Education Policy
Created by: Emily Garcia
Executive Summary
The high rates of illiteracy throughout Kurgan are causing Kurgan to be reliant on other countries. This is a very grave problem and must be addressed. The Kurgan Council believes that outsourcing our labor, especially for our nuclear plant, will result in countries asking for more favors or overly gracious trade deals, the imposition of foreign beliefs that rise dissension towards the oligarchs, and prevents our country from being as successful and profitable as it can be. Implementing a program aimed at educating the working class of our country will ensure that our own citizens will be operating our businesses and nuclear plants. Furthermore, it will ensure that our country is not falling behind other countries in innovation and technological development. Most importantly, it will ensure that the majority of citizens receive an education from the Kurgan Council that aligns with our values and to teach them to recognize the dangers of other countries’ perspectives.
Policy Proposal
The Kurgan Council recognizes that the majority of our citizens are uneducated. This has posed a grave problem to our country because it has forced us to rely on our neighboring country, Prenza for assistance in managing our nuclear plant and making any technological advancements for us. While we are incredibly grateful for the support that the government of Prenza has given us, it is time that we start investing into our own citizens, in hopes of becoming even more self-sufficient. This is especially important because we need our own citizens to be able to manage and run our nuclear facility plant to increase our energy resources. Moreover, the Kurgan Council is concerned about the rise of opposing viewpoints towards the oligarchs throughout our country. We believe that this is due to the fact that the citizens of other countries are bringing their viewpoints to work and discussing them with the Kurgan citizens. As a council, we feel that it is our duty to educate our citizens, so that they can make our country more productive and reject the lies that other countries might espouse.
To address the problem of illiteracy throughout Kurgan, the Kurgan Council will implement the following policy. The policy is to employ the Continued Education Program that would allow individuals who have discontinued their education the opportunity to continue it again. The Continued Education Program will be modeled off of the structure that the former Soviet Union took to increase their literacy rates in the 1970s (Friend, 2019). The Soviet Union was incredibly successful in implementing this program and reached a literacy rate of 99% (Meyers). The Continued Education Program will be centered around increasing literacy among the workforce and incentivizing the work force to participate in it. The program will feature evening classes that allow the worker to obtain their high school diploma or GED. Throughout the program, the worker will be compensated for their time while completing it. Their wage will be the same amount as the amount that they earn at their occupation. Upon graduation, the worker will receive a 10% raise and a 20% raise if they choose to obtain even higher education. This will be fully funded by the Kurgan Council. Another aspect of the program will be a national curriculum (Meyers). The national curriculum will ensure that every citizen is given the opportunity to obtain a high quality consistent education. The curriculum will feature aspects that are unique and catered to their occupation as well as history classes about Kurgan. The purpose of the history classes will be to identify falsehoods that other countries throughout Zemia might believe and to refute them with truth. The curriculum will also feature a fake news section that will dispel any rumors that are being spread throughout the country.
The elements of the policy that are being adopted from the Soviet Union are night classes and offering the workers an easy way to obtain their degree (Friend, 2019). Offering a financial incentive has been proven to encourage adults who discontinued their education to pursue it again (Bloom, 2019). The studies demonstrated that offering free classes and some financial compensation alleviated the barriers that prevented high school dropouts from continuing their education (Bloom, 2019). Further illustrating that the Continued Education Program will be successful because it will provide a financial incentive in both the present and the future for the Kurgan citizens that choose to continue their education. Furthermore, the Continued Education Program will also feature curriculum and messaging that pushes the individuals to not only look at it as a benefit to themselves, but also to the country as a whole. Again, this is based off of the Soviet Union’s model in promoting education as a benefit to the nation and not only on an individual level (Meyers). The program will do this by demonstrating how increasing the quantity of educated citizens will allow Kurgan citizens the opportunity to operate our nuclear power plant and make further technological advances instead of being reliant on other countries. Moreover, the Continued Education Program will have a unified curriculum that all of the regions will be following to ensure that there is cohesion throughout the country.
The purpose of the Continued Education Program is to allow Kurgan to become more self-reliant and less dependent on other countries. This will help all of the oligarchs and regions become more successful in producing their individual goods and services. As a country, we have become too reliant on other countries, energy in particular, and it is in the best interest of the oligarchs to educate our citizens, so that we can become more independent. This will also prevent Kurgan from owing any other country financial compensation because we will not be in need of their services anymore. Moreover, if the oligarchs are in control of the education system it will ensure that any dissidents or opposing ideas are eliminated early on and ensures that outside perspectives will not impede on our nation’s sovereignty.
Sources:
Don Bloom, 2019. Programs and Policies to Assist High School Dropouts in the Transition to Adulthood. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ883080.pdf
Ethan Friend, 2019. How Russia Made 100 Million People Literate. https://historyofyesterday.com/literacy-in-the-soviet-union-ec2ae8bda62e
PETER MYERS – CAN THE SOVIET EDUCATION SYSTEM HELP DEVELOPING COUNTRIES NOW? https://mdp.berkeley.edu/peter-myers-can-the-soviet-education-system-help-us-now/