Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1256: 1161: Normal Schools and Math Competitions

Chapter 1256: Chapter 1161: Normal Schools and Math Competitions

Viscount Dibisson immediately widened his eyes: “600 francs! Your Highness, this, isn’t this a bit too high…”

It should be known that the current annual fee for the best home tutors in Paris is around five to six hundred francs, and if it’s a female home tutor, it’s even only 180 francs a year.

This is a one-on-one teaching model.

While the annual fee for private noble schools generally ranges from 90 to 150 francs. The Crown Prince directly proposed four times the tuition fee!

Joseph signaled the principal to get in the carriage and smiled: “Since nobles value dignity, they won’t care about the price. In fact, the higher the fee, the more it can showcase their status.”

He was very clear that squeezing noble children and those from commoner families into the same classroom was unrealistic, as the nobles would only feel it’s a loss of face.

So, it might as well let nobles pay for a sense of nobility, and then use this money to subsidize free primary schools.

This noble campus enrolls 100 students annually, generating an income of 60,000 francs, sufficient to cover the expenses of eight or nine primary schools.

Promoting compulsory education through this model, perhaps the government doesn’t need to spend much on educational funding.

Joseph continued: “I will create a position for you in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, specifically responsible for non-profit educational work, reporting directly to me. The tuition income will be uniformly managed by the Education Finance Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“Then we need to set up some more charging campuses in the Saint-Germain District and Marais District, with slightly lower tuition fees for nobles of different income levels to choose from.”

“Hmm, these campuses need a different name to be distinguished from the new primary schools.”

Viscount Dibisson didn’t expect he could get an official position from doing charity education, and was instantly so excited he bowed repeatedly: “Thank you for your trust, Your Highness. I swear I will make the basic education in Paris the best!”

He then thought of a problem: “Your Highness, should we customize special textbooks for these charging campuses? I mean, the nobles paid high tuition fees, so we must make them feel it’s worth it.”

“Just use the textbooks from the new primary schools, which are already the best teaching materials currently.” Joseph said, “However, the charging campuses will use a deluxe edition, hmm, with gilded covers.

“Also add more courses like Latin, horsemanship, and have beautiful, impressive uniforms.”

Joseph continued discussing matters concerning noble campuses with the newly appointed “Compulsory Education Commissioner” during the ride. When the carriage stopped at the square in front of the Palace of Versailles, the latter left on his own.

Joseph signaled Eman to invite Mirabeau and Venio to meet him, still pondering about compulsory education.

Judging by the popularity of elementary school textbooks, it’s entirely feasible to use textbooks and teaching methods as a leverage to extend influence to ordinary schools, even universities.

So the compilation of textbooks for ordinary schools needs to be prioritized on the agenda. Ordinary schools correspond to what future generations would call middle schools.

On this basis, there also needs to be a way to dilute the influence of the Church on the education system, encouraging more people to choose to send their children to the new primary schools.

For example, organizing mathematics competitions, essay contests, shorthand contests, and increasing publicity, with the venues directly set in the Palace of Versailles.

The students taught by Church schools would definitely not be a match for the modern education model in these areas. In every contest, the Church schools would rank at the bottom, and soon people would vote with their feet.

Hmm, there should be a mandatory rule that all schools must participate in these competitions, and none should be exempt.

Joseph immediately realized that once the new primary schools become widely popular, there would be an increased demand for teachers.

Given the current number of educational practitioners in France, there would soon be a shortage of teaching staff.

At the same time, the level of teachers is quite mixed—just knowing the knowledge of relevant courses can qualify someone as a teacher, with no professional certification.

Therefore, teacher training schools must be opened, along with teaching qualification assessments.

Eventually, teachers from Church schools, that is, the priests responsible for schools, should also be standardized into the teacher qualification exams.

This will definitely face opposition from the Church, but once the Church schools consistently perform at the bottom in contests like mathematics or essay competitions, the government can use the excuse of being “misleading the students” to compel priests into teacher training schools for further studies.

These priests, having paid the cost of learning, would mostly choose to teach in higher-paid secular schools after graduation.

Alternatively, even if they still return to Church schools, it would improve the educational standards there.

Joseph does not exclude Church schools; if they can nurture qualified talents, they can completely coexist with the new primary schools.

Before long, Mirabeau and Venio arrived at the Crown Prince’s reception hall, and together they performed a salute with a hand to their chest.

Joseph signaled the two to sit down and directly said: “I have a method to preserve food for a long time and need to build a processing factory.”

Mirabeau realized the Crown Prince might have another new invention and immediately took out his notebook proficiently to start recording.

Joseph began to describe the process of making canned food: “The core of this method is to put the food in a small iron box for steaming, approximately… half an hour, or an hour, specific experiments need to determine.

“Then immediately seal the iron box.”

“Food treated this way can remain unspoiled and fresh for over a year.”

The Minister of Industry and the Minister of Agriculture exchanged surprised looks; the method sounded too simple, making them feel somewhat unreliable.

Mirabeau stopped writing and cautiously asked: “Your Highness, do we need to add any reagents?”

“No need.” Joseph saw that they didn’t quite believe, simply explained, “The cause of food spoilage is microorganisms, like bacteria, attached to the food. All that is needed is to use high temperature to kill them, and the food can be preserved for a long time.”

“Oh, you must keep this information strictly confidential.”

Venio hesitated and said: “Your Highness, but this method seems a bit more complicated than curing…”

Curing is a commonly used method for preserving food currently, using high-concentration salt to dehydrate bacteria to death.

“My method can keep meat, vegetables, and fruits in a fresh state without adding salt. When eaten, they are almost like they just came out of the pot.” Joseph said, “Moreover, it takes extremely short time to produce. If produced in batches, the cost is also lower than cured meat.”

“That’s too incredible!”

If it were someone else saying this, Mirabeau and Venio might not believe them, but since the Crown Prince said it can be done, it surely can.

Cured meat has an extremely high salt content, and one can only eat a small amount each time. Also, this stuff is hard and unpalatable; eating it continuously for half a month would make one want to vomit at the smell of it.

Therefore, fresh vegetables and meat are priceless treasures during military campaigns or sea voyages.

Especially on warships, sometimes people would raise chickens and pigs at the ship’s bottom or even plant vegetables just to have some fresh food.

Therefore, fresh meat and vegetables are usually luxury items only enjoyed by senior officers.

“If the Navy were here, they would definitely be thrilled.” said Mirabeau, who had once followed the fleet to conquer Corsica.