"Oh? They've decided to increase the number of night school classes?" Perfikot met with the representative of the Duplex Union from the Lord's Office and, after hearing the reported meeting content, curiously asked, "Then where are they going to find enough teachers?"

This was a question even Perfikot was concerned about, because this era is not like the world before she traveled, where in a certain eastern country, you could throw a brick and hit someone who has received nine years of compulsory education, three years of full-time high school education, and four years of full-time university education.

Even in Langton, where Imperial University is most frequent, the value of a college student is quite significant, and any qualified university graduate in the Empire is urgently needed as elite talent by society.

In fact, in this era, graduating from elementary school was already considered a high level of education, and quite a few workers had only dropped out during prenatal education.

As for engineers here, they do have sufficient cultural levels as a group, otherwise, they wouldn't qualify to take the engineer certification exam.

One must know that one of the requirements is to obtain a university diploma, which means you must graduate rather than drop out.

Under these constraints, most of the engineers do have a university education, although this degree generally doesn't hold much weight.

After all, even top elite schools in Langton can issue undeserved diplomas in exchange for substantial donations.

Of course, despite this, for engineers, teaching a group of illiterates to read is still manageable.

Willingness to do this job and the ability to do this job are two different things.

The night school was indeed established with authorization from the Lord's Office, and Perfikot allocated funds to the Duplex Union for night school expenses.

But this money was not for night school teachers' salaries, and the night school itself doesn't charge tuition.

In fact, that's the key reason why night school is overcrowded — who doesn't want free education?

If it were children, they might not cherish it, but for adults who've been through societal hardships, studying is their dream come true.

So given the opportunity, no one will give up a chance to improve themselves.

As for night school teachers, they're voluntarily drawn from the engineering community; they receive a stipend but not a salary.

Thus, for engineers, going to night school as a teacher is a tough job, something they are not really willing to do.

This is precisely why Perfikot was curious about where Elvin planned to get enough teachers.

"According to Elvin's representative, he plans to recruit a separate batch of full-time instructors in the city, and also run night school in three shifts to ensure all workers have time and opportunity to enter night school to study," the representative from the Lord's Office explained to Perfikot.

Perfikot wasn't worried about whether this solution would really solve the problem, but she also asked, "Hiring another batch of people? Where does the money come from? Is he funding it himself?"

This question was very important. If Elvin was funding it himself, Perfikot would need to carefully scrutinize his intentions.

"It's not self-funded; suppliers and contractors related to engineering are proactively donating a not-so-substantial fund to be donated to the Duplex Union's account," answered the representative without expressing his subjective opinion to Perfikot.

He clearly knew that his role as a representative to the Duplex Union was to act as Perfikot's eyes and ears.

He did not need to express opinions because Perfikot would communicate opinions through him to the Duplex Union.

He didn't need his own ideas, as his position did not require him to have them.

Thus, he straightforwardly played the role of a messenger and recorder.

Perfikot was satisfied with this representative's performance; she indeed did not need someone in this position to overthink as that could affect her control over the Duplex Union.

After all, Perfikot wanted her representative in the Duplex Union to act neutrally, maintaining the balance between both sides, rather than being too opinionated, leading to dominance by one side or being jointly targeted by two sides.

As for suppliers and contractors related to the Energy Tower project being willing to fund night school and the Duplex Union, for Perfikot, this wasn't exactly good news, nor was it bad news.

At least for the Duplex Union, the night school issue was perfectly resolved, and with the funds, Duplex Union could smoothly conduct other business.

However, Perfikot didn't like this situation, as those merchants' donations meant that they had noticed the Duplex Union and were attempting to extend their influence into it.

After some thought, Perfikot said to the representative, "Donations can be accepted, but once accepted, make them list the amounts, sources, specific usage, and announce them, including all expenses and consumption, ensuring absolute openness and transparency, with no concealment or corruption issues.

Additionally, publicly state that the Duplex Union accepts donations from all society sectors, and award donors with a medal in the name of Chernobyl City Hall... no, issued in the name of the Lord's Office as recognition."

Perfikot did this to minimize the influence of the merchants' donations, preventing them from gradually extending their reach into the Duplex Union through donations.

The Duplex Union was set up by herself to balance the relationship between workers and engineers and must not be controlled by those merchants.

With this thought in mind, Perfikot naturally needed to implement corresponding countermeasures.

Allowing acceptance of social donations was indeed to attract more people into the situation, thus diluting the impact of a particular donation.

And by issuing medals, it could further dilute their so-called "favor" to the Duplex Union. After all, once recognized in the name of the Lord's Office, making further demands on the Duplex Union would be impolite.

Although this could not entirely sever the merchants' influence on the Duplex Union, at least it would mitigate their impact to the lowest level, ensuring that when Perfikot expanded the Duplex Union throughout the Northern Territory, she need not worry that this institution would be controlled by others.

Of course, Perfikot could also reject all donations and then fund it through the Northern Territory's fiscal expenditure, completely severing external influence.

But doing so would also be a significant expense for the Northern Territory's finances, particularly as they were currently in deficit status.

Why use your own money if you can use someone else's?

On the other hand, this could also be a means of easing relations with merchants, avoiding a fallout between the Lord's Office and the merchants.

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