Rensa's World: Education
This is the second background piece for the December Prompt Request.
The colonisation of Rensa’s world had a purpose and that purpose is ongoing, still guided by a development plan with set goals and a timetable. The education system is part of that, designed to produce the workers needed to further the current goals of the project.
The point of primary school is to provide a level of learning skills, literacy and numeracy as the basis of further education and professional development. Primary school also begins the streaming process where students with particular aptitudes are channelled into particular career paths.
The streaming process continues through secondary school with specialist classes and schools. It is possible, with early streaming into a career path, to finish secondary school as a technically-qualified engineer, or other professional, who merely requires supervision of ‘maturity’ issues. This does provide a very narrowly focused education for those who are career streamed early in their education. Other people aren’t career streamed at all. Depending on their interests and abilities it is this portion of the student population who as adults provide general unskilled labour of various types, pursue careers which are not regarded as ‘necessary’ for the completion of the development plan but provide for a more liveable society or are relative late-comers to their chosen professions and bring a wider educational background than that of their professional peers to the tasks they undertake.
The education scheme inside the Imperial Palace before the Sack was a specialised variation of the overall system aimed at producing administrators who were skilled in the various financial and economic specialities while having a deep general knowledge relating to all aspects of the colony and its life. The schools inside the Palace were notable in that all classes had face-to-face instructors for all subjects and no classes were held by video-link with distant specialist instructors. The reason for this was the Imperial Household Office argued that the expenditure to allow this delivery was an unnecessary cost that would negatively impact on the Imperial Family’s efforts to pay off the damage done to the colony by the reign of the Second Dynasty. This decision was disputed by the Family’s education cadre on the basis of a cost/gain analysis and the matter was undergoing submission to the Emperor for a binding decision at the time of the Sack.
The colonisation of Rensa’s world had a purpose and that purpose is ongoing, still guided by a development plan with set goals and a timetable. The education system is part of that, designed to produce the workers needed to further the current goals of the project.
The point of primary school is to provide a level of learning skills, literacy and numeracy as the basis of further education and professional development. Primary school also begins the streaming process where students with particular aptitudes are channelled into particular career paths.
The streaming process continues through secondary school with specialist classes and schools. It is possible, with early streaming into a career path, to finish secondary school as a technically-qualified engineer, or other professional, who merely requires supervision of ‘maturity’ issues. This does provide a very narrowly focused education for those who are career streamed early in their education. Other people aren’t career streamed at all. Depending on their interests and abilities it is this portion of the student population who as adults provide general unskilled labour of various types, pursue careers which are not regarded as ‘necessary’ for the completion of the development plan but provide for a more liveable society or are relative late-comers to their chosen professions and bring a wider educational background than that of their professional peers to the tasks they undertake.
The education scheme inside the Imperial Palace before the Sack was a specialised variation of the overall system aimed at producing administrators who were skilled in the various financial and economic specialities while having a deep general knowledge relating to all aspects of the colony and its life. The schools inside the Palace were notable in that all classes had face-to-face instructors for all subjects and no classes were held by video-link with distant specialist instructors. The reason for this was the Imperial Household Office argued that the expenditure to allow this delivery was an unnecessary cost that would negatively impact on the Imperial Family’s efforts to pay off the damage done to the colony by the reign of the Second Dynasty. This decision was disputed by the Family’s education cadre on the basis of a cost/gain analysis and the matter was undergoing submission to the Emperor for a binding decision at the time of the Sack.