As year's end approached, Ferdinand's workload suddenly became hectic. He had only just finished dealing with the nationalities issue when the annual plan for 1902 and the budget entered their final stage.
In truth, these matters had already been discussed many times. Yet many things were not determined by human will, but changed along with changes in objective reality!
Take the present, for example. Education Minister Chekhov said with a furrowed brow, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid the Ministry of Education cannot complete the plan we formulated before!"
Ferdinand's expression changed slightly. In recent years, Bulgaria's various departments had rarely failed to complete their plans—especially plans they had drawn up themselves!
"What happened?" Ferdinand asked in confusion.
Under Chekhov's leadership, the Ministry of Education had done an excellent job in every respect over the past few years. Bulgaria's basic education had even once ranked first in the world!
Yet now, before the plan previously drafted by the Ministry of Education had even been put into effect, it had declared on its own that it could not be completed. This was highly abnormal!
Chekhov said with a bitter smile, "The Ministry of Education made an error in its earlier estimates. Based on the preliminary census data, we discovered that Bulgaria's actual number of illiterate people is far greater than we had estimated!
Of our current population of over thirteen million, no fewer than seven million are illiterate. Even after excluding more than two million elderly people and children, nearly five million still require literacy education. That is nearly one million more than our previous estimate!
Not only that, but our previous plan to establish two new comprehensive universities must also be put on hold.
There are currently around twelve thousand high-school graduates nationwide each year, and eighty-five percent of those examinees are