The good news is that the most effective intervention is not even in the Paris Agreement. Empowering girls and women through a combination of education and family planning is the number one thing the world can do to address climate change, ahead of switching to solar energy, wind energy, or a plant-rich diet. Investing in both girls’ education around the globe and enabling women access to contraception and reproductive healthcare would result in 120 gigatons of carbon reduced by 2050, a staggering amount compared to the 90 gigatons that could be reduced by better management of harmful chemical refrigerants like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Demographers, global development specialists, and education advocates have long known about the connection between girls’ and women’s empowerment and smaller, more sustainable families. Research suggests that the difference in family size for a woman with 0 years of schooling compared to a woman with 12 years of schooling is about four to five children. And several studies have projected slower population growth if all girls around the world receive a secondary school education—as much as two billion fewer people on the planet for 2050 than if current fertility rates persist, and over five billion fewer people by 2100. Indeed, reaching a sustainable population growth rate could be realized even more quickly if the 225 million women around the world who want to avoid pregnancy but do not have access to contraception or control over their reproductive lives were given access to safe and voluntary family planning. The majority of these women live in the world’s 69 poorest countries, and it’s no coincidence that many of these countries are where girls have the hardest time going to school.

 

Eoin Treacy's view

It boggles the mind that there is still debate on the issue of female education. Not only is there a strong body of research on the social and developmental benefits of giving girls equal access to education but there are also clear environmental and conservation benefits as well. At its most basic it just makes sense for any country to give itself a leg up by investing in the brain of every citizen to ensure the most productive people actually achieve their economic capacity. It really is that simple. 

This story from Quartz highlighting Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to develop technology which allows children to teach themselves would relegate teachers to a helping role to fill in the blanks when children encounter difficulty. I have a lot of sympathy with this view because it is an attempt to overcome the fallacy that we are all the same and learn in exactly the same way. It also has the potential to reduce the cost of education which is an essential objective since a high school diploma isn’t worth the paper it is written on today. 

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) continue to grow in popularity and the courses they offer are increasingly leading to recognised qualifications. They represent an additional aspect on what is an evolving theme. 

Pearson collapsed because it failed to adapt to this new online reality and its response to date has been to slash legacy businesses. The share has bounced over the last five months to close an overextension relative to the trend mean and needs to sustain a move above 730p to confirm a return to demand dominance beyond the short term. 

2U on the other hand develops online teaching software for universities that want to expand their online offerings. The share broke out to new highs in April and a sustained move below $40 would be required to begin to question medium-term potential for additional upside.


China’s two-day state exam started this week and throws focus onto the performance of online tutoring companies TAL Education Group and New Oriental Education. Both are in accelerating uptrends but show little sign of peaking.