On the 25th day of the lunar month, the last day before the holiday of primary and secondary schools in the local area, in a rural primary school under Anping County, Jiangzhou, He Peizhen, as the principal and nature teacher, stood at the door of the school and kept looking out.

"Teacher He, Liu Cuifen is taking leave today and will not come to school."

A little girl came out of the classroom and whispered.

"Why didn't Liu Cuifen come to class? And since she asked you to ask for leave, why didn't you report when you entered the school just now? After being a primary school teacher for four or five years, looking at the eight or nine-year-old girl in front of her, He Peizhen knew that she was not telling the truth.

"She's sick, yes, that's what she told me." The little girl lowered her head and whispered an explanation, not daring to look up and meet the teacher's eyes.

"Is it that Liu Cuifen's father won't let her come to class, tell the teacher the truth, don't lie!" He Peizhen straightened her face and said solemnly.

"It was Liu Cuifen who asked me to say this, she said that if she didn't come to class today, she would ask me to ask for leave on her behalf, teacher, I was telling the truth, not lying." The little girl couldn't help but interrogate, and told the truth at once.

"Okay, I know the situation, you go back to the classroom first, and the teacher will come over to class in a while."

After softening her tone and sending the little girl back to the classroom, He Peizhen looked at the red lanterns and Spring Festival couplets that had just been hung at the school gate, and her original joy had weakened a lot because of what had just happened.

After returning to South America from the United States, dozens of young international students who met at the beginning were like Xu Zhixuan and Kuang Jingyang, who served the country in the army and rose step by step in the navy and army, and some of them, like Kuang Rongguang and Huang Jiliang, used their majors to engage in the research and development of new technologies in various large state-owned heavy industry groups in the country, and some of them were high-spirited and devoted themselves to officialdom, intending to make greater efforts for the development of the country and the nation with enthusiasm.

Unlike those young people who studied abroad as men, as one of the very few female students who received Western-style modern education in this era, after He Peizhen returned to her hometown, she refused the job introduced to her by her father and classmates in the United States, but went to a rural area in Jiangzhou with a strong will, served as a primary school teacher in Anping County, and began to teach and educate people.

Compared with the Western powers, the reform and management of the Han country in the field of education is more open and fair. The co-educational system is fully implemented in primary and secondary schools, and more than 90 percent of schools in institutions of higher learning, except for a small number of majors and schools suitable for girls, also implement the co-educational system.

The implementation of coeducational, the local state capitals, the full implementation of a unified and standardized entrance examination for colleges and universities, the combination of the two measures, coupled with local conditions, according to the different economic and educational levels of the state capitals, the establishment of a corresponding teaching and admission system, after the implementation of many detailed policies, the Han country has made very successful progress in the popularization and regularization of education. The enrollment rate of primary schools covers almost all school-age children, and the enrollment rate of intermediate and senior schools has increased year by year, and after joining the teaching team and becoming one of the hundreds of thousands of grassroots teachers in the Han Kingdom, He Peizhen can feel the development and changes of local education more clearly and profoundly.

The new generation of children has basically been given the opportunity to enjoy education, and the resistance of the people to girls to go to school has been transformed and improved by the government's continuous propaganda and punishment for violating the National Education Law. However, the great progress of the overall educational environment cannot hide some omissions and deviations. In the Anping County area of Jiangzhou, the annual entrance tuition fee for each student in the junior school is 4 Han Yuan, which is converted into Kuping silver, which is about 2 taels of silver.

According to the local wage standard, the average monthly income of a young and strong laborer in an ordinary worker and a land-divided peasant family is about 12 Han Yuan. The tuition fee for a year in the junior school is only 10 days' salary for ordinary families, although the cost is a lot, but compared with the income standard in the Far East mainland, it is definitely not high.

However, there are inevitably accidents, and in various parts of the country, a small number of families have lost one or both parents due to illness, disability and other reasons, and cannot rely on selling labor to earn a meagre 4 Han yuan per year for their children's tuition. Although the number of poor families and the lack of financial resources of parents is very small, accounting for only 12 percent of the total local population.

