Chapter 1112 Primary school is more important than university
Li Xuan has always been reforming the imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty, and the reference object is naturally the education system of later generations, but it is not only the education system, but also the civil service examination system.
It's just that the systems of later generations can only be used as a reference. Naturally, they cannot be copied wholesale. Otherwise, it will be easy to become acclimated.
Li Xuan's idea was to gradually reform the traditional imperial examination system into a combination of civil service examinations and modern education, and also incorporate some elements of the traditional imperial examination. After all, many things cannot be discarded at will.
For example, the word "imperial examination" cannot be lost. At most, the method and content of the examination will be changed. However, the core of the imperial examination is not actually about the method and content. What is more important is that it is for scholars all over the world, especially
It is a space for middle- and lower-class scholars to rise and evolve into the ruling class.
And this is also the core of the civil service system in later generations!
Only by continuously attracting the best talents to the ruling class can we maintain our rule for a longer period of time.
This was also an important factor why Li Xuan insisted on expanding the scale of the joint examination. Now the joint examination system of the Tang Dynasty is about to completely evolve into a civil service examination system.
Since the separate examination rooms were opened in Zhili two years ago, no major troubles occurred after the trial. Therefore, the scale of the joint examination last year and this year was gradually expanded. This year's joint examination, in addition to the four Zhili examinations, also
Examination centers have been opened in six provinces: Hebei, Hubei, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Shanxi.
The Jinling Examination Center admitted about 1,200 people, while the Zhili Fourth Road and Six Provinces Examination Centers admitted a total of 3,400 people. As more and more people were admitted, Li Xuan also followed up.
According to the policy, the distribution grades of new academicians and doctoral students are also continuously reduced.
At the same time, when this year's provincial examination was held, Li Xuan once again issued a policy. The core of this policy is: next year, that is, the eleventh year of Xuanping, all provinces in the empire must open examination rooms at the same time.
, each province has examination rooms, and students from each province can go to each examination room to participate in the imperial examination.
At the same time, it is also stipulated that the scholars admitted to the examination centers in each province are also divided into first-class, second-class, and third-class students and are awarded officials respectively.
The focus is actually on the subsequent awarding of officials!
The new policy stipulates that the new Jinshi and Ph.D. students admitted next year will be awarded the ninth grade as the top three, the eighth grade as the second grade, and the eighth grade as the first grade. This has once again lowered the official rank of the new Jinshi compared with previous years.
And the Juren students recruited directly from various places were awarded the ninth rank.
There was no way, as time went by, the vacant positions in the official circles of the Tang Dynasty were gradually replenished, and the vacant positions in the middle and high-level positions were basically gone. At the same time, Li Xuan also wanted to completely complete the reform of the civil service system, so Xinke Jinshi
It is inevitable that the grade will get lower and lower.
In the current official system of the Tang Dynasty, the ninth rank and the ninth rank are generally the grassroots scribes, clerks, etc. In the past, people of this rank were recruited directly from the local government, and the management was not very strict, but in the future it will definitely be
It can't be like this. According to the current plan, if you want to be a civil servant in the future, even if it is the lowest rank from the ninth rank, it is necessary to be promoted.
This series of reforms in the imperial examination did not cause much repercussions, because the imperial examination has changed almost every year in these years. Many people can guess that the high-level officials are gradually promoting the reform of the imperial examination, but the ultimate goal has not been achieved. The imperial examination
It is estimated that the reform will be impossible to stop.
What's more, after the reform, scholars have a greater chance of becoming officials. Although it is impossible to be the same as before, those who pass the Jinshi examination will immediately become sixth-grade or seventh-grade middle-level officials, but they will only have ninth-grade or eighth-grade officials.
But it’s better to have quality than nothing!
Tomorrow tomorrow, how many people will be admitted in the annual examination, only two to three hundred people.
But how many people does the Tang Dynasty admit each year now? It starts with a few thousand people!
This expanded the number of new officials tenfold, which meant that more than ten times the number of scholars were included in the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty, making the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty more stable.
The best way to prevent a scholar from rebelling is not to keep an eye on him day and night, but to make him one of your own!
The imperial examination system is undergoing reform, and correspondingly, the education system is also undergoing reform. With the normal schools opened a few years ago gradually taking shape, and a large number of normal graduates emerging, the Tang Dynasty ushered in secondary and higher education for the first time.
wave of expansion!
In the tenth year of Xuanping alone, two universities were established. The two newly established universities were Guangzhou University and Tianjin University, one in the south and one in the north. They can be regarded as supplements to the higher education systems in the south and the north.
, if we add Wuchang University and Shanghai University established in the ninth year of Xuanping, then there are already six large-scale comprehensive universities in the empire!
As for the Royal Institute of Technology, it is not considered an ordinary university and is not included in it.
