Chapter 478- Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Wasn't Ouyang Shuo's plan great?
Of course, because this was basically a copy of modern day education, there was no need to pass an imperial exam. Instead, they would give round after round of exams to choose out the talents.
However, to execute this plan was extremely difficult.
Firstly, the lack of teachers.
The main map of the game mainly used Confucianism teachings, and the talents amongst the people were mainly Confucian believers. Hence, to set up other subjects in the prefecture schools, they would need to prepare the appropriate teachers.
Now, the only place that could develop teachers was Xinan University.
Firstly, they could choose a bunch of the current teachers in the colleges and place them into the prefectural schools to teach lessons. Secondly, they could choose a portion of the students that graduated to become teachers.
With the help of the two, they could set up the prefecture school structure.
Taking into account the current situation, setting up various subjects at a prefecture school level was already difficult. To do so for House schools and County schools, they really did not have the ability.
Ouyang Shuo was eager, but he would not rush the entire process.
After the prefecture schools were up and running, the students that graduated could in turn be placed down into the House schools. Like that, they could repeat the process to the county schools, and even the private schools.
Simply put, they were working from top down.
Hence, this was destined to be a long process. Ouyang Shuo predicted that it would at least take two years to complete this cycle.
Secondly, the increase in the number of subjects meant that the education costs would rise rapidly.
The education expenses belonged to the public finance expenditure. Within the territory, be it the private schools, the colleges or Xinan University, they were all free. The territory bore all the education costs.
As the number of subjects increased, the number of students would as well.
As a result, education costs would double or even triple. Including the money needed to expand the schools, they also had to account for the salaries of teachers, the maintenance of the schools, and the costs of ink and brushes.
Hence, if the finances of the territory were not on the right path, Ouyang Shuo would not have dared to make this change.
Thirdly, how to ensure fairness.
Education fairness posed a big problem since the olden times. Fairness in recruiting students, fairness in examinations, and fairness in recommendations. Each and every aspect was a tough problem.
These three tough questions were all exceedingly hard to solve, but if they solved them, it would not just affect the education system. Rather, it would change the entire official ecosystem.
Why?
The olden field was split up into officials and minor officials, these two different levels. The two would not even communicate with one another. No matter how the official was insulted, he would not be called a minor official. No matter how much the minor official got promoted, he could not become an official.
Officials were the masters and the higher class, while the minor officials were the servants, born to serve the officials.
Officials changed jobs every three years, while minor officials might stick to a position for their whole life. Officials came from elsewhere, while minor officials were local. The minor officials laid their roots there, and the son would take over for the father.
This difference in status had its benefits in that officials could not form up a power network in an area. Minor officials were familiar with the area, so they knew how to make changes and decisions.
However, in terms of executing matters, problems would arise like minor officials holding up the system and causing the whole administrative system to be stuck.
The relationship between officials and minor officials were also exceedingly complicated. Even if one rambled on for three days and three nights, they could not finish describing it.
Ouyang Shuo's basic public education was trying to blur the gap between the two, so it was bound to touch some nerves.
The new subjects, including calculus, laws and the like, were for developing minor officials.
During olden times, minor officials and officials had two different selection channels. Now, Ouyang Shuo was going to place them into the same education structure, truly groundbreaking.
What changes this move would cause, in truth, Ouyang Shuo could not clearly tell himself.
Luckily, this was in a game. If it was the real world olden times, and he dared to suggest this, he would be kicked off his position in minutes.
In the game, the basic education system and even professionalizing the administrative system were extremely beneficial, similar to the public servant system in the real world.
With that, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about minor officials in an area holding up the entire system. As for future minor officials, they would not need locals to take up the role, and it would not be hereditary.
At that time, the various changes that he pushed out would not easily mutate at the various execution stages. Although resistance would exist, the problems they face would be much less than the revolutions in history.
As such, Ouyang Shuo decided that he should resolutely push for this change. If it was simply to make the people smarter, he did not need to act so extravagant and large scale in doing it.