However, the more teaching time has passed, and the more primary school students she has come into contact with, the more He Peizhen can understand the helplessness of children from poor families. Although the state vigorously supports the development of the education industry, it has not yet reached the standards of the same period in Germany in the field of social security, which is related to students' families.

Germany began to implement the social security system in 1883, and by the beginning of 1889, Germany's social security system had initially covered the fields of illness, disability, and workers' accidents, while South America in terms of social security system, only made a certain degree of subsidies and resettlement for disabled soldiers who retired due to injury, for ordinary farmers and workers, because of the limited government revenue, there was no basic social security system, if someone in the family is sick, only family members can provide medical expenses, It is not possible to receive financial subsidies from the government.

At the end of the 19th century, only Germany took the lead in trying to establish a social security system, and as for Britain, France, and Russia, which were comparable in national strength to Germany, they were all still in a period of serious capitalist exploitation of workers, and the workers and peasants not only did not enjoy the opportunity to provide social security provided by the government, but had to work about 12 hours a day, with a strong labor force and low wages, using child labor, and arrears of wages for employeesThe per capita income of the British Empire is more than five times the average income of the native citizens of the Han Kingdom, and after dividing this income according to different groups of people, it can be seen that the average British worker earns about 1.5 to 2 pounds per month, which is equivalent to the local currency, that is, 10.5 Han Yuan or 14 Han Yuan.

The wages of ordinary British workers are similar to those of native workers and peasants in South America, but if we take into account factors such as the small number of people in Britain, the large number of taxes, and the high price level, the actual living standard of British workers is only about half of the average living standard of the local people.

Excluding the low-level commoners in Britain, who account for about ninety percent of the total population, the British senior skilled workers and the senior middle-class in the middle of society have an annual salary of 100 pounds and 500 pounds sterling respectively, that is, 700 Han Yuan and 3,500 Han Yuan after conversion according to international convergence, and the income level is 3.5 times and 17.5 times the average national income of the local people, respectively.

The upper middle class, which is less than one-tenth of the total population, and the upper class above it occupy more than half of the social wealth of Britain.

Although the per capita income of ordinary citizens is not as good as that of Britain and France, the difference in wages and incomes of officials, ordinary people, soldiers, teachers and other industry workers is maintained within a reasonable range, and the basic living conditions of citizens at all levels can be guaranteed.

There was a troublesome thing lingering in my heart, and when I reflected it on my face, I naturally looked unhappy. In the afternoon, when the school was officially closed, and walking with her husband Liao Enbai, who came to pick her up, He Peizhen couldn't help but pour out the distress in her heart.

However, the central government's annual statistics on the enrollment rate of school-age children in primary schools are 93 percent (data at the end of 1888), which is still seven percentage points short of the 100 percent enrollment rate stipulated in the Compulsory Education Law. Compulsory education is not possible due to lack of labour force.

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Liao Enbai sighed and comforted his wife: "There is no perfect thing in the world, and it is not easy for the local people to achieve such achievements in the field of education today. ”

"Didn't Your Majesty announce the preparation of a constitution that would allow people from all walks of life to run for election to the House of Representatives? If I run for the first election of members of the House of Representatives as a teacher, and then raise the issue of poor children going to school as a member of the National Assembly, won't I have the opportunity to introduce the current situation of poor children out of school to the central government, and then help some of them to solve the problem of schooling? ”

He Peizhen suddenly made a decision in her mind, raised her head and looked at her husband, wanting to seek her husband's understanding and support.

"By using the role of teachers to let more people know about the current situation of out-of-school children, we may be able to give more children the opportunity to go to school."

Liao Enbai supported his wife's proposition as always, but looked at his wife, who had always been assertive and strong-tempered, and there was a pity in his eyes:

"It's just that running for the House of Representatives is not the same as teaching in a school, and you may encounter a lot of attacks from members of parliament who have political disagreements, do you really plan to go down this path?"

"I'm not afraid, as long as you are by my side to support me, I am not afraid at all." ………………