Chapter 476 Higher Education
It is reasonable that the British wanted to use Portugal as a pawn to test East Africa. Portugal's colonies are not small and are located on the left and right sides of East Africa. Therefore, there are inevitable geopolitical conflicts between East Africa and the Portuguese. No one would believe that East Africa has no ideas about Portugal's two colonies.
However, whether the British can persuade the Portuguese to be the knife is really a question. At least the new Governor of Mozambique, Lyford, is a little afraid of East Africa. East Africa does not know the British plan. For East Africa, except Belgium, which has been in contact with East Africa, any surrounding country is suspicious.
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1877, Sauga City.
King Constantine visited this East African city of science and technology to attend the opening ceremony of the National Agricultural College and the Soga Teachers School.
The National Agricultural College was the first university planned in East Africa. In addition to agriculture being the dominant industry in East Africa, there were more agronomists in East Africa than other scientists, so it was easy to put together a university.
Soga Normal School is a relatively special school. It is not a university, but it is one level higher than the East African Secondary School. It specializes in training primary and secondary school teachers for East Africa. The source of its teachers is also special. They are normal school talents trained by East Africa itself in the Principality of Hechingen. However, it can barely be classified as a higher education level.
Constantine: "Mr. Angros, I'm glad you can contribute to agricultural education in East Africa!"
"Your Majesty, I didn't expect you to be here in person. It really makes me feel honored." Angros was a little flattered.
Constantine said with a smile: "Our East African Kingdom is a country that respects science, so the same is true for scientific researchers."
Angelos was one of the students of Johann Heinrich von Thunen, a famous German agronomist. He was a student of Albrecht Thee, who was the founder of contemporary agricultural management and was known as the founder of modern agronomy.
So although Angelos is not famous, his professionalism is definitely sufficient, because his teachers and mentors are both top figures in the German agricultural field.
In 1804, Albrecht Thee established the first agricultural school in Prussia. Fifteen years later, in 1819, the school was awarded the title of Royal Agricultural University by the Prussian government.
Therefore, it is reasonable for Angelos, as the great-grandson of Albrecht Theue, to establish the first agricultural university in East Africa.
However, compared to the Royal Agricultural University of Prussia, the name of the East African National Agricultural College is more low-key, it’s just a college!
However, this is also in line with Ernst's expectations for East African universities. Universities focus on theoretical level construction, but East Africa obviously cannot reach that level. Currently, East Africa can only learn from European and American countries and does not have the foundation for extensive theoretical creation.
Moreover, Ernst does not think that technical colleges should be inferior to universities. This is a word that was stigmatized by some countries in the past. For example, the technical colleges in Germany and the Soviet Union are very strong.
It is true that the limitations of junior colleges are higher than those of comprehensive universities. After all, as the name suggests, it is limited to professional fields. The National Agricultural College of East Africa is a case in point. Unlike the junior colleges in the Far East in the past, which have all kinds of subjects, it is a higher education school limited to agricultural majors. In the future, it is destined to be one of the authorities in the field of agricultural education in East Africa.
This is the same as the Heixingen Military Academy. The Heixingen Military Academy is actually also a technical college, but its major is military.
Although comprehensive universities are good, East Africa should not think about those unnecessary things now. It should first cultivate high-level talents and then it will have the ability to build world-class comprehensive universities.
"The National Agricultural College covers an area of more than 3,000 acres, has more than 200 teachers and staff, currently has a collection of 160,000 books, and has designed 13 majors including agronomy, animal husbandry, pesticide science, and plant pathology. This year, it has enrolled more than 700 students."
"These students are among the top students in East Africa. Perhaps their knowledge reserves are slightly inferior to those in Europe, but their learning ability is definitely top-notch, and they are one in a million," Constantine said.
As for the top students in East Africa, that was beyond the capacity of this small temple in East Africa to accommodate them. In 1877, the top two thousand students in the college entrance examination in East Africa were sent to study in Germany, Austria and other countries at public expense in accordance with the needs of East Africa.
The destinations for international students in East Africa are very particular, and the most important one is that they must be a monarchy. However, this restriction is not a big hindrance for East Africa. Excluding those "free" countries, there are quite a lot of options in East Africa, especially since Germany and Austria both have world-class higher education.
In addition to Germany and Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and other countries are all regions that can be chosen in East Africa. However, except for Germany, Austria and Sweden, the number of international students in other regions is very small. After all, two thousand people are not enough for Germany alone.
It is worth noting that these two thousand international students are not all of the international students in East Africa. Because East Africa currently has its own talent training base overseas, the total number of East African students abroad is about seven thousand.
Those East African students who are already abroad receive education in their host country and take entrance exams for schools in their host country, while international students sent by East Africans mainly sign agreements with various governments, including Germany, Austria, and Sweden and Belgium, which have friendly relations with East Africa.
In other words, no matter what the performance of these local students is in East Africa, the above three countries have reserved a certain number of places for East African students in various universities, which is equivalent to direct admission.
However, East Africa cannot afford to tarnish its reputation, so it is very careful in selecting international students. In addition to the unified examination, they also have to go through two re-examinations. At the same time, these students receive two months of training before going abroad.
The training is mainly aimed at correcting the etiquette and habits of East African students in accordance with the local customs and practices of the host country, so that they can better integrate into the learning environment in the host country.
International students are the face of a country, especially a closed country like East Africa. Apart from the employees of the Hexingen Foundation and government officials, international students can be said to be the largest group in East Africa that comes into contact with the world. Their quality abroad represents the first impression of the overall quality of overseas East African students.
Constantine attended the opening ceremonies of two schools in Soga City, and Ernst was also busy. In addition to Soga City, the First Town City also planned a national medical college.
This is understandable. If we talk about the city with the highest medical level in East Africa, the capital must be the best. After all, it is the political center of East Africa. So based on this advantage, the first medical university in East Africa was established in the first town.
Apart from the above three schools, no other new schools were built in East Africa this year because the number of secondary school graduates in East Africa has been small in the past two years.
East Africa has sent 2,000 students abroad, while the three universities in East Africa have a total of more than 1,800 students. The number of international students even exceeds the number of local students receiving higher education. This shows the current level of education in East Africa.
If we really want to roll out university-level education on a large scale, it will take at least another decade, so Ernst’s current plan is to add a university every two or three years, and then consider building a batch of colleges on a large scale after a decade or so.
(End of this chapter)
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