Kal'tsit: Who's promoting the idea that studying is useless here? Annoyed / Was Humphrey actually the most conscientious character?

"This kid... specializes in sabotaging others; he's really not afraid of offending people."

After laughing, Wei Yenwu was also somewhat relieved that Chen Qi had left Lungmen. Lungmen couldn't protect this great talent. If a script like "Yes, Prime Minister" were filmed in Lungmen, his brother would definitely send people to investigate, not to mention anything else. Discussing politics privately was a serious crime. If he were accused of treason... his entire family might not be executed, but it wouldn't be a good situation either.

Returning to the story, both the organization secretary and the party chairman advised Theresis to tighten his grip on education, and if the Minister of Ministry of Education failed, he should be dismissed. However, Theresis clearly couldn't agree to this suggestion; he already had too much trouble because of the previous dismissal of the Minister of Employment, and he didn't want to cause further turmoil within the Grand Secretariat.

If he takes no action, Theresis and his party may lose the next election and become the opposition party. He is in a dilemma and has no good solution.

Therefore, Theresis had no choice but to seek help from the all-powerful Bloodborne Archon, before entering the office, also spoke with Manfred outside the door about the ins and outs of the matter.

What's wrong with him?

"Educate."

"... Well, it's too late for him to regret it now." The Bloodborne Archon's casual remark once again mocked Hacker, played by Theresis, who had already ridiculed his academic background many times before.

In the background, Humphrey, played by Bloodborne Archon, is an outstanding graduate of Victoria's best university. Humphrey, who follows the elite path, is naturally impeccable in this regard. In contrast, Hacker, who also graduated from a top university, is somewhat looked down upon by Humphrey in terms of academic qualifications.

Manfred also had a high level of education—even higher than the Bloodborne Archon— did not take up the topic, explaining, "No, it's a problem with the education system."

"I understand... but it's too late." The Bloodborne Archon nodded understandingly, but judging from his demeanor, he generally believed that things were beyond help when the problem was already quite serious.

He thinks he'll lose the next election.

"This might not be a bad thing for the country." The Bloodborne Archon was completely unconcerned; who the prime minister was had no impact on a staunch elite like him. Manfred, however, said anxiously, "He can't ignore the facts."

"--If he can't ignore the facts, he shouldn't be a politician." The Bloodborne Archon waved his hand, casually uttering a profound insight that resonated deeply with politicians, and continued:

"Anyway, Bernard, he doesn't need to worry. Our education system meets the needs of most parents—that is, to have someone help them babysit while they are at work."

It must be said that although the Bloodborne Archon's words were very ordinary, they left many parents watching the show speechless... They subconsciously felt that the Bloodborne Archon was wrong, but they didn't know how to refute him.

After all, children who can afford to go to school on Terra are unlikely to have started Infected, and most children, even if born in Mobile City, are unlikely to be extremely wealthy; they are just barely able to support their families.

Most parents are busy, and they can't leave their children alone at home, nor can they take care of them all the time. So, the idea that schools help working parents take care of their children is fundamentally correct, and it is one of the reasons why schools exist.

Most parents might feel uncomfortable with this kind of statement, but can we blame them for their limited abilities?

However, when Manfred in the show mentions that Victoria's "Comprehensive Education" (also known as "General Education," a government-funded public education system) is on the verge of bankruptcy, the Bloodborne Archon refutes this with a look of horror.

"Bernard, I never imagined a loyal public servant would say such a thing! Have you been captured by the enemy?"

"... You mean Ursus?"

"No, Bernard, I meant the Yes, Prime Minister's political advisor!"

The Bloodborne Archon quickly tried to correct Manfred's thinking. When Manfred said that "comprehensive quality education is to improve the quality of education," he immediately refuted this, saying, "How could you have such a thought?"

"... You mean it's just used to smooth over class differences?" Manfred quickly understood, assuming that the class difference referred to the children who went to school together.

But to everyone's surprise, the Bloodborne Archon even refuted this point, immediately saying, "Children? What does it have to do with children? The Ministry of Education never mentions children!"

"No, no, no, Bernard, it's used to smooth over class differences among teachers."

"Improve the quality of life for teachers, not the quality of education for children; raise the salaries of teachers' union members to the same level as their arch-rivals, the National Association of Head Teachers of Grammar Schools!"

The Bloodborne Archon seemed to think that Manfred hadn't yet grasped why they advocated for holistic education, so, ever the know-it-all, he offered his explanation:

"Bernard, when Labour Party was in power, the Ministry of Education touted that comprehensive education could eliminate class differences; after the Conservative Party came to power, they changed their tune and said it was cheap and plentiful."

