Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 112: The Poorest Model of Compulsory Education

Politicians often have low bottom lines, and Franz’s proposal didn’t raise any objections. For the sake of Austria’s long-term stability, a bit of manipulation wasn’t considered a major issue.

After all, the top levels of the cabinet were composed of nobles from the German regions, genuine members of the Germanic ethnicity, and the Germanization movement wouldn’t hurt their national sentiments.

However, the Minister of Education was perplexed. Altering the origins of history was one thing, as history from thousands of years ago was already challenging to clarify. But what in the world was the Austrian language?

“Your Highness, what is the Austrian language?” asked Count Leo von Tussaud-Hohenberg with confusion.

Franz explained, “Simply promoting the German language could easily make other minority groups feel uneasy. To cater to their emotions, I plan to gather Austrian linguists and historians, using German as the core language and incorporating the languages and scripts of various minority groups to create an Austrian language system.”

Prime Minister Felix, with a furrowed brow, said, “Your Highness, German is the most widely used language in Austria. Introducing another Austrian language would require everyone to relearn, isn’t that too cumbersome?

Furthermore, having a unique Austrian language might deepen our divide with the German-speaking regions and benefit those petty German nationalists!”

Franz chuckled and said, “It depends on how the Ministry of Education formulates the Austrian language. If we simply modify certain unfamiliar terms while keeping the core of the German language intact, it shouldn’t disrupt everyday communication, right?

After all, there are dialectical differences within the German language itself, aren’t there? As long as our Austrian language can be used interchangeably with standard German, there shouldn’t be any significant communication barriers.”

The others’ expressions returned to normal. If the changes primarily involved unfamiliar terms that the average person wouldn’t frequently encounter, then there shouldn’t be a problem.

Now, the decision rested with the Austrian government, and whatever approach they adopted would determine the way forward. Transitioning from promoting German to promoting the Austrian language was essentially a matter of semantics.

Opposition? It seems that at this moment, Austria’s opposition is at its weakest. Those who dared to cause trouble met their end in the rebellion, and the rest are mostly limited to mere verbal opposition.

In any policy, it’s impossible to gain the support of everyone. Austria, being conservative, is not like France, where the enthusiasm for revolution runs high among the masses. As long as their interests are not harmed, the people won’t rise up or rebel over such trivial matters.

Franz knew that his proposal for the Austrian language was primarily a political gesture, showing that the central government values each ethnicity and respects their language and cultural traditions.

This might not satisfy everyone, but it’s better than doing nothing. The Austrian language indeed incorporates the languages and scripts of various ethnicities, even if they are mostly unfamiliar terms.

“Your Highness, language and script assimilation is a long-term investment. To complete this plan, we would need at least twenty years and a continuous infusion of substantial funds,” said Count Leo von Tussaud-Hohenberg, the Minister of Education.

Once the promotion of a unified language and culture becomes part of national policy, the Ministry of Education’s influence will significantly increase. In the coming decades, it will become one of Austria’s most vital departments.

Franz nodded and said, “Certainly, I have discussed the issue of funding with the Prime Minister, and the government will find ways to address it. This effort to unify language and culture will be integrated with Austria’s compulsory education system.

Before implementing compulsory education, we still lack a significant number of qualified teachers, and the Ministry of Education must resolve this issue promptly.

If recruitment falls short, we will lower the standards for short-term training. As long as they have the correct three views and can grasp basic primary school knowledge, they will be eligible for the position.”

Correct three views?

What are the three views?

Without a doubt, it refers to Franz’s version of world view, value, and outlook on life.

In summary, it means one must uphold the illustrious House of Habsburg, remain loyal to His Majesty, the great Emperor, abide by Austrian laws and regulations, and have no detrimental habits.

As long as loyalty is sufficient, even if individual capabilities are lacking, there are ways to make up for it.

Worst-case scenario, they can establish teacher training programs. It may take a bit longer, but they couldn’t allow troublemakers to negatively influence the next generation.

Prime Minister Felix remarked, “That’s correct. The Cabinet has already outlined a preliminary plan to establish 3,000 public primary schools nationwide, promoting universal compulsory education.

In these new public schools, the curriculum will include Austrian language and mathematics as core subjects. In minority regions, we will also offer courses in ethnic languages, but these will be optional and will not count towards exam scores.

Compulsory education in Austria is initially set at 6 years. All children aged between 6 and 12 must attend school to receive compulsory education.

For adolescents beyond this age range who are willing to join schools for further study, schools must also admit them.

