University used to be something that people rarely went to, but for the last twenty years or so, it has come to be viewed as a right of passage. Whether or not it is right for all people is doubtful however, although at the very least it is necessary for a number of different industries.

The situation as it stands right now is that millions of young adults around the world enter university every year, but unless you’ve got a very clear strategy of where you want to work and in what field, then you could end up wasting your money and time on university studying. This time could be better spent learning a vocational career in an apprenticeship like situation, or just in work.

An interesting idea has been put forward that argues that one day it may be a good idea to actually allow students to use search engines during exams. This of course has a number of interesting implications and would certainly require a complete overhaul in the way exams are constructed.

Exams serves the function of examining somebody’s capabilities pertaining to a specific set of skills or a specific subject matter. It does this by testing you on two different areas; your ability to memorise relevant facts and the degree to which you understand those facts, their implications and potentially on how they can be implemented. If we were to allow the use of search engines and therefore knowledge databases such as wikipedia, you almost entirely eliminate the need to memorise facts, leaving only the ability to test based upon their understanding of those facts.

The arguments for and against basically stem from a discussion over how important memorising facts is, now that everyone has access to limitless information at any time. Those against will argue that memorising facts is still an important part of every role everywhere, while those for argue that this may not be the case, and knowing facts doesn’t necessarily indicate competency.

There is a lot of debate throughout the world regarding the purpose of education. Some countries pursue an approach which requires students to specialise their education early on so that they are more capable in subjects which they can then pursue a career in, while others like the USA offer a more liberal approach to education for students, where they acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills which may or may not aid them in pursuing a career.

If you were to ask people when they are 16 what they want to do with their life, most would tell you that they don’t really know. This would seem to support the liberal approach to education, but when you look at that approach in practice you see how a lot of people end up studying courses when there is no market for people with those skills.

Education for children begins when they’re born. Parents need to encourage their newborn babies to learn immediately, first with how to interact with other people, and then moving onto how to talk, then reading and writing. However, while there are many things that parents can do by themselves, there is a lot more to be gained by standardised education with trained professionals, of which their first introduction to is with nurseries.

Nurseries serve an important function for child development for a number of reasons. They provide structure to children’s lives, a place for them to practice social skills with children their own age, and interaction and education with trained educators. They are also often the first opportunity for the child to experience being regularly separated from their parents, which while unpleasant for both the parent and child is very important.

There are a number of different nurseries out there to choose from, and some will place greater emphasis on learning than others. These are likely to improve children’s academic outlook over the next couple of decades, but they can also lose something by missing out on a more balanced experience.

Around the world, in virtually every country and region, we see a gap between results attained by boys and girls in school, with girls getting better results on average. Irrespective of social class, gender equality in the host nation, or any other social indicator, the gap exists. There are only three regions where this is not the case; Costa Rica, Columbia, and Himachal Pradesh. All of this was found in a joint investigation by Glasgow and Missouri universities’ Psychology departments.

While in general, girls did outperform boys, there was interestingly an area where this wasn’t the case, namely at the top level of performance; when you compare the results of the best performers of both genders, boys did outperform girls.

The individual who led the study, Dr Gijsbert Stoet, of the Univserity of Glasgow is quoted as saying “At the moment we see that, with the exception of high-achievers, boys have poorer educational outcomes than girls around the world, independent of social equality indicators.” “What’s more is that this gap in not reducing.” “If policy makers are seriously concerned about gender equality in education, this ought to be their top priority.” “That it is not, is probably fuelled by a lack of public understanding of the distribution of skills, which we have highlighted in this and previous studies.” “For example, listening to many news stories in the media, one can easily get the idea that girls around the world are falling behind boys, in particular in countries with known gender inequality.” “The reality is quite different in the many countries participating in Pisa, which many may find surprising.”

It is clear that the issue of male under-performance in education is a serious one, which is affecting their economic outlook around the world. Whether or not we’ll be able to deal with the issue is another matter, as whether or not governments around the world are likely to prioritise it is as well.