Schools, when should I care about them ?

[Gate Keeper]

I know for a fact that schools make your children more inclined to go to high school and collage later on (when they grow up) and if I want to play a VERY industry heavy game, I always make schools, but thing is: You can make A LOT of them and still have children going to every one (and they take up a lot of space and work force), so my question is: How good are they ? are 2-3 enough on any map ?

[Paul]

I'd like to know that as well.

[ImtehQ]

I always make at least 1 school in each area.

[PatronV]

It has to do with how the different factions view you as well. IIRC the Intelectuals love you for building grade-schools, while the religious like it when they turn into obedient little slaves. I always use the Field Trips-mode, since that gives them a random profession.

Schools do take up a lot of space, but with only 2 teachers (versus 6 at highschools) the workforce isnt that great. Like I'm TehQ said, build one for every residential area, although students will come from the entire island.

[Paul]

I would still like an exact answer from someone who knows what they're doing. This "one school per residential area" talk is very very vague.

[Qutsemnie]

I build a high school in my first 20k, but I also deficit spend on down to the negative limit. Also, as I have gotten better at the game I have pretty much reduced it down to one residential area.

[Twelvefield]

I don't think you have to care about schools at all unless the mission demands them. If you have enough money, you can simply import talent and keep the populace stupid and under your thumb with a strong military. Issue the political book edict, and the stupid people will vote for you. Use a book burning to rid yourself of pesky Intellectuals, and you'll be dictator for life.

That being said, I'll usually just build 1 school, and let the little beggars fight it out to see who gets an education. if you have a massive population, then you can afford more schools, in which case you may just want to supply schools to service demand.

[PatronV]

Originally posted by Killer Tampon:

I would still like an exact answer from someone who knows what they're doing. This "one school per residential area" talk is very very vague.

It all depends on how you build your city. I tend to start with some kind of citycenter around the palace, farms and mines around the center and industry near my dock. After a time I usually create a small block (5 to 10 appartments/tenements, a church, some entertainment) on the other side of the island, to house my distant miners or the workforce of my tourist-section. That way I have created two distinct residential areas, both of which get a grade school, if there is room, of course. Note that I will only build one high school and one college, both half staffed (6 profs is too expensive and unneccesary), per island, unless some silly mission requires me to build more.

A lot is down to personal preference, if you are the type of ruler that likes to see its children roaming the streets instead of leanring to read, that's entirely up to you, you are El Presidente and your rule is law.

BTW, from the T4-wiki:

Originally posted by wiki:

Although grade school educations don't open any new work opportunities for Tropicans, children who are educated in a grade school will, upon becoming adults at age 13, gain a boost in intelligence. This extra intelligence will allow them to learn their jobs more efficiently and potentially let them move on to further education.

[Paul]

Originally posted by PatronV:

It all depends on how you build your city. I tend to start with some kind of citycenter around the palace, farms and mines around the center and industry near my dock. After a time I usually create a small block (5 to 10 appartments/tenements, a church, some entertainment) on the other side of the island, to house my distant miners or the workforce of my tourist-section. That way I have created two distinct residential areas, both of which get a grade school, if there is room, of course. Note that I will only build one high school and one college, both half staffed (6 profs is too expensive and unneccesary), per island, unless some silly mission requires me to build more.

A lot is down to personal preference, if you are the type of ruler that likes to see its children roaming the streets instead of leanring to read, that's entirely up to you, you are El Presidente and your rule is law.

Yes, yes, that's all very nice. But what I want to know is how schools work in Tropico and what the most effective strategy is. I'm talking about game mechanics here, the numbers. I'm not interested in people's personal preferences.

So far it almost sounds like schools are cosmetic and have no deep impact on my island.

[PatronV]

Originally posted by Killer Tampon:

So far it almost sounds like schools are cosmetic and have no deep impact on my island.

I see what you mean, but then you are not looking for info in the right place. The Kalypso-forums would be a better place, so I took the liberty (for he is a good presidente) to see what they had to say about the matter.

both these topics should be interesting for you:
http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=16408
http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=17295

It looks like you could skip 'm, but, since you indicated in your post that you want to make an Industry-heavy (high school jobs) island i'd say you dó need a gradeschool, since intelligence makes your peeps work faster and also graduate faster if they attend a high-school after gradeschool.

Hope that helps!

edit-sorry, steam f-ed up the links....

[Eadrick Tudoria]

Putting it basically:

Grade Schools give the children something to do. The advantage of grade schools is the "modes" you can set the schools to, Spelling Bee, Youth Organization, etc. Children will go to school simply if there is a school to go to. If there is no or not enough grade schools, children will start to fill up churches and cathedrals, which can be a pain.

Not having enough grade schools for all your Island's children has no real negative effect besides losing the "mode" bonus and your churches are flooded with kids.

High Schools and Colleges function nearly the same as eachother. High Schools and Colleges will ONLY fill up IF there is a job on your island that requires a certain level of education AND there is no citizen available to work that job. Think of HS and College as training centers that train citizens as a jobs become available. When there is no available High school or college level jobs on your island, you can be sure that the college and HS are empty.

THAT is why you often see colleges or high schools empty, while grade schools are almost always full.

[Paul]

Thanks, that was very insightful.

[Leberwurst1234]

other question : why i only get female schools ?...

[Whoops]

Originally posted by blackbird1:

other question : why i only get female schools ?...

I'll assume you are saying that all the students in a school/college are female. If that is the case, then it's because the job openings are for high school/college educated females. Such places as the Newspaper, Power Plant, Oil well, and immigration office only want women.

Like the women, men have jobs that only they can fufill. So might might have an all boys school too.

[bellagoth]

Originally posted by Killer Tampon:

So far it almost sounds like schools are cosmetic and have no deep impact on my island.

I didn't see this mentioned, unless it was in the Kalypso links, which I didn't follow, and since you're asking about the benefits of the schools, consider this: Tropicans who had an elementary school education are more intelligent, and have a chance to excell when you check their skills. If your ministry employees often fly their underwear on the flag pole, creating an international incident, fire them and replace them with someone who went to all three schools. You will often get free blueprints and other positive events.