Some school leavers travel or work for a period of time instead of going directly to the university. What are the advantages and disadvantages.

Some school leavers travel or work for a period of time instead of going directly to the university. What are the advantages and disadvantages.  

A gap year is a year after high school when a student takes time to explore his or her interests, which usually entails some type of travelling or working. After the gap year is over, the student begins his or her career. It has both pros and cons which I shall discuss in this essay.
There are many benefits of taking a year off. Firstly, the student can explore his interests before deciding on a major. Just passing out of secondary school, a student does know what his real interests are. A gap year gives him time to introspect and he may also find something he has never considered studying before. Secondly, he can save money to finance his education and ease some burden off his parents’ shoulders. Higher education is very expensive and some parents cannot afford the full cost of students’ university fees.

Furthermore, during this year, the student meets different people and experiences different cultures. As a result his personality develops and he comes to know about the outside world. Finally, a well planned gap year is attractive to some admissions tutors and to future employers. For example, a student can add his activities of the gap year in his resume when he applies to the university or for some job after completion of his education. This is taken in a positive light by the admissions committee and some job providers.

As every garden has weeds, similarly a gap year also has a downside. A student may find it difficult to get back to study. A year is a long time and once that tempo of attending classes and doing home-work etc. is lost, a student may not feel like studying again. Secondly, if he starts earning enough, education may seem unimportant. Finally, if a student doesn’t plan it properly, it may end up as a wasted year.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that a gap year has a lot of advantages provided it is planned well.

The Three Africas

        When many people hear the word Africa, they picture steaming jungles and gorillas. Hollywood films have shrunk the public image of this immense, varied continent into a small segment of its actual diversity. To have a more accurate picture of the whole continent, however, one should remember that there are, roughly, three Africas, each with its distinct climate and terrain and with a style of life suited to the environment. The continent can be divided into the northern desert areas, the southeastern grasslands, and the tropical jungles to the southwest.         The northern regions have the environment and living patterns of the desert. Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Morocco have hot, dry climates with very little land suited to farming. Therefore, the population tends to be clustered into cities along rivers or the seacoast or into smaller settlements near oases. For thousands of years, people have lived in this vast region, subsisting partly on what crops and animals they could raise and partly on trade with Europe.
        The southeastern grasslands provide a better environment for animal life and for some kinds of crops. Many wild animals inhabit the plains in this region--elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, antelopes, zebras, and lions. The people in this area have long been expert cattle raisers and hunters. Tea, coffee, cotton, cashew nuts, and tobacco are some of the main products grown in this region. Fishing also provides some food and income for people along the coast. The population here is less concentrated in cities and towns than in the north, but tends to be denser in areas where adequate rainfall and fertile soil make farming possible.
        West Africa is the region closest to the Hollywood image of mysterious jungles. As in the other two regions, the way people subsist depends upon their environment. This does not mean that most of the people live in grass huts in the jungle. Such nations as Nigeria have become highly modernized by income from oil, timber, and minerals. Most of the western countries have some farming that provides food and income; sugar cane, coffee, and tobacco are the important cash crops, while bananas, rice, and corn are raised for food. Fishing in the rivers and along the coast also accounts for food and income, and precious stones, especially diamonds, enhance the economy of Angola and the Ivory Coast.
        Even a superficial look at the major regions of Africa shows that it is a varied continent with several environments. Although most of the continent is tropical in its range of temperature, the climate ranges from deserts to rain forests. Similarly, human life-styles vary from the simplest rural villages to industrial cities, both new and ancient. Contrary to the myth, however, jungle life makes up only a very small portion of the whole of Africa.