Understanding education

So I'm trying to wrap my head round the education system simulation. I can see my country has a population. I assume the underlying simulation models it in monthly cohorts, despite reporting it in cohorts of several years, otherwise weird things would happen to the demographics as people age. So, I can estimate the future demand for education of various age ranges based on the current number of people in the preceding age range.

Except I can't, because whilst the docs provide the staffing levels of educational institutions, they don't provide the throughput i.e. how many students can each school handle? I assume the educational priorities tie into it also, since a system operating at a priority total of 120 presumably educates a higher proportion of the population than one operating at a lower value. Speaking of which, there doesn't seem to be any documentation of the function relating number of graduating workers in a given category to the total student numbers and education priorities.

If I decide a want to staff N schools next year, I can calculate how many teachers I need, since that is a function of the number of schools. But I a) can't figure out how many schools I need, since I don't know how many students each can handle and b) can't figure out what education priority to set for teachers to staff the schools, since I don't know how many new teachers a given priority value will correspond to.

Where is the documentation on these functions?

Basically we operate on the total numbers and the index that gives you. An education index of 125 is probably the bare minimum.

I'm perfectly capable of determining a target for the index by basic research on observable data, such as the indexes of top players. What I can't do is dampen oscillations in the system, because controlling the feedback requires observing certain numbers which are not, as far as I can tell, published anywhere.

I know what index I have. I know what index I want. What I don't know if how many schools the difference between the two represents, much less what education priority is needed to produce the teachers to staff them. Where is the documentation that will allow me to develop a plan for getting from where I am to where I want to be?

That information is not really available...and I don't see why it should be. Just build a school and watch the level increases. That should give you a pretty good idea.

Craig is correct, and even with the information you seek you couldn't do what you propose, without a setting to control the number of schools automatically. It would just require to much human attention.

I'll elaborate on Craigs line of thinking:

The only means we have of controlling the education system is with the provided priorities and the education index. I can tell you after years of study, that you cannot set an optimal set priorities to achieve balance. The reasonable need to deal with population age group bubbles means you need a stronger (Higher index) than necessary school system. If not then when that large cohort of hi tec execs starts retire, you are generally boned and won't to able to replace them quickly enough. Though there are possibilities for what you seek.

Worker exchanges could be used to mediate the bubbles and allow a balanced education strategy, but read on about the tipping point. And you'd have get these workers from an unbalanced system.

Now there is an index tipping point Between 100 and 120 for 10M pop countries. It increases for larger populations, as far as I can tell. Under the tipping point is woefully inadequate, and above is the opposite. It's very narrow, so the best I ever done is to oscillate to either side of it. If you can achieve and education index on this tipping point you can maintain a balance, but a single shortage arising from a age group bubble will screw you.

Now one strategy you may pondering... Is to divide 120 points amongst everything, and then when you start getting too many of everything because your above the tipping point, decrease the points to less than 120. I toyed with this and think it may work. But I was just dropping the allocated points on the classes that were over producing. This also changed the ratios and would throw it off. I haven't tried to reallocate everything onto a 100 point (abritrary) scale when the system gets too hot. I may try this, as generally I prefer a 240 point scale. (the higher the total points the less a single point matters, thus dampening the response).

-hymy-

Can anybody comment on whether any of what I said here is still true?