Custom essays on Applying problem solving

In this paper such issues as the demographic problem and the problem of access to higher education will be discussed.
For the solution of the demographic problem the scientific thinking will be applied.
People have always been close to the planet. Aristotle and other philosophers of antiquity were concerned about the overpopulation of Earth. The growing world population demands more and more accelerating economic development. However, if we take into account the current state of technology, such growth will cause the increasing environmental pollution and may even lead to irretrievable death of nature.
The demographic explosion is well illustrated by the data of Demographic Statistics of China, Africa, Latin America where population is growing with enormous speed. In the early twentieth century 1.5 billion people lived on Earth. In 2000, the population exceeded 6 billion.
Growth can’t be infinite. Stabilization of population in the world is one of the most important conditions for transition to environmental sustainability. The importance of the global population problem nowadays is recognized by all states, realizing that the rapid growth of the world’s population in developing countries, which backward economy and weak social sphere are not able to turn this increase for the benefit of their development; that the spread of dangerous diseases such as AIDS, which powerful centers fall again to the poorest countries, leads to increased mortality; that uncontrolled migration and urbanization from the positive effects become negative.
Solution of all these problems is possible only at the joint efforts of the entire world community. In 1969 the UN established a special United Nations Population Fund. The Fund has developed the UN program in the field of population. A special role belongs to the Fund on the organization and holding the World Conferences on Population in 1974 in Bucharest, in 1984 in Mexico City and in 1994 in Cairo, where the most nagging problems were studied, the most important policy documents were adopted in this area.
According to Attali (1992), in 1994 the World Population Conference in Cairo adopted a 20-year Programme of Action on Population and Development. The Programme calls for the development of policies and laws providing more effective support to families. The issues of fertility, mortality and population growth, questions of urbanization and migration were examined. It draws attention to the fact that there is a close and complex relationship between education, marriage age, fertility and mortality.
Many states began to regulate the population growth. Government of China set out the limit to births, prohibiting families to have more than one child. As a result, the annual population growth rate decreased from 2,8 to 1,0%.
The extreme gravity of the problems of population in the modern world is because of the inertia of demographic processes, the longer the solution of these problems is delayed, the greater they become. Humanity still has a chance to cope with this huge, life-threatening problem, but only if all the people and each person will fight with it.
The persuasive thinking will be applied for the solution of the problem of access to higher education.
The youth of the villages, small, medium-sized and big cities tends to get higher education. According to Shavelson, R. & Towne (2002), the economic factor is the main source of unequal access to higher education today. The motivation for dropping out of higher education is often the cause of insufficient material and financial resources of the family. There is much injustice in access to higher education. Among the schoolchildren the sense of injustice is most of all expressed in those who have fewer cultural, educational resources and therefore feel less confident in the competition for admission to higher establishment. As for the parents, the main factor determining their attitude to the problem of accessibility is the income of the family. The smaller income they have, the more is the sense of injustice and impenetrable obstacles.
Graduates of educational institutions stress the importance for a successful entry into a higher educational establishment of such qualities as vocation, ability, interest in obtaining knowledge, excellent performance in school. The modern conditions of access to higher education are closely intertwined with the material and economic opportunities of families. In connection with this young people, who have special abilities, attitudes, are deeply motivated to learn, have a desire for knowledge should be the object of special attention of the education system and the state regardless of the level of school, place of residence, socio-economic status of parents. Mechanisms of their identification and support can greatly contribute to solving the problem of access to higher education.
The solution of many issues related to access to higher education depends on the solution of more global issues facing the educational system as a whole.
The possible overcoming of the problem lies in the creation of industrial and professional systems that embody the idea of continuing professional education.
Possible recommendations to equalize the access to higher education are not only in the field of education itself. The normalization of economic and social situation in the country, development of modern market of skilled labor, overcoming of crippling wage gap, implementation of effective measures to combat unemployment – only measures of such magnitude could contribute to equalizing the access to higher education for all the population groups.
So, we have examined two real-world problems and applied the scientific thinking for the solution of the demographic problem and the persuasive one for the solution of the problem of access to higher education.

References
Attali, J. (1992). Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming Order. Three Rivers Press.
Shavelson, R. & Towne, L. (2002). National Research Council (NRC). Scientific Research in Education, Washington, DC: National Academies Press.