Greece to roman road

Kemal, who returned from a visit to the tractor factory, returned to the hotel alone.

Although I only traveled in Greece for a few days, what I saw and heard made me deeply moved.

There is no doubt that Greece is on the right path now. Even as a bystander, he can feel the transformation that is taking place in this country.

Kemal's determination to join the secret organization became even more determined. If the Ottoman Empire wanted to change, military power alone was not enough.

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Constantine, who returned from a trip to the Congo, took two days of rest and attended a meeting of the Royal Educational Foundation with Sophie to discuss the future development of the foundation.

As the entire country of Greece recovers from the war, the situation of educational development in Greece is also changing rapidly.

Constantine and Sophie entered the foundation conference room hand in hand, and saw Laris, the Minister of Education nominated by Alexandros.

Seeing Constantine's surprised look, Laris said respectfully: "I heard that the Education Foundation is holding a meeting to discuss the next development of Greek education. I was sent by Prime Minister Alexandros to attend the meeting."

After being surprised, Constantine thought about it carefully, and it was not difficult to understand the intention of the Prime Minister's move.

The current situation in the education sector in Greece is very strange. It is different from education in other countries around the world. It is almost completely controlled by the Royal Education Foundation, and the government has very little say in the education system.

The Royal Education Foundation is a private foundation that operates independently under its own charter and the government has no influence over it.

Until now, compulsory education in Greece has been entirely run by foundations.

As the government's finances gradually become richer, Prime Minister Alexandros naturally also wants to develop in the field of education.

After the meeting began, Crown Princess Sophie, as the president of the foundation, first introduced the work results of the foundation to everyone.

"Last year (1904), the Royal Greek Educational Foundation received a total of 94 million drachmas, including 12 million drachmas from the Congolese fiscal fixed income allocation, and 4,200 drachmas from the foundation's investment in Congo. million, including dividends from gold mining companies, Greek Congo Corporation and other companies. The rest is income from the foundation’s investments in Europe, such as Philip Pharmaceuticals, Hellenic Petroleum Company, etc.”

"Oh, by the way, it also includes income from donations from social workers, eight million drachmas." After saying this, Sophie paused, took a sip of tea to moisten her throat, and waited for everyone to digest the information.

After learning that the foundation had the full power to fund students and implement five-year compulsory education in Greece, many Greek wealthy people at home and abroad donated generously and were willing to sponsor the foundation's charity work.

Although Laris looked calm on the outside, he was extremely shocked inside. As a private foundation, the annual income of the Education Foundation reached almost one-fifth of the Greek government’s annual fiscal revenue. It is no wonder that a private organization can actually rely on its own power. force to sponsor the development of education throughout Greece.

"Last year, the foundation funded 430,000 compulsory education students, 60,000 middle school students, 12,000 college students, and 120 overseas students, with a total expenditure of 87 million drachmas."

After that, the conference room fell silent as everyone was considering the information revealed by Crown Princess Sophie.

"Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Your Royal Highness the Crown Princess, although the Royal Education Foundation is a private foundation, it bears the name of the royal family after all, and it is engaged in education that has a great impact on the country. The government cannot completely ignore it," Laris said. , motioning to the Constantine couple.

"So, on behalf of the government, I intend to consult some basic questions about the foundation's development of education. Crown Princess Sophie, may I ask whether the education supported by the foundation is elite education or education for all?" Laris looked at Constantine and the two. .

Elite education roughly means that teachers directly screen students, determine their needs, and provide education methods that suit their characteristics.

Therefore, gifted students receive gifted education, people with mediocre qualifications receive an average education, and those with low standards may receive almost no education.

Mass education roughly means that teachers do not screen students and provide homogeneous education without discrimination. No matter your qualifications are high or low, the education given is the same.

In other words, mass education tends to be "universal and extensive"

Britain and the United States are representatives of elite education, while Germany and Japan are models of mass education.

There are actually clues to follow as to how Greece should choose.

In modern times, there are not many late-developing countries that have successfully caught up with advanced countries, such as Germany and Japan.

What is a coincidence is that these two late-developing countries both implement mass education in education.

At this point, Greece, which is also a late-developing country, naturally has to choose mass education.

Moreover, the total population of Greece is currently only more than three million, and school-age children account for about one-tenth of the population. Based on such a small number of students, it is unimaginable to select a small number of students for elite education.

"Greece has no choice at all regarding this issue. We can only implement mass education, and it is impossible to implement elite education at all," Constantine replied.

Laris nodded thoughtfully, acknowledging Constantine's statement.

"Since we are implementing mass education, the government's investment in education will inevitably need to be significantly increased," Laris took the opportunity to say.

Mass education treats everyone equally without discrimination (at least in the compulsory education stage), so the state’s investment in education is bound to increase.

In Germany, which implements mass education, education expenditures account for a considerable share of government expenditures.

Since Constantine himself said that Greece should implement mass education, Education Minister Laris took the opportunity to tell the news that the government had decided to increase investment in education, so that the crown prince and his wife at least had no clear excuse to refuse.

"Currently, the only large-scale institution of higher learning in Greece is the University of Athens. It is too thin and is not enough."

"Prime Minister Alexandros also considered relying solely on the financial resources of the Education Foundation. After all, the power is limited, so this year he specially allocated 12 million drachmas to invest in education and jointly strengthen Greek civic education."

"The government decided to use this money to build several new research and application universities in Greece," Laris told the crowd.

With the foundation, the royal family has outstanding authority in the current Greek education sector. It seems that the government has also decided to increase its influence in the education sector.

"The government plans to build two new universities in Tirana and Vlore in Albania, and at the same time increase investment in the Hellenic Institute of Technology to truly become a science and engineering university."

The Hellenic Institute of Technology is currently just a vocational and technical college. Although it is developing rapidly, it is limited in scale due to investment constraints. The campus is also very close to the University of Athens, and it is inconspicuous under the light of the University of Athens.