Chapter 6: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- EDUCATION
6.1. Reset education system
The slogan "lifelong learning" is often heard, but what is said about it is that ordinary citizens go to cultural centers and learn about their hobbies. On the other hand, "lifelong education" refers to a system of reset education that makes it possible to restart one's life at any time.
In a capitalist society built around the mobilization of human labor for production activities, there are many life stage restrictions such as having to complete certain things by a certain age. It is very difficult for those who have finished their studies but failed in life for some reason and have dropped out of social life to make a fresh start. In addition, the life plans of people with disabilities, whether congenital or acquired, are greatly restricted.
In general, capital companies do not like a non-standard labor force that cannot apply the standard model wage system, so it tends to be difficult to redo life plans. On the other hand, in a communist society where the wage labor system is abolished, it will be possible to support job seekers in re-starting their lives at any time and to distribute suitable jobs to job seekers, regardless of age or experience.
6.2. Multi-purpose colleges and technical schools
In order to make it possible to start a new life at any time, everyone must be equally guaranteed the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills through appropriate continuing education and to learn again.
"Multi-purpose colleges" are established in various places to make this possible. This is an educational institution that has been prepared so that those who have already completed the course of the integrated compulsory education (basic education course) and have found a job can acquire knowledge and skills at a higher level or in a completely different field.
However, fundamentally different from the existing university system, there is no entrance examination or selection based on it, and a first-come, first-served admission system is adopted. Of course it's completely free. Moreover, it will offer more practical courses than existing universities, and will enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable them to rethink their life plans.
For those who have taken a long-term leave of absence from compulsory education and for people with disabilities who are slow to grow, there are programs that provide supplementary compulsory education content. It is truly a multi-purpose adult education institution that offers state-of-the-art academic courses in collaboration with the academic research center.
These adult colleges are operated by provincial areas or psuedo-zones and at least one college is established in each regional area. It is devised so that it can lead to employment and re-employment of graduates in cooperation with employment agencies.
At the same time, the establishment of "technical schools" that provide single-course instruction in various specialized skills will also be promoted. This is a school that, along with multi-purpose colleges, primarily offers re-education programs for adults, but unlike multi-purpose colleges, it is all private.
In a communist society where universities are being abolished, these multi-purpose colleges, specialized technical schools, and advanced professional schools described in the next section will constitute a more practical lifelong education system.
6.3. Advanced Professional School
As touched on last time, various advanced specialists are also selected and trained from among those with at least five years of work experience. This is another form of lifelong education. Therefore, for example, it will not be unusual for a person who has been working for a long time to become a doctor after reaching the age of 40.
On the other hand, qualifications and licenses for advanced professionals should not be a privilege that is valid for life once obtained, and should be renewed at least every 10 years or so through appropriate continuing education. This is also one way of lifelong education that corresponds to the social responsibility of highly skilled professionals.
The training of such highly skilled professionals is carried out by the above-mentioned medical schools, law schools, educational schools, and other highly specialized schools. This selection process allows us to obtain professionals with a broader perspective and a spirit of public service, and would be a key to overcoming the problem of "spiritless professionals," which Weber pointed out as a scourge of modern society in general.
6.4. Towards a life-reset society
Finally, to summarize in a bold simplification, the broad definition of "modern" society, which includes capitalism and even socialism that still has capitalist elements, is a uniform life style that makes it difficult to start over. In contrast to the life-stage society, the communist society is a free life-reset society that makes it possible to start over at any time.
"Post-modern" has to mean not only the freedom of the mind, so to speak, the ideological freedom of the mind, which modernity has acquired, but also the realization of human possibilities—freedom in the true sense of the word—to the maximum extent possible. The reason modern communism pays so much attention to lifelong education is to ensure a realistic "post-modern" society in this sense.