In addition to six comprehensive universities, the empire also has a total of more than 20 normal schools. Basically, every province and province has a normal school. The size and teaching staff depend on the population and economic conditions of each province.
, so these normal schools are weak, with less than a hundred students, such as Guiyang Normal School, but there are also normal schools that are large enough to rival comprehensive universities, and even have academic systems that are closer to comprehensive universities, such as Jiangnan Normal School.
Jiangnan Normal University is located in Suzhou, where literati gather, and Jiangnan Road is a place where literary styles flourish. Of course, and more importantly, Jiangnan Road is rich!
Its campus buildings and equipment and other hardware facilities are no worse than Jinling University, but the teachers are a little worse. There is no way, the money is of no use. Those high-level talents can teach in universities, but not in normal schools.
But even so, Jiangnan Normal University is very powerful, with more than 1,300 students on campus.
In addition to these universities and normal schools, there is another special type in the government-run education system, which is the preparatory school. In contemporary terms, this kind of preparatory school can actually be regarded as higher education.
Because preparatory schools are, very simply, prepared for those who are preparing to go to college. Anyone who can get into a preparatory school will never apply for a normal school.
This can be seen from the fact that the number of preparatory schools is smaller than that of normal schools. Currently, there are only twelve preparatory schools in the entire empire, which is much less than the more than twenty normal schools.
Below the normal schools and preparatory schools, there are ordinary middle schools, most of which are government-run by state governments. This number is large because when it was first planned, every prefecture, province, and prefecture needed to open one, and the government schools were directly linked to the schools.
/State schools were directly converted into middle schools. These middle schools were numerous in number and of varying quality.
Primary schools are hosted at the county level. Generally speaking, a county will have at least one primary school, but some counties will have two or more. At the same time, the empire is open to private education. As long as it is registered and approved, then
You can turn your former private school into a private elementary school.
Therefore, within the scope of the Tang Empire, there were actually a very large number of private primary schools. Many slightly larger villages might have a private primary school, well, it was the same kind of private school as before.
Therefore, no matter it was before or now, in fact, the main force of basic education at the primary school level in the Datang Empire has always been private schools. As for the government-run primary schools, there were just a few and they were simply unable to meet the huge educational demand.
Not only primary schools, but actually middle schools and even higher education, there are traces of private schools, and there are quite a few of them, such as the famous Songjiang College, which is an institution recognized by the Imperial Examination Department of the Ministry of Rites that graduates of this school can take the examination.
Or the admissions examinations of various universities are the same as those of other normal schools.
And this Songjiang College was actually jointly run by more than a dozen local gentry families. On the one hand, it was for fame. Running a school these days was a very respected thing. For this reason, many gentry and landlords were very interested.
Willing to donate to run the school.
On the other hand, they naturally want to solve their own disciples’ educational problems!
The literary style of Jiangnan Province is really too prosperous, and there are countless scholars. If you want to carve out a path among so many scholars, and get admitted to a school such as the Preparatory College or Jiangnan Normal University, to be honest, it is not easy. It is more difficult than taking the examination directly.
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In order to give their own children a way to continue their studies, bypass the restrictions on candidates, and obtain the qualifications to directly participate in the national examination, these gentry and landlords generously donated their money to establish the Songjiang College.
Songjiang College is currently the most successful private institution of higher learning in the empire. It has a standard normal education system, and the teachers are all poached from government-run schools at high prices. As for the hardware facilities, they are small but big.
All five organs are present.
Of course, the fee is not that expensive!
Private schools are not public normal schools or preparatory schools. Although they are expensive for self-funded students, they are not outrageously expensive. And as long as your grades are good enough, you can get scholarships. However, at Songjiang College, the tuition is very expensive.
More than that, there are thousands of taels of silver a year for tuition fees, which ordinary small and wealthy families cannot afford.
Government-run schools and private schools together constitute the current education system of the Tang Empire. Currently, higher education is mainly government-run, while enlightenment education is mainly private.
However, this situation will definitely not last long. Education is fundamental, especially basic education. In the past two years, Li Xuan has been very interested in basic education. On the contrary, he is no longer interested in higher education.
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Because Li Xuan feels that a small number of people with higher education are enough. There is no need to train everyone to be college students. That is not a good thing.
After all, people with higher education will have higher demands for various things, but the high-quality demand positions that the empire can provide are also limited, and it is impossible to satisfy too many people.
If there are too many people with higher education, a trouble will easily arise, that is, some of the high-level talents who fail to meet the high-quality demand in society will eventually become dissatisfied and start various troubles, such as revolution...
...all kinds of bang bang bang...
Faced with this problem, Li Xuan decided to teach Americans to engage in elite education!
Let a few talented people receive higher education and become the backbone of society!
As for ordinary people, no matter what kind of university they go to, they can just go to elementary school.
The workers needed in the future industrial revolution need to have graduated from college. Elementary school is enough!
Therefore, primary school is more important than college!