"We explained to the Labour Party that selective education would create class divisions; to the Conservative Party, we explained that selective education is outrageously expensive!"

"In this way, regardless of which party is in power, the government will provide comprehensive education for children, and we can maintain good relations with the teachers' union—then we can shut ourselves off and provide our own children (the children of civil servants and other social elites) with private elite education!"

Comprehensive quality education versus private elite education. While most viewers might not understand the concept of the former, they immediately grasped the difference when the Bloodborne Archon mentioned the clearly contrasting latter.

However, this does not eliminate the social differences among children, because the children of social elites receive better, stricter, and more successful, but also more expensive, private education than comprehensive quality education.

Thus, children born into better circumstances are more likely to succeed and continue to enrich their families. For children receiving a general education, achieving upward social mobility and gaining admission to prestigious schools is extremely difficult—and even if they do get in, they may not be able to afford the expensive tuition fees.

The principle is easy to understand, but directly revealing it presents numerous problems, especially since... currently, no nation on the Terra can solve this problem.

"Comprehensive education offers a large and plentiful curriculum; private education cultivates elites..."

Meanwhile, Theresia, watching, muttered these words to herself, involuntarily connecting them to most of the Sarkaz and the kings of the Royal Court. After Chen Qi presented her with two educational systems, she gradually began to understand how to build Kazdel's educational system for the future.

Perhaps both of these education systems could be applied... If we simply give commoner Sarkaz more room for advancement, and allow these ordinary Sarkaz to see a greater opportunity to achieve class transcendence and receive education on the same platform as the descendants of the Royal Court, she thought no Sarkaz would refuse such an opportunity.

If these Sarkaz born into poverty succeed through this system, Kazdel will very likely gain a loyal Sarkaz.

In the future, they might even be able to use this system to gradually make the positions of the princes in the Royal Court something they can control!

Chapter 157: Kal'tsit: Who's spreading the idea that studying is useless? (Annoying)

"Turning their attention to education? Another indiscriminate irony, but if this irony can actually spur some educational reforms, then that would be a good thing."

When Kal'tsit first mentioned education in "Yes, Prime Minister," her eyes lit up – because she knew very well that the future of this land could not be better, to a large extent, depended on education as hope, and the education of the next generation largely determined the life trajectory of the next generation.

However, Kal'tsit was also well aware that the social hierarchy on this land was now essentially solidified. Even with major changes like the Victoria era, the status of the ruling class remained unchanged, and the ambitions of the rulers of this land... could not be stopped and would only be perpetuated.

"Dr. Kal'tsit, why is there two education systems? Wouldn't one system be better?"

However, Amiya asked with a hint of confusion, as she didn't know much about the comprehensive quality education and private elite education that Chen Qi mentioned in "Yes, Prime Minister".

After all, strictly speaking, Amiya has not received any systematic education. She has always been taught by the many Elite Operator of Rhodes Island and under the tutelage of Kal'tsit. If you really want to count, Amiya's education can be considered a private elite education - only it was closed and free.

However, Kal'tsit naturally answered Amiya's question, saying calmly, "It's because it's difficult for us to find a balance—a single education system that can simultaneously meet the educational needs of most families while also providing an education suitable for the nobility."

"As you just heard, Amiya, the characteristic of comprehensive education is that it's inexpensive and accessible to the general public, allowing more people to afford and receive an education. Private education, on the other hand, is designed to cultivate elites for the nobility and wealthy classes."

"These two types of education are difficult to fully merge because most people cannot afford the enormous expenses required for elite education. This makes it easier for the children of the wealthy to achieve systematic success, while making it more difficult for the general public to achieve upward social mobility."

"What if a genius emerges from among the commoners?" Amiya couldn't help but ask this question. Even if nobles, due to their family background, have a greater chance of systematically developing their talents, with such a large number of commoners, wouldn't any geniuses appear?

However, Kal'tsit's response was a sigh, and after a long pause, she said softly:

"... Of course there are, but even if a commoner genius comes to a prestigious school and can afford the high tuition fees, the intense pressure of such an environment is enough to eliminate many people."

"If he survives, most of them will be taken in by the nobles and become part of the nobility. At that point, how could they possibly cut off their own channels of benefit?"

Kal'tsit's lament was more like a helpless sigh, a reflection of knowing all of this but being powerless to change it. Kal'tsit knew that changing things was far too difficult, and the future of this land was far more pressing. Doing something so futile at this time would only cause greater turmoil.

