As industrialization booms in the Republic of Elan, more and more schools have arisen in communities. Many who would go without education suddenly find it available to them. Cities boast multiple schools for all levels of education. Communities that once had only one-room schoolhouses now see multi-grade education being introduced. Reading, writing, and basic math are becoming more common skill sets among the population.
Most of this growth has been the work of philanthropists and the Church. Sometimes, though, a company will create schools for the children of their workers. Some call this charity - others call it indoctrination. Regardless, it is impossible to ignore that more people are being educated than ever before in Elan’s history.
Though few rural communities and settlements are still without schools, most of them now have a schoolhouse nearby. In times when the children are not needed for labor, they attend and learn whatever lessons they can before the planting or after the harvest. In communities where there are no schools, some humanitarian organizations have created raffles for families to enter - the prize being an education at a nearby boarding school. Sometimes when distant or traditionally poorer communities reach a certain size, they will band together to hire tutors to hold classes once a week in their common meeting space for everyone, old and young. There is no limit to the ingenious ways people are searching to better themselves with what little free time they have.
The wealthier citizens can afford the admission fees of finer schools. It is currently the fashion for the wealthy to send their heirs to the best academies and boarding schools, where the curriculum centers on refinement and intellectual splendor. Often, these schools will also incorporate into their lessons key histories and skill sets required to understand and exploit the resources most relevant to their provinces. Dressed in uniforms and seated at small desks similar to those of Duriana’s businessmen, students learn not only academics but also manners and morals to live by to be proper productive people. These children are made into young adults worthy of their status - or, at least, that is always the goal. Upper class families who can't afford those steep prices hire live-in tutors to help reduce the prices, but the curriculum is much the same.
Elanites who make their way through tutoring or primary education and wish to seek a continuation of higher education have many options available to them, including various trade schools scattered throughout the country or one of the prominent universities within the republic, regardless of scholarship availability. If scholarships prove elusive, there is always the chance to exchange an education for labor in a work-study program. Students who take this route often work off their debt as janitors or doing clerical work for the school.
Peverin’s Hooper University in the city of Greenborough focuses on law. This school is known for its serious and devoted students. However, their demeanor may in part be due to the fact that the city around them is not well suited for entertaining young people. Coffee houses, concert halls, and theaters have struggled to establish themselves in the city’s limits. A system of student organizations has arisen called coteries, similar to fraternities or sororities. These groups have a firm standing in Hooper University and are often a source of camaraderie and entertainment for the growing student body. While they unify the people within them, they often create rivalries, pitting one coterie against the other. Inter-coterie sports and games are common on campus. While the administration support the coteries, extreme cases of hazing have become a recurrent problem - in the last five years, two students have died in events believed related to coterie hazing.
In Wyllis, Scranterry University boasts many bright minds shrouded in the smog of the oil refineries. Though many educational opportunities are offered, sciences are the focus of its greatest investments. With a curriculum both creative and rigorous, many students who attend admit that their years there are a trial of endurance. Still, those who finish are lauded for the work they've done to better life and industry for the people of Elan. The campus itself boasts some of the best laboratories and libraries in the country, also holding the most expensive and advanced observatory in the nation - made almost entirely useless of late by the smog. The students who attend typically come from the higher class and tend to spend their time with the like-minded or alone. Those few promising students who come from modest backgrounds are usually isolated by their classmates, and cling to each other, furthering the gap between the student body. While Scranterry’s area of study includes all of the sciences, it excels especially in chemistry, technology, and engineering. Most recently, there has been an expansion into the emergent fields of sociology and psychology.
In Huxley, Duriana’s Wittingham University was the first university founded in Elan, and with its age has become even more esteemed. A beacon of education, nearly every field of academic study (particularly those of business and political science) is represented in its curriculum, and the university’s professors are exceedingly well-regarded in academic circles. Such a fine campus hosts many public events, especially showcases of student accomplishments. Like Hooper University, there is a lively collection of coteries, some so secret that not even the university’s administration knows of their existence. These groups throw large balls, parties, and other such social events for members old and new. Those prestigious enough to be invited, typically former members and other people of note, are more than happy to attend and meet with new promising students. With the coteries, of course, come alliances and rivalries, and it is a habit for students to adhere to these long after they graduate. It's not untypical for businessmen to hear what coterie another was apart of and be ready to make a deal - or break one.
Across town from Wittingham University is the Jillert School of Fashion. Where Wittingham represents pomp and rigor, Jillert represents art and expression. People across Elan dream of someday wearing the sumptuous designs by those who study here. The clothing is almost as colorful, varied, and forward thinking as the people who designed it - in fact, students are often identifiable simply by how they dress. Jillert students have been the source of many trends that take the nation by storm, most recently that of wearing decorative pins or necklaces stating the pronouns of the individual wearing them. Twice yearly, a showing of student projects and fashion lines is accompanied by a parade by students and models down the main street of the city, ending at the Museum of Textiles where the opening ceremonies begin. Though it is primarily a school of fashion, in recent years the university has begun offering degrees in a wide variety of the arts, including the highly competitive Dance & Performance program. Besides the obvious artistic aspects of its curriculum, the program includes courses teaching the business of being a performer and the manners necessary to move in exclusive and upper class circles. The degree is rumored to be popular among courtesans and brothel owners, further fueling both the rampant popularity of the program and the protests against it. Scandals are not foreign to Jillert, but the administration has shown no signs of changing their curriculum.
Most provinces host a great number of trade schools, with curriculum coinciding with major local industries. While most companies partner with existing trade schools to pick the most promising students, some companies have decided to bypass this convention and open their own schools, which are sometimes the only option for those of lesser means to get a secondary education.