Education first

The Prime Minister cleared his throat and said:

• I want to ask you about ideas for building our country to be rich and strong, no less than any other country on this planet. Each of you speak briefly, no more than 5 minutes. If the idea is good, I will convene a follow-up conference to dissect and analyse it in detail for implementation. Now, Minister of Commerce, please speak first.

One by one the ministers rose to speak briefly about ideas for building the country, and each spoke from their own perspective. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held that establishing international relations would open the way for exchange with the world in every field. The Ministry of Industry and Trade held that an effective system for distributing goods would drive a chain of all other activities to follow.
The Ministry of Defence held that doing business needs the courage, sacrifice and intelligence of a soldier. The Ministry of Transport held that without the circulation of people and goods, society would stand dead still, so effective circulation is the golden key.
The Ministry of Public Security held that people will pour all their strength into investment when society is stable. As long as society is stable, everything will naturally develop. The Ministry of Agriculture held that exhausting natural resources through exploitation will lead to a dead end. Everything must be farmed intelligently, for controlled regeneration.

The Minister of Education put it off until the end of the session before agreeing to speak:

• Ladies and gentlemen, from this morning until now I have listened very carefully, and I find that everyone is right. If everything you have said is carried out, the country will develop.
  However, who will carry out those things, who will be capable of carrying out those things, who will have enough love of country, enough morality, enough knowledge, enough intelligence, enough determination to unite everyone to carry them out together?
  Out there are so many who are merely waiting to sabotage. They use every trick to divide this nation. They use every means to destroy love of country in the young generation, to sap the spirit of idealism among the youth. They lure the talented away from the country.
  They use money, pleasure, rank, affection and even religious belief to turn many people's souls in another direction. And when people no longer have the soul to love their country intensely, who is willing to endure hardship to build it? In everything they demand high pay, and want to enjoy the fruit the moment they sow the seed; such people could never make original inventions and initiatives to carry the country upward.
  I stress the human factor first. All ministries and sectors need outstanding people, with outstanding morality, outstanding knowledge, outstanding creativity and outstanding love of country, for your ideas to succeed.
  To have such outstanding people, we need education that is exceptionally effective, brilliant and extraordinary. To have an extraordinarily effective education, first of all a genius leader must sit in this position of Minister of Education. A genius leader of the education sector must be able to see down to the lessons of the first-year kindergarten class, to see each lesson in primary schools in the countryside, to see each doctoral thesis defence in every field. A genius leader of the education sector must be able to create outstanding curricula and create outstanding teachers in every field. Once there are outstanding curricula and teachers, there will be outstanding students.
  For many years I have held the post of Minister of Education, but I know for myself that I am not the genius that the country needs. While trying to do my work, I am also combing about in search of a genius for the education sector to recommend and promote over the heads of others...

The Minister of Education went over 5 minutes, spoke for 30 minutes, and no one kept track of time any more. Everyone was set on fire by his blazing speech.

Only when he thanked them and bowed did everyone start. All of them exclaimed: that's right, EDUCATION FIRST. 👩‍🎓

Education has the task of producing people with ability and morality to supply the nation. If people have low ability and low morality, the nation will have a low level of development. If people have high ability and high morality, the nation will have a high level of development.
If people have very high ability and very high morality, the nation will have a very high level of development.

The ambition to develop the nation depends on how well the education sector can produce excellent people. The capacity of the education sector in turn depends on a genius leader, whom all of us keep hoping to find.