However, this didn't stop her from marveling at how Chen Qi dared to bring these things up. If Kal'tsit had initially worried that Chen Qi would cause a huge upheaval on Terra, now Kal'tsit was actually somewhat hopeful that Chen Qi could truly change something...

Returning to the main storyline, the Bloodborne Archon, who believes that union policies should remain unchanged and that the government should adapt to the unions, met with the Prime Minister again along with Manfred.

As soon as they entered, Theresis immediately shared some of the problems she had discovered with the Ministry of National Ministry of Education.

This is the topic of a religious essay. "Which do you prefer: the Steam Knight or charity?"

"Even math problems are getting politicized: 'If building the Victoria Steam Knight costs 500 million Victoria gold coins annually, and feeding a single starving Sargon child costs 75 Victoria gold coins per year, how many Sargon children's lives could be saved if the Ministry of Defense abandoned the Steam Knight?'"

After saying this, Theresis cast a reproachful glance at the Bloodborne Archon, who was still trying to cover something up. However, the Bloodborne Archon controlled his expression and retorted:

"It's simple, zero. Those Sargon chieftains will take all the money and use it to buy conventional weapons."

"Anyway, it's just a matter of math; five hundred million divided by seventy-five will do."

"But the children haven't learned to do math yet." Theresis looked worried and uneasy, seemingly genuinely concerned about the children's future, while the Bloodborne Archon dismissed her concerns.

"That's right, but local education authorities might say they don't need to learn it; they have calculators."

"They need to know the principles, right?" Theresis's words received a lot of support at the time, after all, no one wants their child to skip the process by using a calculator when encountering math problems in the future in order to save time.

However, faced with Theresis's seriousness, and assuming that everyone present had studied basic calculations and surely understood the principles, the Bloodborne Archon instead joked:

Really? What is 3947 divided by 73?

"Ah... I need paper and pen to draft—come on, Bernard! Never mind!"

Theresis was taken aback by the sudden question. Having not used scratch paper for calculations in a long time, Theresis was somewhat exasperated as Manfred handed her the notebook and pen, and she chased him away.

However, this scene also elicited bursts of cheerful laughter from many children accompanying their parents, while simultaneously filling them with a sense of pride—these adults are so useless! They all know how to calculate it this way, but these children don't?

After that, Theresis cited ancient languages as an example, but the Bloodborne Archon cleverly countered with an equally ancient language. Ultimately, with no other option, Theresis could only continue her questioning:

"I can't believe it, Humphrey, you grew up with a rigorous academic education, how can you deny its value?"

"--But what's the use? I can't even use it when I'm talking to Prime Minister Victoria."

The Bloodborne Archon's answer was extremely confident, yet it made the adults laugh heartily, because in a way, the Bloodborne Archon was right. Most adults of a certain age find that their profession seems unrelated to their professional skills, and even has little connection to all the knowledge they have acquired.

"The education system in this country is a disaster. We should be teaching children how to make a living, but instead we're just keeping them bored all day."

"I think boredom is an essential skill for them to make a living," the Bloodborne Archon continued, relaying his opinion. When Theresis pressed him further about the point that with the graduation age increasing, students were actually learning less, his explanation was:

"We're raising the graduation age not so that they'll study more, but to keep young people out of the job market and reduce the unemployment rate!"

It was clear to everyone that the Bloodborne Archon's words made sense. However, Kal'tsit on Rhodes Island saw through the Bloodborne Archon's true colors, frowned slightly, and then spoke to Amiya beside her:

"Amiya, don't believe his sophistry."

"Huh?" Amiya, who was just about to ask a question, was preempted by Kal'tsit answered each word clearly:

"The 'education' that the Bloodborne Archon speaks of is always 'comprehensive quality education' for the masses. All his views are based on the premise that he, his peers, and their descendants would never accept this kind of education, which is why he dares to talk about it so confidently."

"He's always been judging an education system he looks down on from a superior's perspective. Don't let him fool you, Amiya, education is never useless."

Kal'tsit deeply abhorred such "theory that studying is useless," and she was even willing to define such remarks as "harmful to the country and the people." She did not want the Bloodborne Archon's words to lead a child like Amiya, who lacked the ability to discern right from wrong, astray.

However, the Bloodborne Archon clearly admitted that there are indeed problems with the current public education system. Moreover, the main reason for this problem is that education has always been the responsibility of local governments, and entrusting anything to local governments will inevitably turn into a joke.

