Chapter 167: An Expert in a Terrible Fix

“Alright, no problem, send me an address. I’ll deliver a Little Star learning machine over to Little Peng.”

“Thank you, I’ll send you the money right away!”

“That won’t be necessary. For small matters like this, receiving your money would be as if you’re a stranger.”

“Paying is a must, or else it would be like I’m taking advantage of you. I’m transferring 10 thousand dollars over to you!”

Ding Dong!

Chen Jin received a transaction notice on WeChat. Su Yun had transferred 10 thousand dollars to him. Chen Jin shook his head. He would not receive her money. It would automatically be returned to Su Yun after 24 hours, as he was not lacking this little amount of money.

At that moment, there was a knock on the office door.

“Come in.”

Company Deputy General Manager Liang Ying reported, “Mr. Chen, the expert Mr. Tang from the Ministry of Education is here, he wants to talk to you about some things.”

Chen Jin was slightly stunned. He laughed as he said, “They finally can’t hold on anymore?”

Liang Ying laughed as well. “Mr. Chen, go meet Mr. Tang quickly. His face is as black as the bottom of a pot. When I walked past him, I heard him saying ‘unsympathetic company.’ He has quite an opinion towards us.”

“Huh, he has an opinion towards us?” Chen Jin shook his head and chuckled. “Why can’t they have opinions on their own inabilities? No zuo no die! If they weren’t that persistent on screwing things up, why would they have ended up in this state?”

On Mr. Tang’s face was a rather speechless expression. Yes, things were completely screwed up on the ministry’s end. Now, they were criticized by the mass population of students and parents. They were all demanding for a refund for the Ministry of Education’s version of the intelligent learning machine (in short, “Educational Machine”). Of all the tens of thousands of Educational Machines, students that requested for a refund was a staggering 87%. There were also many of them who reduced the “Educational Machine” in their hands into ashes out of rage. Overwhelmed by bad reviews from the public, the experts responsible for the “Educational Machine” project were thoroughly crestfallen, with their face covered in dust as their reputation plummeted to that of street rats.

How exactly did the situation go south? It was the realization of Chen Jin’s words: no zuo no die. Firstly, the “Tree of Knowledge” that was modified and adjusted by the experts had an enormous change compared to the original version. But those modifications were not making the Tree of Knowledge better, as feedback from the students were saying that it was not very user-friendly.

“What’s going on? I’ve done a system analysis on the Educational Machine. I only got 59 marks in mathematics for third graders, which is not even a pass. By all means, I should have many weaknesses. But why did only two small areas become red on the Tree of Knowledge while the others were all green? Could it even be possible that I have a good foundation in those pieces of knowledge? But when I tapped on the red dots, weren’t those the knowledge checkpoints that I had already mastered? How could I have done such lowly mistakes?”

“I realized that the Tree of Knowledge in the Educational Machine is not accurate at all, the dots that should be red aren’t red and the dots that should be green aren’t green. And I have never seen a yellow dot anywhere.”

“It is indeed hilarious. There were many knowledge checkpoints that I obviously had bad mastery in, but they were depicted in green. On the Tree of Knowledge, many of those knowledge checkpoints for second and third graders were red, and I’m currently in high school!”

“Rubbish device! I’m still completely unaware of my own weaknesses. Intelligent Educational Machine? More like a Retarded Educational Machine!”

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Next on the list would be its poor learning effects. Users basically did not improve at all.

“It has been almost a month since I started using the Educational Machine. I only scored an additional five marks in the monthly test, which literally means no improvements.”

“In my class, there are five people using the Educational Machine and four using the Little Star learning machine. After the monthly test results were released, the average score improvement for Educational Machine users was three marks while for Little Star users, their score improvement was 32 marks!”

“My Educational Machine went into the dumpster just half a month after I started using it. It had zero effectiveness! I asked my dad to buy me a Little Star learning machine and my score in the monthly test improved by 15 marks!”

