Bureau of Education and Enlightenment

The Illuminatia Bureau of Education and Enlightenment (BEE) is an agency of the Illuminatian government responsible for the regulation of education standards for youth and adults. The BEE is also responsible for the funding of educational and enlightenment efforts in Illuminatia.

The BEE funds and oversees such institutions as schools, universities, libraries, museums, scholarly institutions, and educational media outlets. Within the BEE, the Office of Curriculum and Programming (OCP) ensures the material taught at Illuminatian institutions of education uniformly meets standards of quality, accuracy, and veracity. Through the Office of Assessment and Placement (OAP), the bureau manages a system of assessment of individuals' educational attainment, assignment of pupils to educational institutions, placement of graduates into occupational positions.

Education for developing learners

See article: Primary education

Because access to education is considered to be a universal human right, Illuminatian society has made the government responsible for ensuring that persons in the process of developing their intellectual capacities receive the most accurate, highest-quality education possible.

The BEE fulfills this mission by funding and regulating a system of primary education that includes preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, and auxiliary childhood education. These primary educational institutions—while they generally serve students within a limited local geographic area and are incorporated as local entities—are fully governed and funded at the national level by the BEE. Local control of primary schools is limited and local funding is not necessary, as it is understood that the quality of schools and the education they provide should not be variable based on locality or regional demographics.

Advanced education

See article: Secondary education

See article: Tertiary education

Learners who advance to their personal age of majority are entitled to pursue education at a secondary institution of education. Funding for a secondary education at a public college or university is fully funded by the BEE through the individual student tuition stipend. Public colleges and universities also receive direct funding from the BEE, which oversees curriculum and educational quality.

While a secondary education will adequately prepare graduates for workforce roles, students may also choose to pursue a more advanced tertiary education at a university, institute, or think-tank. BEE student stipends apply the same to tertiary education as they do secondary education.

Graduating pupils at the primary as well as secondary and tertiary levels are entitled to services from the OAP's Occupational and Instructional Productivity and Placement System (OIPPS). The OIPPS system matches graduates with employment opportunities and/or further scholarly pursuits based upon the pupil's aptitudes and interests. The OIPPS takes into account the continent's workforce needs as it makes these matches, guaranteeing participants a placement.

Enlightenment for mature learners

See article: Quaternary education

Thanks to the increasing lifespan of the average Illuminatian, lifelong education is not only considered important but is also considered something to which Illuminatians are entitled. Illuminatians understand that since the latest understandings relating to scientific advances, artistic developments, and social awareness change frequently on an evolving basis, continuing adult education is necessary for adult Illuminatians to remain capable and fruitful in their professional and social capacities.

Institutions and resources devoted to the education and enlightenment of adults are considered to be a part of Illuminatia's system of quaternary education. This continuing education is considered necessary and central to Illuminatian culture. Adults beyond a specified age are required to take part in regular intervals of quaternary educational experiences and these educational activities are provided to individuals free of expense.

The BEE funds and regulates libraries, museums, galleries, institutes, academies, educational media outlets, and other enlightening civic institutions as part of this quaternary education system. Illuminatians fully support these institutions because the culture collectively feels that a society full of long-lived Illuminatians with stagnant intellects and outdated understandings of the universe would be very uncivilized, uncomfortable, and an overall threat to the continued progress of the human race.

Illuminatians understand that mature individuals, as they age, would risk becoming ineffective at fulfilling their place in society if they didn't continually receive new education or if they were not regularly provided updated knowledge. To that effect, the BEE funds adult education institutions and educational media outlets for mature learners, and also oversees the standards prescribed for the education and enlightenment that adult Illuminatians are encouraged to and incentivized to receive.

Education and democracy

Education is considered to be a critical element to maintaining a healthy democracy in Illuminatia. Education in a breadth of disciplines is also crucial to the maximum chance of survival of the Illuminatian branch of humanity. It is understood that scientific advancement must happen at the swiftest rate possible in order to maximize the fruitfulness of the Illuminatian experiment. It is also understood that a superior understanding of humanity and the arts is necessary to improve the quality of the human race that survives here. This collective social understanding gives the BEE the prerogative to invest the government's efforts and resources into education and enlightenment for the whole populace.

Private education

See article: Private education in Illuminatia

The BEE offers, free of charge, a full educational experience to all learners at all four educational stages. However, learners may opt to receive a private education without the full economic support of the government.

Pursuit of private education is uncommon but is allowed. Learners may choose the private educational path if their chosen educational goals align poorly with the tracks suggested by the BEE's system of assessment in conjunction with prevailing societal needs. Doing so allows learners to pursue their goals outside the government's system of incentivization and often instead opt to benefit from charitable, personal, or commercial support for their educational expenses. Graduates with a private education opt to compete on the open market for workforce or higher educational placement rather than benefitting from the placement system run by the BEE.

Private education is most common at the secondary and tertiary levels of education, at colleges and universities. Mature learners might also benefit from privately-funded augmentations to their quaternary educational experiences. Private colleges and universities are in the minority among institutions of higher education. Partially-private colleges and universities operate without direct public support but do receive the benefit of a partial tuition stipend from enrollees. This stipend often increases or decreases with the student's varying level of participation in the BEE's placement system.