Times of social unrest and political change have in the past put the education of generations of young people at risk. Speculating on the impact of Y2k disruption (from whatever source, actual or imagined) it seems that many young people will find that reduced economic activity impacts on their education plans.

According to the Statement to the Senate by J.L Williams-Bridges, many developing nations will be impacted by Y2k. Every nation has its developing areas where people seek upward mobility through education. The greatest impact of Y2k is likely to be on education, the funds for which are drawn from discretionary spending/saving/loans. Seems likely that the level of indebtedness of the 20 to 30 somethings is going to increase. We could also predict a five year shortage of skilled people as many folks don't complete their educations on schedule.

It is noteable that only two of my recent postgraduate students (10) in Computer Science have been New Zealand born.

The question is: what are you doing to protect the educational opportunities needed by your children in the face of Y2k disruption?

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), August 01, 1999

Answers

Bob,

In addition, I look sadly at many areas of science in which fantastic advances were being made. We shall not pass this way again.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), August 01, 1999.