Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 324 Laying the Foundation
After climbing to the top of the slope and standing in front of the new house, Secretary Yang couldn't help but exclaim, "Such a nice and big house is unique in our Lujiawan."

Although the brigade headquarters building was nice, it wasn't private property and therefore couldn't be considered private property.

Ye Shubao chuckled twice, “It’s not just Lujiawan. Two months ago, Xiao An and I went to all the brigades and found that there wasn’t another house like this.”

Chen Fan put his hands on his hips and said with a smile, "So we need to get our brigade's livestock breeding business up and running as soon as possible. Once everyone has made money, every household can build a big house like this."

He turned to look at Accountant Liu and said loudly, "Accountant Liu, you should build a big villa too, even more beautiful than mine."

Everyone burst into laughter; they all remembered that Accountant Liu wanted to build a villa.

Accountant Liu's eyes narrowed into slits with delight. "I dare not think about it, I dare not think about it."

After a pause, he suddenly said, "Your brick wall is fine as it is, there's no need to plaster the exterior with mortar."

Everyone instinctively looked at a pile of straw next to them, where fermented soil was still fermenting in the pit, which was also the material Chen Fan planned to use to coat the exterior walls.

Chen Fan glanced at it and continued walking inside. "Smear it. Only by smearing it can we prevent moisture and water from getting in. Otherwise, if too much moisture is absorbed by the bricks over time, the room will become very damp, and all my books here will be difficult to preserve."

Seeing his insistence, no one brought it up again.

Actually, everyone thinks that blue bricks are fine, they look very grand, why bother to put on another layer of yellow soil?

They quickly entered the house, and Zhang Juemin and Zhang Wenliang found their own boxes, pulled them out, and carried them to the door.

They didn't buy much; they mainly bought fabric at the cotton mill's retail store, then bought a few pairs of shoes for their family at a department store, and two radios at a secondhand shop, which meant they had spent all the money they had brought.

Chen Fan led the others around the pile of goods. "That pile is the books I kept for myself. They are either more profound professional materials or novels and miscellaneous books. I guess no one in our production team likes to read them."

Then he pointed to another pile, "Those are textbooks from elementary school to university. I'll keep one or two sets for myself, and give the rest to the brigade headquarters."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Secretary Yang and Captain Zhang, and said seriously, "Going to vocational school or university is about learning skills, not just a diploma. If someone in our team can understand and master the books of a particular major, then our team is equivalent to having a vocational school graduate or a university graduate. The role they can play is far greater than that of someone who hasn't gone to school."

Hearing this, Ye Shubao nodded repeatedly. He glanced at the others and said with emotion, "After running this breeding farm, I've realized that one capable person is worth a hundred or a thousand incapable ones."

He pointed at Chen Fan and said, "If it weren't for Xiao Chen, who would know how to raise those chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits? Without a veterinarian who knows how to treat livestock, who would dare to raise so many at once?"

"They're incredibly wealthy, not counting livestock. The fact that the four brigades of Hongxing, Shengli, Bailanghu, and Ganjiacun dared to extend credit to us for seedlings shows they value Xiao Chen's skills and his connections with the veterinary station. They know that with him around, the risks in our business are lower, which is why they're willing to give us seedlings on credit. They're even hoping that once we get rich, we can share in their wealth."

Secretary Yang nodded. "That makes sense."

He turned to look at Chen Fan, "How should these books be arranged? Do you have a plan?"

Chen Fan immediately said, "This is what I'm thinking: send all the primary school textbooks to the village schools. If possible, it would be best to build the village schools into complete primary schools, so that the children in the teams far from the commune won't have to stop reading after the second grade."

Captain Zhang immediately said, "The idea is good, but what about the teachers?"

Xiao Liewen shook his head and laughed, "Teacher Xiao himself only has an elementary school education. How much skill can he teach? Besides, with so many students, he can't possibly teach them all by himself."

"This is easy to solve."

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "Teacher Xiao has been teaching for so many years, surely he himself hasn't finished learning all the knowledge in elementary school? That can't be right, can it?"

Even Yang Ju and Huang Ying know that they should find books to study. As the only privately-employed teacher in the village, if Teacher Xiao can't even handle the elementary school curriculum, he really should suggest that the brigade headquarters replace the teacher at the village school.

