African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1045 Education
An important reason why East Africa can flourish in cutting-edge scientific research fields such as nuclear physics is the continued development of higher education in East Africa. Although East Africa lacks top leaders and cannot yet compare with Europe and the United States, it has the largest number of college students and young scientists in the world. Take the East African Institute of Nuclear Physics as an example. They are 100% young people, and the oldest is no more than 45 years old.

In 1905 alone, there were college students in East Africa, while the number of college students in the whole of Britain was only more than . Among European countries, Germany had the largest number of college students, at around to . The number of college students in the United States was also relatively large, at over .

Although there are many universities in the United States, there are many business schools in them. This also reflects the business-oriented social atmosphere in the United States. Most families hope to replicate the entrepreneurial legends of American tycoons.

At present, there are indeed many wealthy people who have risen from grassroots in the United States, so the "knowledgeable people" in American society naturally follow public opinion and build business schools to collect tuition fees. At the same time, high-income groups such as lawyers and doctors are also very popular in the United States. Therefore, in American university education, a large part of the groups belong to the non-science and engineering categories.

East Africa's investment in education has naturally brought it a very high return, especially during the First Five-Year Plan, when local talents in East Africa became the absolute main force, which was unimaginable seventy or eighty years ago.

East Africa currently trains more mid- to high-end talents each year than all European countries combined, which is why East Africa has been able to achieve a major breakthrough in scientific research.

It can be foreseen that when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, with the support of a more favorable industrial base, East Africa's industry and society will once again accelerate their development.

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Through the expansion of universities in the 1990s, the scale of higher education in East Africa increased significantly, and the weight of the Ministry of Education also increased.

Minister of Education Muric reported to Ernst: "By the time the First Five-Year Plan was completed, there were 217 colleges and universities in my country. Although not as many as the more than 1,000 in the United States, our colleges and universities are large in scale and developed in a centralized manner, so the number of college students is also large."

Most universities in East Africa are public, so no matter how small a university is, it is impossible for it to be as perfunctory as in the United States.

In the United States, education can be completely viewed as a business, and the result of private investment will naturally lead some people to take opportunistic approaches to set up so-called "universities." Some universities may not even have exclusive venues. In order to save costs, it is not impossible to simply rent private houses to run schools. Therefore, there is a big difference between American universities and East African universities.

"At present, Chinese universities adopt a model of strict admission and strict graduation. People from middle schools or the society are qualified to enter universities by taking the college entrance examination. These people are the elites of East Africa. These elites are gathered together in universities and further screened. After entering the society, most of them are still excellent."

"With the implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan, my country's industry has become more and more eager for talent. Many jobs have been created, and more professional management and technical talents are needed."

"Higher education is also the main force in our country's scientific research field. Scientific laboratories and research institutions across the country need to supplement their talents."

"At the same time, there is a huge demand for high-quality talents in government departments, especially under the planned economy, which requires government workers to have the right capabilities so that they can better implement industrial development plans and strengthen rural and urban management."

To sum up, East African society has a strong demand for talent. Of course, there is no need for East Africa to be too eager to invest in education now.

It is no exaggeration to say that East Africa ranks first in the world in terms of investment in education. Take the population of East Africa for example. The population of East Africa is larger than that of the United States, but it is limited. The population of higher education in East Africa is more than double that of the United States. The situation is even more exaggerated in the primary and secondary education groups. After all, East Africa is not as wealthy as the United States. This also directly reflects the importance that the East African government attaches to education. Ernst said: "We made a major improvement in higher education in the 1990s. Although my country's high-end talent training cannot fully meet social needs, there is no need to expand enrollment on the scale of the 1990s. Education resources have already occupied a large part of government expenditure in my country. Now we are more focused on digesting the returns of the education investment in the 1990s."

"Of course, after the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, we will make adjustments based on economic conditions. After all, as the times change, the more talent reserves a country has, the greater its advantages will be."

Ernst is relatively satisfied with the current scale of education in East Africa. Although the number of universities in East Africa is far from comparable to that of later countries, it also depends on the era. In East Africa, where industrialization has not yet been completed, it cannot absorb more higher education talents. Therefore, it is a good thing for East Africa to slow down the expansion of education appropriately.

Moreover, the scale of higher education in East Africa is already the largest in the world, and there is no incentive to invest more resources in higher education.

East Africa's investment in education is not limited to colleges and universities, but also includes primary and secondary school systems. At its peak, East Africa's investment in education even exceeded military spending. Even now, it is one of the main items of East African government expenditure.

Therefore, in terms of national strength or financial pressure, East Africa's current educational resources can basically meet the overall needs of society. As for the demand for high-end talents by various departments and enterprises, it is frank that it will not change in any era.

Ernst went on to say: "As for education, we should also change our attitude in due course. In the past, East African education focused on quantity rather than quality. Now that the country's economy has developed to some extent and industrial progress is particularly rapid, it is inevitable to optimize the original educational resources under such circumstances."

"This includes improving campus hardware facilities, improving teacher quality, innovating textbook knowledge, etc. In the past, our industry was in difficulty, so many campuses had poor basic conditions. Adjustments should be made at this time."

As a colonial country with a short history, East Africa has never been a poor country. It can only be said that its industry is not strong. Overall, it is richer than many countries in Eurasia, including South American countries. Of course, the small population of East Africa in the early days was also a major reason.

The current population size of East Africa is actually quite moderate. Although the population has experienced large-scale growth and has exceeded that of most European and American countries, as the population of East Africa has grown, its industry has also grown. In this case, the increase in population in East Africa has not caused an impact on East African society. Instead, it has promoted the industrialization of East Africa.

If it were a traditional agricultural country, the rapid population growth in East Africa would naturally bring more negative effects. After all, land resources are limited, and when the land is not enough to support the excess population, it will cause social problems.

However, the land carrying capacity is not static, and industrialization is the main way to increase the land carrying capacity. East Africa's industrialization has absorbed the country's wealthy agricultural population.

Moreover, as a colonial country, the East African government controls a large amount of assets. Therefore, even if East Africa is really poor, the East African government is not poor. This is also the main reason why East Africa can make advance investments in education. It is mainly due to the money in hand. Although traditional agricultural countries also have a lot of social wealth, it is completely concentrated in the hands of a few people. Even if the government has surplus income, it will eventually flow into the hands of the upper class of society in various forms.

Of course, according to the law, East Africa will definitely be like this in the future, but this is not a problem that Ernst needs to consider. East Africa has a short history and various social problems are far from reaching the stage of outbreak. Even if East Africa is as unenterprising as the Soviet Union in the middle and late stages, as long as there is no war, it can continue for many years.

In summary, with the unified coordination of various factors, the current financial situation of the East African government is very good, which also enables the East African government to concentrate on developing the economy and industry, and industrial development in turn promotes the progress of East African society.

(End of this chapter)