northernbook Chapter 695 A New Starting Point
Chapter 695 A New Starting Point
"The first enrollment plan? What does that mean? If you don't recruit them, who do you plan to recruit in the first wave?" Xiao Yue asked.
"The family conditions are better than those of Mrs. Wu and her family. Although they need their daughters to help with housework on weekdays, those families will not be affected too much even if they divorce. Or, those families are relatively well-off and are struggling whether to spend money to send their daughters to school."
Jiang Suining's mind is as clear as a mirror and his thoughts are lucid.
"After all, the women's college has just been launched, and most people are probably still waiting and watching. In addition, the college can only accept a small number of students, so not everyone is included in our recruitment plan. We will first recruit a group of suitable female students, and when the college becomes more famous, some people will no longer regard the women's college as an anomaly. Then we can gradually recruit those girls from poor families and change their ideas."
Just now she went to several homes similar to those of Mrs. Wu and her daughter. She didn't want to recruit them into the academy at this time, but just wanted to ask more clearly.
The problems of these families are mostly similar. The most important one is that they have no money. The second is that their current life does not allow them to think about and take care of future matters. They can only try their best to solve the three meals a day.
In this case, if they want to send their daughters to school, it is probably not enough to just waive tuition and provide lunch. They must be made to see other benefits.
Jiang Suining was thinking secretly in her heart, and Xiao Yue understood what she meant. Although she agreed with it in her heart, she was more anxious now about whether she could recruit students.
"You are right, but what if those families don't want their daughters to study?"
After all, if they wanted to, the record would not be clean, without even a name on it.
"I know that the princess is anxious, but some things have to wait a little longer. Princess, why don't you come back tomorrow to check on the situation. The preparations for the girls' academy are moving too fast after all, and it's normal for most people to want to wait and see. Fortunately, this time the emperor has issued an order, so it will be easier to accept. As for the registration, as long as someone takes the lead, there is no need to worry about no one coming."
only……
Jiang Suining's eyes dimmed, and he didn't say anything else.
However, the women's college had just been established, and there was insufficient initial preparation. Even if it really recruited female students and started teaching, I am afraid that various problems would continue to emerge.
Fortunately, they have made preparations and will solve problems one by one as they arise, constantly exploring and striving for perfection.
Jiang Suining's prediction turned out to be correct. In the afternoon, the first woman who signed up finally arrived.
Judging from the other party's clothes, although they were not a wealthy family, their situation was obviously much better than that of the mother and daughter before.
She hesitated for a long time, asked a lot of questions repeatedly, and finally decided to sign up.
Looking at the blank booklet, she refused the registration person to fill in her name. After getting permission, she struggled to take the pen and wrote her own name in the booklet crookedly.
Yu Xianglan.
Although the handwriting was not neat, Yu Xianglan smiled when looking at the words, revealing a row of neat teeth.
"My father taught me to write these characters. These are the only characters I know how to write. But when I go to school, I will be able to learn many more characters."
Perhaps they were infected by the brilliant smile, or perhaps it was because they had waited for so long that someone finally signed up. The academy manager and the person in charge of registration were all very happy.
The academy manager smiled and said, "That's right, Miss Yu, you should study hard in the academy in the future. By then, you may know more characters than your father!"
"Really? That's great!" Yu Xianglan's eyes sparkled. After registering her home address and other information, she skipped away.
After Yu Xianglan signed up, other women finally showed up one after another.
Some of them came alone, some came in groups, and some were accompanied by their parents. After confirming that it was really free and asking some other questions, most of them chose to sign up immediately. Of course, there were a few who hesitated and left without registering after learning that there were only three days to register and that any registration was valid within three days.
In a blink of an eye, two days passed.
Among the three academies, Chengnan has the largest number of applicants, with a total of twelve.
As for the other two places, there were ten and nine people respectively.
"This number is smaller than we initially expected. If there are still this few people in the end, it would be better to combine the academies into one place," Lu Yan suggested.
"No." Jiang Suining rejected the proposal. "Although merging the three academies into one place can save money, the distance between the south and north of the city is very far. If we choose one place, the women who have registered in the other two places may give up because the distance is too far and the travel time is too long."
Wei Yao said: "What Sui Ning said is right. These women cannot compare to the wealthy families who can ride in carriages when they go out. Most of them can only walk to the academy. If it is too far away, they will be exhausted just walking all the way, not to mention concentrating on studying and learning to read."
"I neglected it." Lu Yan nodded. "It seems that we can't combine them into one place to save costs. But what I'm worried about is that we have gone to great lengths to set up three women's academies, but in the end each only recruited a dozen students. If this gets out, it will probably lead to ridicule, and it will be hard to explain to the emperor."
"After all, this is the first time that a women's academy has been established in the imperial city, or even in the entire Beiyang. It is not easy to recruit students for the first time. No matter what others think, we must not be discouraged and pour cold water on ourselves. As for the emperor, I don't think he will care."
After all, this matter was to resolve the issue of Xiao Yue being framed for having an affair with her lover. From observing Emperor Xiao's reaction, she knew that he probably didn't take the matter of the women's academy to heart at all.
Before any achievements were made, for an emperor who was busy with government affairs all day long, a few small women's academies were indeed not worth his attention.
As for the court officials, they probably would not take the women's academy seriously. If Emperor Xiao had not issued an edict himself, the matter would have been a done deal, and they might have even made a report and denounced it for being against the rules.
Jiang Suining's words temporarily put Lu Yan and Wei Yao at ease, but at the same time, they also became more excited and hoped to do a good job in the women's academy and make it bigger.
After all, no matter whether Emperor Xiao cares or not, and no matter what others think, this is a new starting point and opportunity.
After the third day, the registration period was completely over.
In the end, there were exactly twenty students in Chengnan Academy, while the other two had thirteen and seventeen.
Xiao Yue had been closely following the number of people over the past three days, and after hearing the news, she couldn't help but feel disappointed.