Chapter 262 More Benefits 2
Education!
No matter what academic facility it was, tuition was essential for its maintenance, teacher pay out and general upkeep of the facility.
Generally, there were a lot of things that went into their student fees.
Things like healthcare was a must for the students to have... especially the international ones, lest they fall ill and need treatment.
And in addition to that, money was needed for several bills.
Be it paying for electrical bills, field trips, teaching services, items like lab equipments, chemicals, chairs, and so on.
In short, all of these added to the cost of one’s tuition per semester.
In general, each class within Baymard’s public school... had children of various ages.
>Preschool (ages 3-5) for each semester
▪Baymardians: 1,500 BAYs
▪Treaty-signed territories: 2,000 BAYs
▪The Rest : 2,500 BAYs
*one should know that each semester was 4 months, so it perfectly evened out for paying the teachers and so on.
So each month, the Baymardians would have to save just 375 Bays (copper coins).... so as to pay out 1500 Bays.
One could look at 375 Bays as $ 375 .
Sure, it seemed ridiculously small to save up and pay tuitions... but in this era, it was just right.
>Elementary School (ages 5 - 11), from Kindergarten, Grade 1... all through Grade 5.
▪Baymardians: 1,800 BAYs
▪Treaty-signed territories: 2,650 BAYs
▪The Rest: 3,200 BAYs
>Junior High (ages 11 -15), from Grade 6 all through Grade 9.
▪Baymardians: 2,200 BAYs
▪Treaty-signed territories: 3,000 BAYS
▪The Rest: 3,800 BAYS
Of course after this grade, they would graduate... and that was it.
From this price list.... it was clear to see that Carona was still getting a good deal, compared to others.
With respects to pricing, Landon would charge students according to what class group they were in... and not their ages.
For example, elementary school usually took in children from ages 5 to 11.
But previously, there were students at 14... who didn’t know how to write, and were placed back at elementary school.
So instead of charging them the price of a Junior high student (11-15), they would get charged as elementary students instead.
But no matter what educational level they were at..... at age 15, they were seen as adults.
Hence it was graduation time.
There was nothing Landon could do about it, as that was the coming of age period here.
Of course as time went on, more and more people would get educated..... as well as place their children in school at an early age.
And by then, things would even out on their own.
So Landon wasn’t too worried about this.
Also.... the school also allowed to give out scholarships to the Baymardians, treaty-signed nations and the rest.
These scholarships were there to encourage and reward those hard working children.
And apart from that, there were student programs that allowed minors from ages 9-14 to work.
But they could only do very light jobs, if they wanted to aid in paying off their fees with a monthly plan.
One should know that apart from the nobles, peasants would also be attending this school as well in the nearest future.
So giving them numerous opportunities for success, was definitely a necessity.
Actually... even back on earth, children could work.
However, the amount of time they put in..... and the amount of work that was meant to be carried out, needed to be extremely light.
For example, they could dog walk in the parks, help in gardening local areas, window cleaning, lemonade stand selling and so on.
Children also made money as well.
Normally, an adult could work up to 8 - 10 hours a day.... but for children, it would be advisable for them to use 4 to 5 hours max.
Of course even though this era was completely different from the one back on earth, Landon had still chosen to stick to earth’s principles.
But he knew that eventually, some children would grumble and ask for an increase in work time.
After all, children here worked just like adults.
At age 6 and even 7.... some of them were already serving at bars and restaurants for 8 hours straight.
While others worked at stables for close to 10 hours without sleep.
They were some who even worked by the seas, and carried heavy boxes daily.
Some also did babysitting, did house cleaning, and worked in the farms like pros.
So 4 to 5 hours for them, was like no work at all.
But just because they could do it, didn’t mean that it was the right thing to do.
Working like that at a young age would definitely affect them when they got older.
Hence 5 hours per day, was the max that Landon could allow.
For the work they could do, Landon had already thought of few.
They could work as ’underage part-timers’ at the Ranch.
There, they would be given a special badge.... that showed their underage status, as well as other special work documents.
And no matter what job they did, they would always have to do it under someone’s supervision.
Anyway... at the Ranch, they could wash the horses, brush their hairs, feed them foods like apples, and even clean up their poop.
Provided it wasn’t tedious, Landon didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t do it.
They could also work with Baymard’s Gardening Company as well.
There, they could help gather up fallen leaves, plant flowers and even cut bushes from their client’s backyards or work areas.
They could be posted at the park, other public areas, or even someone’s private property.
But of course, they would never be working alone.... as everything would always be under supervision.
They could also work at the Baymard’s cleaning company... where they would clean windows, mop hallways, sweep rooms and so on.
In essence, there were so many light jobs for them to do... so making money wasn’t going to be an issue for these incoming international students.
And just so that their school work wasn’t affected, they were only allowed to work on weekends.
Again, if they couldn’t pay up all their fees at the end of the semester..... then they could apply for an extension payment plan, and work during all holidays here.
Generally, Landon wouldn’t allow international students to stay within Baymard during the long holidays.
But if they still owed the school and wanted to work for their pay, then by all means... they could go right ahead and do so.
With this, Landon decided to change his initial stance on having students stay in Baymard during the holidays.
Now... he would allow them to stay, but they had to apply for a stay before doing so.
Regardless, if they decided to stay..... their maximum work hours during holidays like, would be 25 hours a week.
(*5 hours × 5 days)
Tackling Student Visas, it wasn’t logical to have students change visas every 3 months.... since they would essentially come back and study till they graduated.
But even so, Landon couldn’t give them anything that went over a year.
Hence, he had decided that their visas would last for 1 year max.
And if they wanted to renew it again, they just had to prove that they had registered for next year’s semester.... and that would be all.
What if he gave some people 5 year Visas, and then didn’t bother to show up again?
Or worse, their Visas got stolen?
Everything Landon was doing, was trying to reduce identity theft to a minimal scale.
Compared to other empires that allowed all assassins, crooks and thieves to sneak or bribe their way into larger cities just like that.... Landon was trying his best to make this place a safe haven for his people.
Hence all these checks were damn important in stopping criminals from getting in.
Sure, some would definitely get in, but the numbers had to be few.
Moving on, 1 year was a lot compared to ordinary visitor entries.
Hence, be it international culinary students, or public school international students... they would have specific passport covers as well.
•All treaty-signed international students would have ’GREY’ passport covers.
•And the other international students would have dark ’BROWN’ coloured passport covers.
The reason why Landon truly wanted to differentiate everything.... was so that those who worked at the port, would have an easy time identifying different persons.
If one saw someone with a Blue passport, they would know that this was a citizen from a treaty-signed territory.
Likewise, if they saw other Baymardians or even students..... they would automatically know as well.
Of course Baymardian students didn’t need special passports.... as their RED colored ones were more than enough to carry them through.
Afterall, all Baymard citizens would be able to keep the same passport for 10 years.... before it would finally expire.
With all that said, as per the treaty.... Baymard had given educational discounts to Caronians if they decided to study here.