Pushing out a basic education system would set the foundations for his future changes.
The three biggest problems of education needed a strong force to solve it. The current Culture and Education Division was barely holding on. The key of the problem was that Ouyang Shuo's ambitions were far greater than this.
Apart from education, technology, culture, and hygiene all needed to be revolutionized.
With the Mohists moving in and real life experts gathering, Shanhai City's high end technology field had reached an unparalleled level. Even so, Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied.
His goal was to push for a prefecture grade technology standard.
In the cultural field, there temporarily was not any need for a revolution.
The title of Land of Philosophers had let Shanhai City become a monster in the culture field. It only needed proper directions and control right now.
The hygiene field was the second field that Ouyang Shuo planned to attack. Building a perfect public health system was his target.
In the olden times, be it doctors or physicians, they all operated in private. The only hired ones were the royal doctors.
Hence, in the olden times, the problem of hard to be treated, and treatments being too expensive was much worse than modern society.
The Lord could not see it, but many commoners had to sell their children because they had no money to cure their illnesses. Otherwise, they would fall into bankruptcy.
Basically, a worst enough disease could push a family to the brink of collapse.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to build a medical system to solve this problem. He was ready to make the Medical Department, currently a public organization, into a half official organization.
In contrast to the problems faced when trying to push out the basic education system, a lack of teachers, the territory did not lack physicians. The development of the Medical Department was quite ferocious, and their physicians numbered in the hundreds. Each location had the presence of doctors and physicians.
As long as they hired all these wandering physicians and had them work at the local Medical Department, they could solve the problem.
The difficulty of the medical revolution lied in funds instead.
To fulfil his public medical system, the Medical Department's running fees, and slides for the doctors; the territory needed to pay for all these matters.
Even in terms of medicine and herbs, if they must sell at a discount, and they would not receive profits out of it.
In such a scenario, the public healthcare would place a huge burden on the finances. As a result, they could not make medicine like education and have it to be free.
If not, even though the territory finances were in the green, it would fail to hold on.
One could foresee that education and healthcare would be the two biggest spenders of the territory’s budget.
Consultation costs, how to ensure medicine supply, how to protect the rights of the doctor, how to get into contact with medicine suppliers, they needed to solve all of these problems.
Without a department handling the matter, he could not make this plan come into fruition.
Taking into account all considerations, Ouyang Shuo was ready to make a structural change to the Culture and Education Division. He could draw the blueprint at the highest level.
Education, Science, Culture, and Health Department. They would take charge of technology, education, culture, and public health matters. After the change in name, they would still be under the Administration Department.
This department would contain four divisions: technology division, education division, culture division, and health division.
If he made Yu Shuda, the original Culture and Education Secretary, the director, some people would feel unhappy. After all, the newly formed department would face a tough revolution, and it affected all parts of the territory.
Be it in terms of his skills or experience, he was not enough for the task. Hence, Ouyang Shuo planned to make him the education secretary to continue in the education field.
The first director had to be a strong hand to take care of this ship.
Based on logic, the current Administration Director Fan Zhongyan was a great choice.
According to his original plan, Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Xiao He replace Fan Zhongyan as the administration director. Unfortunately, Fan Zhongyan was leading the evaluation of the officials and could not be moved around.
Furthermore, when Ouyang Shuo was not around for long periods of time, he needed someone like Xiao He to replace him.
Hence, now was not a suitable time for such a plan.
Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo could only make Xiao He the Education, Science, Culture, and Health Director for now. This was also a good base for Xiao He to continue building up for the future.
After all, this revolution had far reaching effects on the territory that could not be measured. If he completed this matter, his achievements in the territory would be comparable to anyone.
Coincidentally, he was currently handling the daily duties of the Governor-General House. His position as director was of great help in pushing out these changes in both the education and medical fields.
This also exposed the tough situation in Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo was currently treating Xiao He like a universal treasure, plugging him anywhere that needed help.
Apart from him, there was no one else who could handle this.