Although Will's group had won the recognition of Tomsk State Polytechnic University's upper management for their academic standards, recruitment still proceeded poorly. In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
Anka said, "Though Tomsk is merely a Far Eastern city, there is no doubt that those able to enroll here are all elites. Russia has not implemented universal compulsory education, and its government previously withdrew from the relevant policies, virtually cutting off the lower classes' paths to advancement."
"In my conversations with colleagues, I also learned of this. Tsarist Russia's literacy rate is only twenty percent, and there is a great deal of trickery hidden within that figure. Take most Russian primary schools, for instance: five-year primary schools account for less than five percent, while the majority offer only three years. The quality of their education probably cannot even compare with East Africa's."
Just how much water had been mixed into that twenty-percent figure went without saying. Based on Tsarist Russia's population, that would mean at least twenty million people had received education. If that were truly the case, Tsarist Russia would not have been surpassed by East Africa in so many fields.
Previously, fifty percent of Tsarist Russian schools had lacked their own educational premises, instead conducting classes in rented houses or venues provided by religion. Theology was an indispensable subject in Tsarist Russian schools, and that too occupied a great deal of educational resources.
No country could escape the issue of religion, and education was no exception. East Africa was naturally the same, except theological education in East Africa could only be encountered at universities, enrolled few people, and had to obey state arrangements and undergo state assessments. Compared with present-day Russia, East Africa was practically a secular state.
"Furthermore, the educational situation in the European