| dc.description.abstract | In most developing countries, populations grow exponentially thus directly
impacting on student populations in education systems. In an ecosystem, a stable predator/prey
population ensures the survival and sustenance of the different species in the food. chain.
Likewise, a stable student population distribution in an education system is desirable for the
survival of the system, resource planning and also for projecting on future manpower supply
from the system. A model that encompasses the different compartments of an education system is
developed in this paper. The model clearly shows the transition rates within and between
compartments in an education system thus enhancing the understanding of student flows in the
system, for better planning of manpower systems. The theory of Absorbing Markov Chains is
used and the Chapman-Kolmogorov result assists in predicting the expected number of
successful graduates for absorption into the workforce. Further, both the rate of growth of the
student population and the stable student population distribution are estimated using PerronFrobenius
theorem and Relational Differential Equations. | en_US |
