Chapter 731

The bottom line of a politician was usually very low. No one had any objections to Franz's proposal. For the long-term stability of Austria, it was not a big deal to bluff a little.

Anyway, the cabinet was all nobles from the German Region. It was the true Germanic Race, and the Germanization movement would not hurt their national feelings.

However, the Minister of Education was confused. It was easy to tamper with historical origins. It was hard to explain the history of thousands of years ago, but what the hell was the Austrian language?

"Your Highness, what is the Austrian language?" Count Leo von Tous Hohen asked in confusion.

Franz explained, "Simply promoting the German language will easily cause other ethnic minorities to feel unbalanced.

In order to take care of their feelings, I am going to gather Austrian linguists and historians to create an Austrian language with German as the core and the languages of various ethnic minorities. "

Prime Minister Felix frowned and said, "Your Highness, German is the most common language in Austria. If we make another Austrian language, everyone will have to learn it again. Isn't that too troublesome?

Moreover, a unique Austrian language will deepen the estrangement between us and the German region, and that bunch of traitors to petty Germanism will benefit! "

Franz laughed and said, "This will depend on how the Ministry of Education writes the Austrian language. If we directly use German and only change a few unfamiliar nouns, it won't affect daily communication, right?

Isn't there a difference between German and German? As long as our Austrian language can be used normally with German, there will be no so-called communication gap. "

Everyone's expression returned to normal. If it was just changing unfamiliar nouns that ordinary people would never use in their lifetime, then there would be no problem.

Now that the Government of Austria had the right to speak, it was up to them to change it. Promoting German became promoting the Austrian language. In fact, it was just another way of saying it.

Opposition? It seemed that at this time, Austria's opposition was at its weakest. Those who dared to cause trouble had all met God in the rebellion, and the rest were at most at the stage of verbal attacks.

It was impossible for any policy to gain the support of everyone. Conservative Austria was not France, and the people's revolutionary enthusiasm was not that high.

As long as it did not harm their interests, the people would not cause trouble or even rebel over such a small matter.

Franz knew that the Austrian language he proposed was only for political show, to show that the central government valued every ethnic group and respected their language and cultural traditions.

Not everyone was satisfied with this, but it was better than nothing. The Austrian language did indeed add languages of various ethnic groups, although they were all unfamiliar nouns.

"Your Highness, language assimilation is a long-term investment. If we want to complete this project, it will take at least 20 years. During this period, we must continuously invest a large amount of money." The Minister of Education, Count Leo von Tous Hohen, said after thinking for a while.

Once the unification of language and culture was included in national policy, the Ministry of Education would have a greater say. The Ministry of Education would be the most important department in Austria for decades.

Franz nodded and said, "Of course, I have discussed the funding issue with the Prime Minister, and the government will find a way to solve it.

The unification of language and culture will be combined with Austria's compulsory education.

Before the implementation of compulsory education, we still lack a large number of qualified teachers. The Ministry of Education must solve this problem as soon as possible.

If we don't recruit enough people, lower the standard and carry out short-term training. As long as they have the right values and can grasp elementary knowledge, they can take up the post. "

Concept?

What was the Franz version?

Without a doubt, it was Franz's concept of society, values, and life.

To sum it up, they must support the great House of Habsburg, be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, abide by Austria's laws and regulations, and have no bad habits.

As long as they were loyal enough, they could find ways to make up for their lack of ability.

At worst, they could open teacher training classes. It did not matter if it was slow, but they could not let the black sheep lead the next generation astray.

Prime Minister Felix said, "Yes, the cabinet has made a preliminary plan to build 3,000 public elementary schools nationwide to promote compulsory education.

In the new public schools, there would be two main subjects, Austrian language and mathematics. There will also be ethnic language classes in ethnic minority areas, but the local ethnic language is an elective course and will not be included in the entrance exam.

Austria's compulsory education is tentatively set for six years. All children between the ages of six to twelve must enter school to receive compulsory education.

Teenagers over this age must also be enrolled if they are willing to enter school.

