African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 530: Chapter 208 Surplus

”Large-scale mechanization is the direction we envision for the future of agricultural development. Although current steam-powered agricultural machinery is quite cumbersome and inefficient, we can see the importance of mechanization.”

In Kade’s explanation, a steam tractor is demonstrating cultivation.

By the 1830s, research on using steam vehicles to pull farm implements for fieldwork had begun, with various countries studying tractors. East Africa was no exception, although East Africa’s path differed from other nations.

But up to now, the steam-powered vehicles that countries around the world can build resemble small locomotives. Even if they don’t get stuck in the fields, they compact the soil significantly.

The leading country in steam tractor development is Britain. They have managed to make steam tractors relatively small, but the high cost means that only large farms can afford such equipment.

Mbeya City’s Third State Farm is a large farm, and when something is labeled as state-owned, it’s generally not small in scale, which is also the case in East Africa.

However, not all regions in East Africa are as affluent as Mbeya City and can afford such a huge iron contraption. As one of the four major cities in East Africa and a hub of heavy industry, Mbeya City is very interested in tractors.

Ernst established an East African tractor research institute in Mbeya City, and the tractor at the Third State Farm was actually purchased by East Africa as a reference product for tractor development.

Nonetheless, the Mbeya City tractor research institute mainly imitates and draws from the tractor designs researched by Heixinggen Energy Power Company.

While Kade was explaining, the children surrounding them were already chattering nonstop about the tractor.

”This thing is amazing! It’s like a locomotive. My home isn’t far from the Central Railway, and the structure of a locomotive is very similar to this thing called a tractor. But a locomotive can pull so many things, this tractor is used for plowing the fields, so it should also be quite powerful.”

”Its big wheels are entirely made of steel, right? Look, where the wheels pass by, they leave two marks on the ground.”

”How many oxen do you think its power is equivalent to?”

”That’s not the point. The main advantage, I think, is that it’s easier to manage. After all, it’s a machine, it can operate for long periods, and it doesn’t need to eat or sleep. You just need to feed coal into the boiler.”

Students from the technical high school also have to study physics, so they find it not too difficult to understand these mechanical creations. However, the steam tractor can indeed leave a massive impact on one’s psyche.

Especially with the immense noise, the clanking of gears and crankshafts, and the boiler in operation, it’s not very fast, like an old fellow that seems about to fall apart at any moment.

Ernst wasn’t particularly interested in this steampunk creation, but East African students were incredibly excited to see such a thing up close.

”I want to become a tractor driver in the future too. Driving this thing must be so cool.”

”Then you really have to work hard and aim to come work at our state farm in the future,” Kade said with a smile.

After encouraging the children, Kade shifted his tone and said, ”Currently, for East Africa, wanting to drive a tractor is not an easy task. As far as I know, there are only twenty-three tractors in the entire country, and all of these twenty-three tractors are purchased from other countries.”

”Our East African industrial strength is very poor, so we don’t have the capacity to produce this kind of machinery. Of course, this is the sorrow of being an agricultural nation.”

Ernst doesn’t agree with this point of view; he knows that during this era there’s an agricultural country doing quite well, which is Argentina. However, the paths of East Africa and Argentina differ. The immigration rate to Argentina is quite slow, reaching only about two million now. Considering Argentina’s vast arable land, it is truly sparsely populated. Even Belgium would be considered a powerful nation compared to Argentina’s population scale.

Kade continued, ”So you must study hard. In the future, make your own tractors for East Africa, making these expensive and cumbersome things cheaper and smaller, contributing to East Africa.”

”Ah! Uncle Kade, let’s not discuss studying, we’re still good friends.”

No wonder the students of the Second Middle School complain. Although East Africa doesn’t discriminate against the technical high school, it’s undeniable that the student base of the technical high school is poor, mostly comprised of those who couldn’t get into the liberal arts and science high school.

Mbeya City’s First Middle School is the liberal arts and science high school. During the entrance exams, the score of the last admitted student at the First Middle School was higher than at the Second Middle School.

The disparity also shows in college acceptance rates. The technical high school can participate in entrance exams, but its admission quotas are only about one-tenth.

Of course, the East African entrance exams aren’t the only path. East Africa has another form of recommendation-based exam, where each school recommends outstanding students to take special exams. But ultimately, it’s still based on scores, similar to various competitions in past lifetimes.

Therefore, students from the Second Middle School were certainly middle-level performers during primary school. When they reach middle school, combined with the level of education in East Africa, only a few excel in learning abilities.

As to why they were at a middle level, that’s because the Third Middle School is at the bottom. The Third Middle School, like the Second Middle School, is a technical high school but with much weaker faculty, incomparable to the First Middle School. This point can be understood by equating technical high schools to what were previously known as vocational high schools. However, in East Africa, technical high schools outnumber liberal arts and science high schools, unlike in Ernst’s past life where high schools were more numerous than vocational schools.

Even a liberal arts and science high school is not easy to get into college. The number of universities in East Africa is extremely low, not matching the number of high schools. After all, middle schools in East Africa are part of the compulsory education system, meaning students have the opportunity and obligation to attend, whereas universities are not the same.

Still, Ernst is not at all worried about this point. The middle school level is enough for East African students to make their way into the world after graduation. After all, a middle school diploma in this era is considered high academic talent.

Ernst even thinks that after a few years, the surplus of middle school graduates in East Africa (compared to other countries) might overflow to Germany and Austria, similar to how students from the Far East Empire in a past life overflowed into Western countries.

As the saying goes, knowledge is power, particularly in Germany, where the second industrial revolution is flourishing, and the demand for talent is insatiable.

East African high school students participating in recruitment by German factories would undoubtedly have an advantage. Although the spread of middle school education in East Africa has led to very poor overall teaching quality, those who have attended middle school fare much better than those who have only attended primary school.

It all comes down to students’ expectations for employment after graduation. A middle school graduate can at least aim for a management position within a German factory.

Thus, the East African education system is disconnected from the rest of the world. The level of higher education in Europe and America might far exceed East Africa, and East African elementary education may lag behind Germany and Austria. But in terms of middle school education, East Africa can compete in terms of quantity.

Such an approach results in an oversupply of middle school education in the early stages, given the narrow upward paths and the fact that only a minority can attend university. After graduating from middle school, many may have to undertake the same work as their parents or may not even have the opportunity to work in factories, only to farm, as East Africa is merely an agricultural country.

Simultaneously, East Africa has to bear significant education expenses in the early stages. This is also why Ernst is not quick to relocate the Black population; he needs them to shoulder part of this cost for East Africa.

The benefits will manifest in the future. First, the overall national quality level in East Africa will far exceed that of other countries. East African middle school graduates, placed in this era’s vast empire of the illiterate Far East, would be considered high-level talents, and would not fall behind in Western countries either.

Secondly, the future of East African industry is bound to undergo explosive growth, given that talent has already begun to accumulate, and during the industrial development, the demand for education has also greatly increased. For now, a primary school diploma can meet the era’s needs, but there will come a time when the value of a primary school diploma will depreciate.

Ernst believes that the adoption of compulsory education in Germany contributed to its dazzling development, and later on, the Soviet Union followed the same path. Thus, East Africa is simply advancing these countries’ developmental experiences one step further.