually elementary school level.
In the eyes of employees and mercenaries, this is a job, and in the eyes of the students of the Hechingen Military Academy, it is to repay the kindness of the principal.
They will only follow the route planned by Ernst and complete the task meticulously, and they don't care about the development of East Africa.
It was out of respect for the identity of Maximilian I, so I dealt with it, and Maximilian I was still chattering non-stop.
A living European intellectual commented on the East African policy, which really confirmed the saying that no official is light.
If he was as energetic as he is today when he was the emperor of Mexico, Ernst would really admire Maximilian I.
…
December 25, 1867.
It's Christmas time of the year again.
Prince Ernst and Prince Constantine, who were traveling around this year, returned to Hechingen ahead of schedule to spend the festival.
Ernst wandering around the castle with a small rottweiler bought from a farm in Berlin in the village of Ernst and named "Navi" with no practical meaning , just to commemorate a pastoral dog I raised in my previous life. That dog was raised by Ernst when he was a child in his previous life. The dog was named Neville, and then died of old age. Ernst was still sad for a long time.
In the castle, the decorations needed for the festival are arranged, and the fir trees transplanted from the forests of southern Germany are placed in the hall as Christmas trees.
Different from previous years, electric lights were used in the hall this year, and lighting tools such as candles were replaced. The entire castle and even the roads outside the castle were illuminated by the lighting system of the Hexingen Consortium.
Other royal families and big cities in Europe have also enjoyed the convenience of electric lights. Of course, some more traditional people are still using candles to enhance the atmosphere of Christmas, a religious festival.
In the huge castle, it seemed a little deserted. Because of Christmas, many servants were sent home by Prince Constantine to accompany their relatives, so there were not many people in the castle.
This year, the climate is a little colder, and there is heavy snow in Hechingen and the whole of Germany. Through the window, you can see the snow covered the ground, the forest around the castle, and the dark green branches and leaves under the snow on the tops of pines and cypresses.
During the cold winter season when Germany was still covered with snow, in the far south, the land of East Africa was still like spring. The East African government also organized its residents to start Christmas celebrations.
And 1867 will be passed in a few days. 1867 is an unforgettable year. In this year, the East African colonies completely controlled the entire territory of Tanzania and Kenya, and the number of immigrants reached 500,000. East Africa can already be seen as a political entity, participating in international affairs.
(end of this chapter)