"I mean, education will never get better as long as it's still in the hands of those idiots at City Hall. Just imagine what would happen if we handed over defense to them?"

"Give each Mobile City's local government 100 million gold coins and let them handle their own defense. Don't worry about Ursus anymore; civil war will break out in less than three weeks!"

"Education is a living example. Because no one treats education with the same seriousness they would treat national defense!"

"... So, that's why the civil defense system is handed over to local governments, right?" Theresis seemed to understand now why so many of Victoria's policies had become a joke. The Bloodborne Archon agreed, stating...

"Of course, because everyone knows civil defense is a joke! We can't entrust important matters to those clowns!"

"--However, given that you've already left education to them, it can only be inferred that you haven't valued it so far."

The Bloodborne Archon spoke at length, and this time his arguments seemed much more reasonable and well-founded. However, he once again ruthlessly trampled the image of the local government, which he had previously denigrated, into the abyss.

At this moment, the faces of local government officials from almost every country were ashen, because Chen Qi had already used this drama to verbally abuse them. And this time, the words of the Bloodborne Archon were practically degrading them as "parasites"!

While some of them may indeed be corrupt, and not every viewer agrees with the script's perspective, anyone who is harshly criticized like that and then silenced would feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Among them, the most upset representative is undoubtedly Wei Yenwu, who is now in charge of the local government and was severely scolded by Chen Qi through the script. At this moment, his face is starting to look bad.

"--This kid, he dares to talk nonsense about anything. Do he really think I'm that kind of person?"

"I think that the way you seemed so helpless about education just now, it seems like Chen Qi was right to scold you, wasn't it?"

However, Wei Yenwu was sulking with a livid face, while Wenyue mercilessly added insult to injury to her husband, causing the group of younger generation members to chuckle.

Wei Yenwu, however, had no way to refute his wife's sabotage, so he could only sullenly smoke his cigarette, thinking to himself to Chen Qi was far away in Londinium:

You better not go back to Lungmen, or even if Little Chen and Little Tal try to stop me, your uncle will skin you alive today!

Chapter 158: Is Humphrey actually the most conscientious character?

However, even though Wei Yenwu was teased by his juniors and wife, Wei Yenwu had to admit that the views of the Bloodborne Archon in "Yes, Prime Minister," while extreme, were not entirely wrong from his perspective.

After all, education is indeed a secondary priority compared to national defense. Moreover, the reason why education is entrusted to local governments is mainly because the economic development of various regions in a country is not uniform, and the quality of teachers will also vary from region to region.

Therefore, entrusting it to local governments for analysis based on specific circumstances is undoubtedly much more time-saving and labor-saving. After all, the greatest significance of education lies in popularizing education; you must first popularize it on a certain scale before you can move on to the next step.

Even in the Yan's imperial examinations, candidates were first selected by local governments, and then further screened step by step to reach the final palace examination. How difficult would it be for the central government to coordinate such a nationwide talent selection process without the cooperation of local governments?

It's undeniable that some local governments do have some truly incompetent officials... but it's wrong to condemn all local government officials outright, especially if all policies were overturned at once, as this would likely cause a huge backlash.

In the show, when asked about Humphrey, played by the Bloodborne Archon, not valuing education, the Prime Minister, played by Theresis, immediately disagreed:

"It's important, of course—it could cost me the next election!"

"Ah!" Upon hearing this, the Bloodborne Archon let out a rather exaggerated exclamation. After rolling his eyes, he looked at Theresis with a helpless expression, and his tone became somewhat subtle as he said:

"I naively thought you were genuinely worried about our children's future."

At this point, a rare hint of melancholy flickered in the Bloodborne Archon's eyes. Although he maintained a smile on his face, he could not hide the sadness in his heart at this "unsurprising" outcome.

However, Theresis seemed completely oblivious to, or rather, unconcerned about, these subtle expressions of the Bloodborne Archon, and spoke with certainty:

"I'm worried too—after all, they can vote at eighteen."

"... Alright, Prime Minister. Let's centralize it then, take it from the local levels! Put it under the Ministry of Education, and you'll be able to do something."

The Bloodborne Archon had no desire to respond to Theresis's answer, and instead, with a hint of emotion, he made a proposal that was utterly impossible.

However, the Bloodborne Archon's behavior changed the minds of viewers who initially did not support Bloodborne Archon theories. On the contrary, Theresis, who was initially very concerned about education, seemed less like a good person after his words.

"This is interesting..." Wei Yenwu, also looking quite intrigued, watched the two main actors on television and chuckled to himself.