After six years of compulsory education, students with excellent grades can pass the entrance exam and enter secondary school.

Those who enter secondary school with their own ability and families with financial difficulties can be funded by the government to complete their studies. The same goes for the university. "

"Prime Minister, what about the funding? Even if we use the lowest level of allocation, the annual expenditure will not be less than 50 million guilders. Adding the funding for higher education, I'm afraid the education budget will exceed 100 million guilders in the future.

Relying on tuition fees alone is just a drop in the bucket. The government's revenue is limited. Even with the addition of Hungary, it is at most 300 million guilders. Can the government spend one-third of the money on education? "Count Leo von Tous Hohen said with a frown.

Don't think that just because he was the minister of education, he did not care about other issues. Looking at the overall situation, the Government of Austria could not invest one-third of the budget on education.

The Government of Austria needed to invest in many areas. In this era of the law of the jungle, blindly investing in education would not wait for the education dividend to be produced, and the country would be finished in advance.

Felix shook his head and said, "There is no need to charge any fees. Ordinary people simply cannot afford this expenditure. The government will find a way to solve the expenses.

The Ministry of Education will come up with a plan as soon as possible. We need to calculate the education budget for the next year. Starting from 1849, Austria will start compulsory education. "

The matter of using the Church as an example was still in the confidential stage. Franz's ascension to the throne was imminent. Now that Austria's stability was the overriding priority, there was naturally no need to complicate matters at this time.

Franz said, "Well, the specific funding issues will be discussed later by the cabinet government in a separate meeting to come up with a solution. Today's main issue is the implementation of compulsory education.

Austria is not rich, so we can only do poor education. With limited funding, we can train as many talents as possible. "

Training talents? Obviously, it was not training high-tech talents. Franz could not set such high requirements. Compulsory education only trained industrial workers with a certain degree of cultural knowledge.

Even industrial workers who graduated from primary school, with a large base, there would always be a group of qualified engineers. The upper limit of their growth was much higher than the illiterate who could only do hard work.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Count Leo von Tous Hohen, the minister of education, replied.

Compulsory education in Austria was following the example of the neighboring Kingdom of Prussia. In this era, only the Kingdom of Prussia had successfully completed compulsory education. England and France had not yet started compulsory education.

They learned from Prussia in the framework, but when it came to the specific details, the two sides were different.

Compulsory education in Austria at this time was actually poor education. Simply put, it was done as cheaply as possible.

According to Franz's plan, this kind of cheap compulsory education was really not expensive.

For example, the school could borrow the local churches, or confiscate the property of the rebels, or mobilize the people to build a few wooden houses, which could be used for the time being.

Another example: teaching materials, as long as the teachers had books in their hands, it would be fine. Whether the students could get textbooks depended on the funding. Ink, paper, and inkstone were all omitted. Everyone could bring a sand table to class.

The biggest expenses were the teachers' salaries and the students' food expenses.

Franz had experienced hard times before he transmigrated. He knew that for many people at the bottom, three meals a day was a heavy burden.

Many families could not afford to let parents bear the children's food expenses. Otherwise, there would not be so many child laborers.

If the economic conditions were right, who would be cruel enough to let a few years old enter the dark factory?

One had to know that the casualty rate of child laborers was high. It was very likely that when they left in the morning, they would be fine, but at night, they would be gone.

Even if they died, it would be in vain. No one would hold the capitalists responsible. At most, they would just give a few years' salary as compensation and be done with it.

In order not to lower the birth rate, Franz decided not to increase the educational burden of the parents. The compulsory education stage should be borne by the government.

Anyway, in this era, people would not be picky. No matter what, the school environment was much better than the factory. No matter what, Franz could guarantee that there would be enough black bread and would not let them starve.

Of course, as a high and mighty crown prince, it was better not to come up with this idea. It was better to come up with it by the people at the bottom. It would be more convincing.

"Spread the news that Austria is preparing to start compulsory education. We will gather opinions from the people to find the lowest cost and most suitable education model for Austria," Franz said.