Upon successful completion of the six-year compulsory education, students with outstanding academic records can take the entrance exam to attend secondary schools.

For those who gain admission based on their individual abilities and come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, the government will provide support to help them complete their education, including assistance for university education.”

“Prime Minister, what about the funding? Even if we adopt the most basic configuration for all schools, the annual expenses won’t be less than 50 million ducats. When you add in the budget for higher education, it’s possible that education funding could exceed 100 million ducats in the future.

Relying solely on tuition fees is just a drop in the bucket. Government revenue is limited, and even if we include the funds from the Hungarian region, we’re looking at a maximum of 300 million ducats. Can the government really allocate one-third of its budget to education?” Count Leo von Tussaud-Hohenberg frowned as he spoke.

Don’t assume that just because he’s the Minister of Education, he doesn’t care about other issues. Looking at the bigger picture, the Austrian government cannot realistically allocate one-third of its budget to education. There are many other areas that require government investment, and in this cutthroat era, blindly investing in education may not yield returns before the nation faces serious financial problems.

Felix shook his head and said, “There’s no need to charge any fees; ordinary people simply can’t afford this expense. The government will find a way to cover the funding.

The Ministry of Education should prepare a plan as soon as possible, and we need to calculate the education budget for the next year. Austria will start compulsory education in 1849.”

As for dealing with the Church, that matter is currently in a confidential stage. With Franz’s coronation approaching, Austria is focused on stability above all else, and this is not the time to stir up controversy.

Franz began, saying, “Alright, the specific budgetary issues will be discussed separately by the Cabinet government later. Today, our main focus is on implementing compulsory education.

Austria isn’t wealthy, so we can only afford basic education. With limited funding, our goal is to cultivate as many talents as possible.”

Cultivating talents? It was clear that he wasn’t referring to training highly-skilled experts. Franz couldn’t set such high expectations. Compulsory education was primarily aimed at producing skilled industrial workers with a basic level of cultural knowledge.

Even among the elementary school graduates, with such a large pool of individuals, there would inevitably emerge a group of competent engineers. Their potential for growth would be significantly higher than illiterate laborers stuck in manual labor roles.

“Yes, Your Highness!” replied Education Minister Leo von Tussaud-Hohenberg.

Austria’s compulsory education system was modeled after its neighbor, the Kingdom of Prussia. During this era, the only successful example of compulsory education was found in Prussia, as neither England nor France had initiated such programs yet.

While Austria followed the Prussian framework, the specific details of their systems differed. At this time, Austria’s compulsory education was essentially a form of basic education, focusing on cost-effective methods to provide education to the masses.

According to Franz’s plan, this cost-effective compulsory education system was indeed quite affordable.

For example, schools could be established using existing local facilities, such as churches, or by repurposing confiscated properties from rebels. In some cases, it might even be possible to mobilize the local community to construct simple wooden buildings that would suffice for educational purposes.

Similarly, textbooks were a matter of ensuring that teachers had access to books. Whether students could acquire textbooks depended on the available funds. The expenses for supplies like pens, ink, paper, and inkstones were omitted, and students would typically bring their own slate boards to class.

The most significant expenses were teacher salaries and providing meals for the students.

Franz, having lived through difficult times before his time travel, understood that for many lower-class people, providing three meals a day was a heavy burden.

Requiring parents to bear the cost of their children’s meals was something many families couldn’t afford, which was why there were so many child laborers.

In cases where economic conditions permitted, who could bear to send children of such a young age into dark factories?

It’s important to note that child labor had a high injury and mortality rate, and children who left for work in the morning might not return home in the evening, as accidents were common in these harsh working conditions.

In those times, even in the unfortunate event of a child’s death, nobody would hold the capitalists accountable. At most, they might provide some compensation equivalent to a few years’ worth of wages, and that would be the end of it.

To avoid lowering the birth rate, Franz decided not to increase the burden of education on parents, and the government would continue to bear the cost of compulsory education.

Besides, in this era, people weren’t too picky. No matter how basic the school environment might be, it was still much better than working in factories. Franz was determined to ensure that there would be enough black bread to keep them from going hungry.

Of course, as a high-ranking crown prince, he didn’t want to be the one to propose this solution. It would be better if it came from the lower-class citizens; that would be more convincing.

“We’ll release the news about Austria’s plan to launch compulsory education and solicit public opinions to find the most cost-effective and suitable education model for Austria,” Franz suggested.