Education

Seeing Minister Pierre decisively agree to his request, Arthur nodded in satisfaction and said with a smile, "Minister Pierre, as long as you can successfully complete this three-year plan, you certainly won't lack credit. But don't forget one thing: while developing our steel industry, don't forget to build the other industries we need as well."

"Yes, Your Highness." Pierre nodded solemnly.

"Industrial development burns through money quickly. Minister Pierre, I'll allocate twelve million pounds to you, paid out over three years. I'll leave all the industrial equipment to you as well. I look forward to seeing your results." Arthur smiled.

With sufficient industrial equipment, twelve million pounds over three years meant four million pounds per year—certainly no small sum.

"Yes, Your Highness! I guarantee I'll complete the task!" Minister Pierre abruptly stood up and said to Arthur with utmost solemnity.

"Very well. Since the Ministry of Industry's plan has been provisionally decided, it's time to move on to the Education Department, isn't it? As the saying goes, education strengthens the nation. Only when large numbers of talented people are devoted to the country's development and construction will Australia truly have hope of rising." Arthur turned his gaze toward Minister of Education Richard Noble Chapman and asked with a smile.

"Your Highness, our country's educational situation is extremely backward at present. The literacy rate is only a little over sixty percent. That may not sound too serious, but our primary school graduation rate is only fifty-one percent. Nearly half the population hasn't even graduated from primary school. One reason is that our per capita income is relatively low, and some people can't afford the cost of education. Another is that Australia's overall educational environment is currently terrible. We don't have enough schools to accommodate all school-age children." Minister of Education Richard Noble Chapman stood up and said with a bitter smile.

Although Minister Richard had done an excellent job with education in Tasmania, Tasmania's population was relatively small, which greatly reduced the difficulty of developing education there.

Looking at Australia as a whole, completely solving the education problem would require not only building enough schools to accommodate the students, but also reducing tuition and miscellaneous fees as much as possible so that most Australian families could afford them.

"Does the Ministry of Education have any good solutions?" Arthur asked.

Arthur also had some understanding of Australia's educational situation.

By rights, most of Australia's population consisted of European immigrants, so the level of education they received should have been quite high.

But in reality, most of these people had been drawn here by gold mines and the gold rush. In Europe, most of them had been poor people who could barely afford to eat, crossing the seas to Australia in search of a chance to survive—or even strike it rich.

Under such circumstances, the fact that Australia's literacy rate and primary school graduation rate had both remained above fifty percent was already beyond expectations.

"Your Highness, I think our current education policy should prioritize the development of basic education, rapidly raising the literacy rate and the rate of basic education coverage. Judging from the overall trend, as our country undergoes various construction and development projects, a large number of high-income jobs will emerge. These jobs all share one common feature: they involve specialized knowledge and fields. Although our basic education won't teach workers that knowledge, it will at least help them adapt more easily when they come into contact with it." Minister Richard spoke.

Someone with a foundation of knowledge and education would, in all likelihood, learn new things faster than someone without one.

Australia was destined to produce a large number of technical positions in the future, and these positions would naturally be filled by Australians.

That meant the government had to rapidly raise Australians' educational and cultural standards now. At the very least, it had to greatly increase the literacy rate so that Australians could adapt quickly when taking on these positions in the future.

"Mm. Continue." Arthur nodded in satisfaction, signaling for Minister Richard to go on.

"Your Highness, prioritizing basic education has another advantage: there's no urgent need for research equipment or a reserve of teachers. I think our primary task is to rapidly spread basic education throughout Australia while also concentrating some funds on building a key university. This would fill the gap in our domestic higher education system and become a cradle for our future talent. If this university had abundant research funding, it might even contribute to our efforts to recruit talent from Europe." Minister Richard smiled.

Education in the various European countries was quite advanced, and their universities produced large numbers of talented people every year.

But precisely because of that, there were always some frustrated talents who were dissatisfied with their treatment and sought another path for the sake of their dreams.

If an Australian university offered abundant research funding to all talented individuals, it would certainly attract scientists who were devoted to research but unable to obtain much funding to come to Australia and conduct their work.

Once these talented people arrived in Australia, controlling them would become very easy.

That was the purpose behind Minister Richard's proposal to place no limit on university research funding: using vast sums of research money to attract talent to Australia.

"Mm, that's a good proposal. How much funding does the Education Department need in total? How long will it take before we see results from the construction of basic education facilities?" Arthur asked.

Richard's proposal was quite good. Not only could it save the government as much money as possible, but it could also improve Australia's educational situation and even attract talent to Australia in the future.

But until any real results appeared, all of this was ultimately still just empty talk.

"Your Highness, if we're only spreading basic education, we need to build urban and rural primary schools in every state and city. Since their sizes will vary, the required funding will differ as well. According to my conservative estimate, spreading basic education will require roughly two million pounds. The primary schools can be put into use six months after construction begins, and our educational environment should improve within a year." Minister Richard thought for a moment before speaking slowly.

"What if we include the university we need to build?" Arthur asked.

Regardless, a university—the cradle for cultivating advanced talent—had to be built, no matter the cost.

Therefore, the cost of constructing the university had to be included as well, and the project needed to be carried out as soon as possible.

"Your Highness, building just one advanced university might cost more than a million pounds. If we include the funds needed to purchase research equipment and recruit talent, the conservative estimate would be two million pounds." Minister Richard took even longer to consider it before finally giving an astonishing answer.

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