Empire Rising: Spain

Hearing Gerard Wilson’s report, Carlo was initially taken aback, then with a hint of a joyful smile, he looked at Gerard Wilson with satisfaction and said, “Minister Gerard Wilson, has Prime Minister Prim heard the development plan report from the Department of Education?”

“The Prime Minister has already heard it.” Gerard Wilson nodded respectfully in response.

“What is Prime Minister Prim’s attitude?” Carlo continued inquiring.

Carlo had finally realized why Gerard Wilson had managed to oust the previous Minister of Education to enter the new Cabinet Government; his ideas on education reform were indeed very advanced and likely received strong support from Prime Minister Prim.

“The Prime Minister is quite supportive of the Education Department’s plan, and of course, thanks to Your Majesty’s support, otherwise the department wouldn’t have been able to secure such a large budget.” Gerard Wilson said with a smile.

Initially, he did not plan for such an enormous scale in his education reform, but with such ample education budget, he decided to amend some directions in the reform plan.

For instance, he originally did not plan to implement so-called dual-track education, thinking that strengthening the basic compulsory education and simultaneously establishing more technical schools to nurture technical talents would be sufficient.

However, with such a significant budget now obtained, dual-track education must certainly be included in the plan.

The benefit of dual-track education is that it intensifies the cultivation of technical talents, even to the point of nurturing them from a young age. Technical talents who complete basic and advanced technical education are considered truly scarce high-level technical talents in Spain.

As for those technical talents cultivated from technical schools over two or three years, they can only be considered as meeting the government’s initial talent needs.

But in terms of the significance of talent, perhaps 10 junior technical talents do not compare to 1 senior technical talent. In some extremely important fields, even 100 junior technical talents are not as important as 1 senior technical talent.

Only when Spain completely fulfills the demand for high-level technical talents, can the country develop without hindrance across various sectors.

“Very good.” Carlo nodded, unreservedly expressing his supportive attitude, “To be honest, I have high hopes for the Department of Education’s reform plan.

Minister Gerard, if the department encounters any difficulties during the reform, you can come to me. I eagerly await what surprises the Department of Education will bring with the second five-year plan; the Royal Family never neglects Spain’s heroes, and I hope you will be one of them.”

“As you command, Your Majesty.” Gerard Wilson nodded respectfully, and this impromptu conversation concluded smoothly.

After this conversation, Carlo was quite satisfied with the development plan devised by Gerard Wilson’s Department of Education.

Although such a development plan is destined to consume a substantial fiscal budget, on the other hand, a country unwilling to invest much in education is hardly qualified to become stronger.

Countries that prioritize education are not necessarily strong nations, but strong nations are certainly ones that prioritize education. Relying on talent excavation from other countries is doomed to be unsustainable: firstly, other countries will not let you poach talents indefinitely, and secondly, loyalty issues inevitably arise with the talents you have cultivated.

Only talents trained by one’s own country can be trusted, which is why Carlo agreed to Minister Gerard’s proposal for education reform without much deliberation.

If Spain wants to grow into a powerful nation, it must cultivate its own native talents. When Spain can use its own education system to fill domestic high-level talent vacancies, it can truly become strong.

It’s rather unfortunate that Gerard Wilson belongs to the Liberal Party. If he had chosen the Conservative Party, Carlo wouldn’t have minded elevating him to a higher position.

But then again, it’s not certain that the Conservative Party could produce talents like Gerard Wilson who have far-sighted plans for education reform.

If the Conservative Party isn’t conservative, it loses its raison d’être. Those who support reform and have more ideas about reform have long chosen either the Progressive Party or the Liberal Party among the three major parties.

Those who remain in the Conservative Party are, apart from the Royalist Party supporting the monarchy, merely the relatively conservative and less inclined to reform staunch faction.

Following Gerard Wilson, the new Minister of Industry, Canovas, and Minister of Agriculture, Jovellar Soler, also sought an audience with Carlo, reporting their departments’ layout in the five-year development plan.

If Gerard Wilson’s visit felt more like an unexpected occurrence, then Canovas and Jovellar’s visit was anticipated.

However, compared to the reforms of the Education Department, what needs doing in the Industrial and Agricultural Departments is relatively straightforward.

With a large number of enterprises and production materials from abroad, the Ministry of Industry only needs to smoothly digest these equipments and materials over the next few years while attracting some outstanding foreign technical talents for its use.

Combined with the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, the scale of Spain’s industry in the coming years will visibly grow, and Canovas, as the Industrial Minister, can practically earn credit by doing little.