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

Chen Fan continued, "If Teacher Xiao is able to take on the teaching duties of the upper primary school, then we'll ask him to be the principal of the village primary school..."

At this point, Captain Zhang interrupted him, saying, "He was originally the principal."

Xiao Liewen nodded, "Even a commander without troops counts."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "What I mean is, let him be the real principal, and hire a few more teachers for him."

Captain Zhang then asked, "The key question is, where will the teachers come from?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "A veterinarian!"

Everyone stared at him speechlessly.

Before Ye Shubao could speak, Chen Fan interrupted, "I know, they're veterinarians now, and they also serve as emergency doctors for their own teams..."

He pointed to himself and said matter-of-factly, "I'm also a data clerk and a correspondent, but am I supposed to write news reports and organize books in the archives all day long? You haven't even given me work points yet!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately understood.

Captain Zhang nodded repeatedly, and said thoughtfully, "That makes sense, that makes sense. A small team is only so big, how can we give them so much to do?"

Ye Shubao nodded in agreement, "Yes, that's right. And their respective teams all calculate work points for them, at the same standard as the coordinator, 10 points a day. When nothing goes wrong, it's like they just get work points without doing any work."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly, feeling that he had been subtly insulted.

Ye Shubao continued, "Letting them teach in primary schools is a way for them to make a small contribution."

After he finished speaking, Chen Fan continued, "The village primary school is in Team 10. Except for Teams 5 and 6, the children from the other teams attend classes at the village primary school. We can organize all the veterinarians from these 10 teams into groups of two to teach the three grades of primary school."

This way, classes can be held 5 days a week, from 8 am to 5 pm, so students learn a lot, and teachers only need to go one day a week, which isn't tiring. Teacher Xiao is specifically responsible for teaching fourth and fifth grade students in upper elementary school. There aren't many students who can get into upper elementary school, but he can handle it.

When conditions are right, we can expand further by applying to the commune to include the junior high school, turning the village primary school into a school with a continuous education system.

Chen Fan spread his hands and said, "Anyway, we don't need the commune to contribute money or manpower. We just need them to stamp the document and issue a certificate. More schools and more students will benefit them. At least it will look better on them. They won't disagree."

At this moment, Secretary Yang was already beaming with pride after being persuaded by Chen Fan, and immediately waved his hand, "Anyone who dares to disagree, I'll go and get them!"

Chen Fan wiped away his cold sweat, "It can't be that bad, it can't be that bad."

Anquan chuckled from the side, "I know Director Wang from the Education Group; he's quite easy to talk to."

He paused for a moment, then added, "However, he still has some authority to expand the village school into a complete primary school; he can do it by submitting a report. But to build a school that integrates primary and junior high school, the county education bureau needs to approve it."

In later times, townships no longer had education management departments; instead, they were managed by county-level education bureaus or commissions. Now, in order to eradicate illiteracy and improve the education coverage rate, the county education bureau would send education teams to the communes. These teams were managed by both the commune and the county education bureau and were mainly responsible for school construction and teacher allocation.

Prior to this, admission to vocational schools and universities relied on recommendations, which led to many families at the grassroots level being unwilling to send their children to school. This caused headaches for the education department, who spent all their time thinking about how to increase the enrollment rate.

If Lujiawan were to proactively submit a report to expand the village school into a full-fledged primary school, allowing all the village's children to attend school without requiring them to contribute money or manpower, they would probably be laughing in their sleep.

Rejection? Not a chance!
So, his last sentence about safety dispelled the doubts of others. He said, "However, the county education bureau mainly controls funding and teachers. If we can solve these things ourselves, they will only require short-term training for prospective teachers, and only after passing the assessment will they issue appointment certificates."

Yes, it's just an appointment certificate, not a teacher's certificate.

There is a big difference between private school teachers and public school teachers. Public school teachers are "permanent employees" with a formal employment contract; they receive a salary, and even if they come from rural areas, they can immediately change their household registration to urban.

In vast rural areas, privately-run teachers still maintained their peasant status, only now they wielded teaching pointers instead of hoes, and nurtured people instead of crops. Their wages, like those of veterinarians like Chen Fan, were based on work points, making them one of the production team's coordinating workers.

