Chapter 772 - 354: 9 Years of Compulsory Education

The actions of the Ministry of Industry were swift, quickly producing a comprehensive shipbuilding industry integration plan, which was approved by a vote in the Cabinet Government.

After the vote, the finance department allocated funds to the Ministry of Industry to support the shipbuilding industry, and the reorganization of the domestic shipbuilding industry in Spain officially began.

The purpose of industry integration is to cultivate some powerful monopoly enterprises, but such a plan cannot be made public.

Because to some extent, nurturing monopoly enterprises also means eliminating these small businesses, which is bound to cause dissatisfaction among the owners of these small enterprises.

But this is unavoidable, as small businesses have little effect on the nation; only medium and large enterprises of scale have certain value to the country.

For the nation’s interests, the interests of these small shipyards can be sacrificed. Of course, during the integration process of shipyards, the Ministry of Industry will also closely monitor the movements of these small shipyards.

Shipyard workers will be properly placed, and they will not lose their jobs due to the merger and integration of their enterprises.

The shareholders of the integrated shipyards will also receive proper compensation according to market value. Besides their enterprises being merged, they seem to have no other significant losses.

During the restructuring of the shipbuilding industry, other departments also provided support roles.

To cultivate more outstanding shipbuilding workers for Spain’s shipbuilding industry, the education department specifically established several technical training schools related to the shipbuilding industry and reached cooperation with several large shipyards in Spain.

Speaking of technical training related to workers, this type of technical school is also widely welcomed in Spain at present.

Spain’s education system operates on a dual-track basis, providing sound pathways in both cultural and technical education.

During the entire elementary education stage, Spain’s education focuses mainly on teaching basic knowledge, such as relatively simple language, mathematics, and historical knowledge.

After entering the six-year secondary school stage, students will be stratified. Students with better grades will enter junior and senior high school to improve their academic qualifications, ultimately becoming esteemed university students.

Additionally, students who are not very interested in studying or with poor grades can enter various types of technical training schools.

These technical training schools have basically all reached agreements with local factories and businesses, so students who graduate successfully from these technical schools can generally be assigned jobs.

It is worth mentioning that students who graduate successfully from technical schools often earn more than those with only junior and senior high school qualifications.

Unless these students can enter university, they barely earn more than technical students in the initial stage of employment.

Although the per capita annual income in Spain is only 229.14 Pesseta, the actual annual income of workers has reached close to 260 Pesseta.

The income of these technical workers who graduate from technical schools is higher than ordinary workers, generally reaching about 270 Pesseta.

After working for several years and becoming skilled workers, their income generally exceeds 300 Pesseta.

It is precisely because of the continuous expansion of the worker scale that Spain’s per capita annual income has risen, and it is increasing at a relatively fast pace every year.

Because Spain’s education system implements dual-track education, the financial budget of the education department has always been among the highest of the departments, second only to the most important Defense Department.

In 1890, the total fiscal expenditure of the Spanish Government was as high as 1.2021 billion Pesseta, of which military expenditure amounted to 335 million Pesseta, accounting for 27.87% of Spain’s annual fiscal expenditure.

The financial budget for the education department was second only to military expenditure, amounting to 192 million Pesseta, accounting for 15.97% of the Spanish Government’s annual fiscal expenditure.

The Ministry of Industry comes third, with a financial budget as high as 187 million Pesseta, accounting for 15.5% of the Spanish Government’s annual fiscal expenditure.

This also shows Spain’s emphasis on education, and the Minister of Education’s influence has always been not inferior to important Cabinet Ministers like those of Industry and Agriculture.

With such a significant investment in education, Spain’s educational environment has greatly improved compared to 20 years ago.

When Carlo first became King of Spain, Spain’s illiteracy rate was close to 70%, and the vast majority of the domestic population was illiterate; even among the literate population, more than half only had an elementary education.

However, by the end of 1890, 20 years later, Spain’s illiteracy rate had dropped to about 15%. Of these, some were elderly people who could no longer receive education, and others were children under 6 years old.

Aside from the very young and very old population, the Spanish Government has implemented compulsory elementary education for all children aged 6 and above, and encourages them to pursue higher levels of education such as junior and senior high school studies.

Among the nearly 85% literate population, 48.7% have only primary education, 37.6% have junior high school or secondary technical school education, 12.9% have senior high school or higher technical school education, and only 0.08% have university or higher education.

From this data, it can be seen that Spain’s biggest problem at the moment is the insufficient number of people receiving higher education.

However, this is unavoidable, as the prerequisite for applying to university is having a high school diploma, and entering high school requires having a junior high school education.