High Schools and Universities

[ElGuapo]

No matter what I do I can't get people to go to high school. I think the max I've ever had is 2 enrolled! So univiersities are out of the question since high school comes first. How can I get my people to educate themselves. And what is the benefit of being pro-religious? ie, teaching it in school, being cozy with priestshood?

[bradkay]

You have to entice people into going to school by having jobs available which require an education. The high school doesn't get much business at first, but it does pick up as more upper level jobs are made available. I've even seen a nearly full college...

As far as your second question is concerned, I guess that you might want to do that if you need to gain favor with the religious faction. I wonder if having parochial schools would be a requirement for the Papal visit...

[Dravin]

Nope, all it does is shift peoples views towards the Religous Faction (Or military depending on the setting.) So if you are cosey with the Religous faction It wouldn't be all that bad to turn your schools into factorys for making people that like you.

[Wick_II]

It seems to me that the more educated the parents are, the likelyhood of their children going to school is increased.  The one time I had a full high school and college, the schools were surrounded by luxury homes.  Just a hunch though.

[Blackadar]

I also have a terrible time getting people to enroll in high school/college.  I wonder if income disparity has something to do with percentage of high school enrollment...

I ran my first/only island in very much a socialist manner where wages didn't have a huge disparity.  I think the margin between highest and lowest was at most 2.5 to 1.  I wonder if that's enough to attract folks to higher education or not.

[mappam]

Interesting thoughts - I am having a terrible time getting kids to go to school and never thought about the 'poor' not going to school! Funny how reading these forums can show you something that should be logical - LOL - will try giving higher wages and maybe education will follow?? - Pam

[caddet]

Not just higher wages, Pam.  Your Tropicans aren't going to "waste time" on getting an education unless there are jobs that require an education.  It just happens that those jobs tend to pay more.  Just remember this too.  If too many education required jobs exist, all your laborers will be tempted to go to school for those jobs.  No laborers means no economy.  Beware.

[Mr.P]

I have found a great way to get a bulging high school attendance.

I decided that as I was not using my labourers much (due to a temporary lack of funds!  ) that I would sack about 6, that way I would save costs.

After this I went to the school to give a few of my teachers the boot and what did I see? 6 Labourer's waiting to turn into students!!

Well as you can imagine I was firing people left and right after that, and managed to keep my school full at all times thereafter.

I did not bar ('x') entry to any other jobs, but would guess, by the way my economy was at that time, that most other posts were filled. If you have jobs available elsewhere they may not go to school, so consider 'x'ing other jobs, at least temporarily.

As for your second question, I have found that if I set the education to military, and the pupils are male, I seem to have a higher graduation of soldier/policemen (if there are spare slots for the would-be soldiers to fill) than if I had an ordinary education. Now you have to like that!!

[Coconut Kid]

So much to add; so few links at hand.

Mr.P's "firing" discovery: Yes, the people in the game world have a lot of inertia. Unless they are really very unhappy with their current job, they are disinclined to quit. Unless they are actually unemployed, it seems, they do not look at vacant jobs. Student is just another "job" with a couple of additional spins connected with it! Since people rarely quit unless individually they consider working conditions horrible (and the player is guessing about that because he doesn't have a full list), firing them forces the issue. Some will prefer to take the Student job rather than return to their previous job level \ social class. Really, to maximize the tool, the player could look for the indivduals with the least job satisfaction.

The players developed a simplistic formula to encourage the NPCs to take the Student job. It was called "going to school." In the game world it was no such thing -- it was just taking a different JOB with conditions that better fit the job selection algorithm.

Education Level Equals Social Class. I opine that this is an unstated design feature of the game. I suggest that thinking about it that way makes it much easier to understand the education system.

Faction Results of School's Options. The two options related to military and religion are obivious = you need to use them for army and church employees. The default "General Education" option is a cruel trick of the developers. It is not "general" at all; it is Intellectual with a sub-set for Environmentalist -- and they don't like the army or the church. Yes, another of the sly "got-ya-s" paradoxes of the game design.

There's no education option to fit the Communists or the Capitalists. That's another "fun" paradox. It means that the player has to develop good relations with more than one faction so either the Capitalists or the Communists can balance the social classes needed to fill all the needed jobs. The player who wishes to channel an insane tyrant of unconstrained personal power, e.g. the legend of Caligula, will find the game nearly impossible at any serious level of difficulty -- especially economic.