Population education

In his Oct 9 letter, Peter Fairless made a very good point about the growing world population being a main cause of unemployment. Hoping to educate myself I made a quick search as to which countries were leading this explosion and found that Niger and Mali topped the list with several more African countries in close pursuit. There were five non-African countries in the top 40 and most were countries linked with the horrors of war, famine and disease.

Today, I read an article in an English newspaper that clarifies the woeful efforts being made in certain countries regarding the education of young women and found the exact same countries listed as the worst offenders. It would seem that the world’s rising population is almost certainly related to the education and work opportunities of women. Interestingly, Thailand was in close company with Norway and Sweden in the population growth tables so it doesn’t appear to be a main contributor to the world’s rising numbers. Perhaps Thailand’s education system, despite not being particularly good, is at least giving girls the same education as boys. LUNGSTIB