“I’m a parent. I suggest that everyone should buy Little Star. Buy it even if it means spending 20 or 30 thousand dollars! Do not buy the Educational Machine provided by the school, the Tree of Knowledge is completely fake and not user-friendly at all. There is no ‘Answers For All’ function and even the “Homework Guide” function was scrapped. It has totally no difference from a traditional learning machine. Only idiots will spend $5,800 for this piece of crap!”

“I want a refund! Give me back by $5,800 dollars!”

Regarding the “Educational Machine” released by the Ministry of Education, students could still bear with the Tree of Knowledge not being user-friendly and the lack of the “Answers For All” function. The one thing that was completely intolerable was that even the signature “Homework Guide” function was removed. The reason given by the experts was that they wanted to develop students’ ability to work independently and prevent excessive dependence on the Educational Machine. Their fundamental point was for the good of the children.

“Moronic experts. They ask us to continue using fire sticks when there’s a Dragon Sabre available.”

“The purpose of me buying an intelligent learning machine is for this particular function, and you removed it?”

“I can’t tolerate this; I want an immediate refund!”

The problem was that the school could not accept such massive amounts of return requests. The price of the Educational Machine was not cheap. In provinces with a well-developed economy, the machine was sold at an average price of above 5,000 dollars; in provinces with a moderately developed economy, the machine was sold at an average price of above 4,000 dollars; in provinces with a poor economy, the cheapest price of the machine would be 3,200 dollars. None of them were below 3,000 dollars.

What about poor students? Even the Educational Machine was so expensive, how could the poorer students afford one? The Ministry of Education had considered this issue. Therefore, they distributed a certain quota to every school stating that for the poor students that had better results and were hardworking, they could purchase an Educational Machine at the price of 2,000 dollars. What if they could not even take out 2,000 dollars? The Educational Machine was not a necessity. It was not that the teachers were not teaching. Would students lose their own learning capabilities without the Educational Machine?

Do not overstate a mere tool! Learning ultimately depended on the person himself! Those who were gifted would not do badly no matter what. Overreliance on a tool, on the other hand, might cause one to lose their ability to think independently, doing more harm than good. The expert’s theory was irrefutable. But facing the huge wave of return requests and the criticism and complaints from innumerable parents, the experts were flustered. They were hurrying to figure out a way to deal with this issue.

…

Inside the conference room, Mr. Tang said with a solemn face, “Mr. Chen, the only solution now is to remove the “Homework Guide” function from the Little Star learning machine and make it consistent with the Educational Machine in each and every aspect. The paths you are taking are crooked ways. You are depriving the student’s ability to learn independently. Yes, their scores have improved, but their learning abilities are dwindling! You are doing harm to the next generation. Don’t be obsessed with it anymore, you are making a historical blunder!”

“Their scores are improving. Doesn’t that mean that their learning capabilities are getting better?” Chen Jin was very surprised. “The scores mean everything! This is the most distinguishing feature of our apparent education system. Why did experts like you begin to despise the fact that the students are getting a high score? When did your minds begin to get twisted around?” In his words, there was a smear of sarcasm.

“You——” Mr. Tang’s facial expression looked terribly awful. “I have been in the education field for decades and I have authority over this field! I know what learning methods suit the students in Z country the most. Yours will definitely not work; you are guiding them down a malicious path that spells calamity! Why would a tech company like yours get yourselves involved in education? You’re adding nothing but chaos to our country! Just do what I said, remove the “Homework Guide” function from the Little Star learning machine.”

“Heheh…” Chen Jin shook his head. “Now obtaining high scores is something malicious, huh. Well, I can’t control your mouth, what you experts say will always be right. And when you encounter problems, you shove your heads in the dirt like an ostrich. I, on the other hand, will not do what you ask. Because even if I agreed to your request, the students and their parents won’t. This is your own problem. Do not even think of dragging us down with you. We are just a small company and we can’t handle so much criticism from that many parents. Unless the state issues a mandatory order, I will not do what you ask.”

“You!” Mr. Tang was extremely infuriated, yet unable to have a say. He could only return to King’s city and search for other authoritative methods to make Xing Hai Technologies comply! They were not wrong. It was Xing Hai Technologies that was the “source of all problems.”