Chapter 848 Centralization of Educational Resources
April 1892.
First town city.
"There are more than 5,000 town-level administrative units in our country. They generally include about five or six villages and a street, and their size ranges from several thousand people to nearly 10,000 people," said Gers, director of the National Bureau of Statistics.
Due to the influence of immigration, East Africa's local population is actually quite concentrated. One reason is that if there are too few people to open up new land, it will not work.
Secondly, the natural and social conditions in early East Africa were harsh. Both the indigenous people and wild beasts posed a threat to East African immigrants, so the villages were not too small. Villages with only a dozen or even a few people did not exist in East Africa. There had to be at least several hundred people, and large villages could even have thousands of people.
In addition, the terrain of East Africa is mainly plateaus, and the country's overall terrain is relatively flat and open, so there will not be too many small mountain villages restricted by the terrain.
Moreover, in order to facilitate management, the East African governments will take the initiative to concentrate the population in one place. Population movement in East Africa is still mainly dominated by the government.
However, the scale of villages and towns in East Africa is not too large. Every year, the population of East Africa radiates to inland or undeveloped areas mainly under policy support, and then forms new villages.
This results in a relatively high natural population growth rate in the eastern region, but the actual resident population is not too large because people are constantly moving to new areas to live or work.
Ernst said: "Rural areas are the main population gathering places in East Africa. About 40 million people in my country live in rural areas, accounting for about 80% of the country. Therefore, to boost the rural economy, we should take towns as the core and drive local economic development."
"To boost the rural economy, we should start with public resources such as education resources. It is better to do it sooner rather than later. Universities can be concentrated in cities, but there is no need to do so for primary and secondary education."
"In addition, the same is true for medical resources. We lack modern medical talents. We can set up traditional Chinese medicine clinics in the countryside and concentrate limited medical resources at the municipal level and above."
In East Africa, there is no administrative concept of county, but this is only literal meaning. In fact, many cities are counties. Of course, cities where provincial capitals are located are definitely exceptions.
The population of East Africa is not too large compared to its land area, so there is no need to subdivide it too much. After all, there are more than 20 provinces alone. This is when many areas have not yet been divided into provinces. For example, Mozambique, Angola, Southwest Africa, etc., do not meet the requirements for establishing provinces for the time being. The three places have a two-level administrative management mechanism.
In general, East Africa’s administrative divisions will remain unstable in the near future. As for achieving overall stability, it will take at least until the development of various regions in East Africa is relatively balanced.
Balance naturally cannot be based on economy as the primary condition, otherwise major East African cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa would also be qualified. It mainly depends on comprehensive capabilities, such as economy, population, geographical location, infrastructure, etc.
In fact, the economic conditions of some towns in East Africa are no worse than those of cities, and are even much better, such as the town of Dire Dawa on the northern border and the town of Chokwe in southern Mozambique.
That’s right, although Chokwe is just a former Portuguese town, its infrastructure is not worse than many cities in East Africa. In other words, the conditions in Mozambique are not sufficient now, and Chokwe is fully capable of being established as a city.
The town of Dire Dawa is rather special. It is an important military town with no other large-scale population settlements around it, so the administrative division of the town has been maintained. In fact, it can be set up as a prefecture-level city in the Northern Province.
However, these administrative divisions do not actually mean much, because East Africa is currently underdeveloped and the locational advantages of many regions have not been highlighted. They may have been promoted or downgraded for some reason, which are all possible real situations.
For example, in the west and north, many prefecture-level cities were abolished in the early days due to natural disasters and other reasons, and some regions formed new regional centers due to changes in transportation conditions and other reasons.
Of course, the big cities in East Africa are still relatively stable, because many areas were directly designated by Ernst according to the administrative divisions of Africa in the previous life. This is particularly evident in the former Tanzania.
Of course, to a certain extent, the cities in East Africa have also inherited the influence of the original regional civilization. Although these African indigenous people have a low level of civilization, they have also experienced thousands of years of historical tests in their regional selection.
However, there are not many such places. The main political system of the indigenous Africans is tribe, and many East African tribes are mainly nomadic and hunting, and have no fixed residences at all.
Moreover, it probably didn't take too long for blacks to arrive in various parts of Africa. For example, in South Africa, the time when blacks from West Africa arrived there was almost the same as that of European colonists. Among them, the Zulu Kingdom that was destroyed in East Africa was the vanguard.
The Arabs' commercial activities in Africa also catalyzed the formation of a number of settlements in East Africa. For example, the city of Dodoma was originally a must-go place for coastal Arabs to go deep into the interior for business.
Finally, it is to inherit the towns and strongholds of other colonists. East Africa has done a lot of this. It can be said that Portugal’s contribution to East Africa is the greatest.
In fact, most of the southern territory of East Africa was acquired from the Portuguese. These areas have more or less been colonized by Portugal or have Portuguese commercial activities.
Take the Sultanate of Zanzibar for example. The Sultanate of Zanzibar was actually the spoils of war obtained by the Omani Empire after defeating Portugal.
Portugal was the only dominant country in Africa in its early colonization. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Portuguese Empire declined, and even the Portuguese were driven from the inland to the coast by the indigenous people. This is the main reason why East Africa was able to become so big in Africa.
In other words, Portugal's overall strategy in Africa actually contracted in the early days, and East Africa occupied this window period.
Portugal withdrew, but other powers did not fully understand the Portuguese's strength, so a colonial vacuum was formed in southern Africa. East Africa took advantage of the situation, and by the time Portugal and other powers reacted, East Africa had already become larger.
"At present, the rural population distribution in East Africa is mainly concentrated in the central and eastern parts. The central part is slightly worse, but it barely meets the standard. In addition, the urban strength in the central part is relatively strong, so further improvement of the rural areas in the central part can also be carried out in an orderly manner."
"Take education as an example. At least two middle schools should be set up in each town. Those with financial resources can build two campuses, while those without financial resources can share one campus. As for primary schools, population density should be the main reference. Try to choose areas with convenient transportation. After all, primary school students' ability to live independently is obviously not stronger than that of middle school students, and they need to go home nearby, so it is best to choose a location close to the center."
"We need to concentrate grassroots education resources at the town level. Of course, schools can also be built in large villages or farms and plantations with better conditions and a larger population."
Educational resources should be neither too dispersed nor too concentrated, especially for basic education. Too much dispersion would require large investments and make it difficult to assign teachers, while too much concentration would be detrimental to the learning of students in remote areas.
Of course, this also means that the compulsory education model in East Africa has undergone a major change and will no longer be decentralized to the villages. In fact, this is closely related to East Africa’s current social development, as well as future economic, transportation and other factors.
Now with the popularization of animal power in East Africa, the repair of roads, and the improvement of the public security environment, the cost of travel has been greatly reduced. In the future, with the development of new transportation such as automobiles, travel costs will be further saved. This is a prerequisite for East Africa to further concentrate grassroots education resources.
It will also help improve the quality of education. After all, many village primary schools have only a single-digit number of teachers, and their levels vary greatly. Bringing them together can improve efficiency, speed up communication between teachers, and promote the improvement of teaching standards.
(End of this chapter)
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