Given this, the county education bureau naturally wouldn't have high expectations for them; they'd just pass them if they were good enough, since they weren't getting paid anyway.

These unpaid privately-run teachers were the greatest contributors to my country's literacy campaign and rural basic education. Later statistics show that in 1977 alone, there were over 491 million privately-run teachers in my country, demonstrating the sheer scale and profound impact of this system.

Now Chen Fan also wants to leverage the advantages of private school teachers to build an educational foundation for Lujiawan.

Anyway, he has a "teaching" cheat code. Most of the students who listen to his lectures grasp the knowledge very quickly. As long as he occasionally gives lectures to those private school teachers, they will definitely be able to cultivate batches of outstanding students.

Taking advantage of the talent shortage in the 80s, once these students have all gone out and returned, it will likely be a time of great upheaval and extraordinary events.

Who the hell dares to mess with me then? I'll give them a taste of my triumphant return!

Chen Fan described the prospects, and the safety measures cleared away any obstacles to approval. Several leaders from the brigade headquarters were present, so the decision to expand the village school was unanimously approved.

Afterwards, Chen Fan led them to the vicinity of the vocational school and university textbooks, pointing to these books and saying, "There are textbooks for dozens of vocational school and university majors here. There's no way to teach these professional skills; those who want to learn them have to learn them themselves. If you don't understand something, you can ask the teachers for help by listening to radio courses, taking correspondence courses, etc."

Since the establishment of Beijing Radio and Television University in 60, my country has had the opportunity to learn professional courses through radio and television. Correspondence schools started even earlier. Not counting those during the Republic of China era, the Northeast Experimental School established a correspondence department in 51 after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and Beijing also established a correspondence teacher training school.

Although many correspondence schools have now suspended operations, a few schools are still offering correspondence courses.

Even if not, writing letters to the prefectural committee's universities in the name of the production team would almost always get a reply.

If there is no reply, the letter must have been lost in the mail.

As the saying goes, if you're willing to learn, there's always a way to overcome difficulties.

If all else fails, Chen Fan can step in himself. It's just teaching a few people; what's so difficult about that?

Moreover, with the college entrance examination about to be reinstated and various forms of education such as night schools and correspondence courses being revived, there may be no need for him to take action at all.

Finally, Chen Fan said with a smile, "As long as we can train a group of people who have mastered professional knowledge, we can expand the sideline business of the production team."

He pointed to the textbooks and said, “For mechanical and electrical engineering, we can form well-drilling teams and transportation teams. For shipbuilding, if someone can learn to sail and repair ships, maybe we can have our own water transport company.”

Ye Shubao, who was standing next to him, was already grinning from ear to ear, but he still asked with some doubt, "You can't learn how to sail a boat just by reading a book, can you?"

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Let's understand the principles in the book first, and then ask an experienced master to teach us. Doesn't the water transport company have any retired helmsmen or mechanics? Let's invite one or two over, and then assign them a few apprentices. That way, they'll learn the skills."

Anquan immediately nodded in agreement, “Rehiring retired veterans is a good idea. There are several retired doctors rehired in the health center. The water transport company has been established for more than 20 years and has a lot of retired veterans. As long as the money is right, it will be no problem to invite one or two over.”

Ye Shubao understood and nodded, saying, "In other words, we should first build our primary school, cultivate more promising talents, and then let these talents learn professional courses and become skilled technicians."

Once we've trained a skilled technician, we can build a new side business team around his expertise!

Captain Zhang nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of imagination. "Farming won't make you rich in the end. To make money, you have to do side jobs. The main reason we didn't do side jobs before was because we didn't have the right people. If we can train our own people, we can build up our side jobs. Then all the members of our brigade will be able to live a good life!"

Anquan quickly reminded him, "You should pursue your side hustles, but you can't forget your main job; food is the foundation."

He didn't forget his responsibilities. As a cadre stationed in the area, his task was to increase grain production, and only then could he help the production team improve its efficiency. This order was absolutely crucial.

Seeing his anxious expression, everyone couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Xiao Liewen went on to say, "We must never forget to prepare for war and supplies; who would dare to forget that?!"

(End of this chapter)