Revise 2

PAGE 9

Should Education Be Cheaper?

On many occasions that the question of the cost of education is brought forth, the usual reply is “try ignorance if you think education is expensive”. This common reply prevents many people from airing their grievances about the high cost of education. The fact that something is good does not mean that it cannot be debated. Everything has its strengths and weakness. Responses that bar an individual from continuing to debate about education in most cases ignore many things. One of the things that these kinds of responses ignore is the fact that all people are not on the same financial status (Burney, 2018).

Reasons as to why education needs to be Made Cheaper

To begin with, education should be made cheaper because it is essential to living. One of the things that make education essential is the fact that it enables individuals in society to learn how to live better. Individuals, for instance, get to learn about how they can protect themselves from various illnesses through healthy living. Individuals that lack adequate or basic education live carelessly thereby losing their lives. Why would something that is so important to a level that it can prolong life be made expensive? From my point of view, education needs to be made cheap (Biden, 2016).

Second, education should be made cheaper to avoid demoralizing those who fail to get jobs after graduating. There is currently an increasing trend among people that have graduated from college discouraging high school students not to value a college education. One of the things that make these grandaunts argue this way is the discovery that despite spending too much money in education, they are still suffering as a result of a lack of job opportunities. If education was cheaper, these grandaunts would not be resentful the way they are right now. This explains why many grandaunts never register for further studies (Gorski, 2017). 

The third reason as to why education needs to be made cheaper is that such a move will bring about a balanced development. What usually happens is that areas with high literacy levels tend to develop much faster than areas with low literacy level. One reason for this is that many investors prefer setting their companies in areas with high numbers of a skilled workforce. This is because skilled employees tend to produce quality goods and services. On the contrary, investors fear that investing in areas that have low literacy level will lead to low returns or even loss of their investment (Herbers, 2015).

Fourth education should be made cheaper to increase the level of innovativeness. Education exposes learners to basic knowledge and skills from other fields. This knowledge and skills are very essential when it comes to innovation. Designing a housing structure, for instance, requires both architectural knowledge and also computer knowledge. Under this particular case, the architecture will need computer knowledge which is from another field in order to complete his or her design. Countries with the highest rate of development are those with the highest level of innovativeness. This clearly shows the place of education in society and why it should be made cheaper (Howard, 2014).

Other than the need to increasing level of innovativeness, education should be made cheaper to lower the current high unemployment rate. Many companies prefer to employ educated individuals than uneducated individuals. The reasoning behind this is that educated individuals tend to produce high-quality goods and services. The second advantage of employing educated individuals is that they enable a company to improve its performance by coming up with innovative ideas used to improve production processes. This is the rule that appears to be honored in most parts of the world. Education should be made cheaper for everybody to be placed in a better position in regards to employment (Jesse, 2013).

In addition, education should be made cheaper to lower and eliminate social evils. Many students that drop out of schools as a result of lack of tuition fees turn to such social evils as crime and prostitution to fend for themselves. If education was cheap, it will prevent these kinds of individuals from dropping out of school. Education will have enabled them to acquire essential knowledge and skills that can enable them to participate in productive activities such as agriculture or even business. If tuition fees were lowered to a level that all people can afford there would be no high dropout cases as is currently being witnessed (Swanson, 2016).

Impacts of Making Education More Expensive

Continuing to make education expensive prevents students from poor families from learning. Most of the students that drop out from school are those whose parents are not in a better position of affording tuition fees. Given the fact that the dropouts need to survive like any other person, there are high chances that these individuals will begin to engage in social evils. The dropouts will engage in social evils so as to find a way of surviving. As already seen above, these individuals do not have skills and knowledge to engage in productive activities such as business (Burney, 2018).

Making education expensive creates the mentality that the government is not serious about enabling everybody to access education. This kind of mentality develops in cases where individuals notice that there are high illiteracy levels. But then the government is not concerned about making education accessible to everyone through making it cheaper. The impact of this is that it lowers the level of patriotism among citizens. The citizens begin to think that their leaders are mainly focused on fulfilling their self-desires. Other than reduced patriotism, a negative attitude towards the ruling government might lead to protests over small issues (Biden, 2016).

The third impact of making education expensive is that it contributes to low literacy levels. As already seen, low literacy levels in areas attract few investors. It is normally difficult for areas such as these to develop. Level of development means, in this case, is that people under these areas tend to live under poor conditions. This is because most of them do not have a source of income which is supposed to enable them to meet their basic needs such as food and medication. Making education affordable to all increases literacy levels which then attracts investors (Gorski, 2017). 

Fourth, making education expensive will increase the level of unemployment. Individuals with little knowledge and skills are less likely to be employed when compared to those with little knowledge and skills. As already seen, adequate knowledge and skills enable an individual’s to produce high-quality goods and services. Skilled individuals tend to have high living standards. One reason for this is that they are paid better salaries and also the fact that their jobs provide a regular source of income that enables them to meet their daily basic needs. Companies never prefer employing individuals with low skills due to their low productivity potentials (Herbers, 2015).

Apart from increasing the level of unemployment, making education expensive will lead to an increase in crime rates. Dropouts turn to criminal activities when companies reject them for lacking knowledge and skills. Remember here that the main reason why these individuals are lacking knowledge and skills is that they dropped from school as a result of lacking tuition fees. What this case implies is that if education could be afforded by everyone, there will be no one dropping out. Each and every young individual would be in school acquiring knowledge and skills which are essential when it comes to employment (Howard, 2014).

Additionally, making education expensive will lead to a slow rate of development. The slow rate of development will result from the unfavorable business environment created. One of the characteristics of a poor business environment is high illiteracy levels. Under this kind of environment, a company will be forced to hire unskilled individuals. The impact of this is that the company will end up producing substandard goods and services. This will further lead to low sales since many consumers prefer high quality and services. Low sales will make the companies lack the money needed for expansion (Jesse, 2013).

Strategies that can help make Education Cheap

One of the strategies that can be employed to cut the high cost of education is offering scholarship opportunities. The government can do this by meeting the expenses of students from needy backgrounds that have shown good academic performance. On their part, learning institutions should seek donor funding to help meet the educational expenses of students from needy backgrounds with good performance. The significance of scholarship opportunities, in this case, is they will encourage these types of students to learn. The most important thing to note here is that even though scholarships will end up benefiting a few students since not all students are awarded these opportunities, they will have solved part of the problem (Swanson, 2016).

The second most appropriate strategy that can help cut the cost of education is offering grants. This refers to money that students do not need to return. The best body to offer this kind of money is the government. What the government can do here is increase tax on all goods and services. The added tax will help generate enough funds that are needed to fund the educational program of offering grants. The increase, in this case, will be slow since it will be aimed at funding one area of the economy which is education. Grants will enable students to get a source of income to meet their expenses (Burney, 2018).

Third, the cost of education can be cut through providing cheap accommodation. This should be mainly done by the learning institution. What these institutions need to do here is increase the number of apartments in which the students are accommodated. One of the challenges facing students at this point in time is high rental rates as a result of living in expensive apartments. These apartments are expensive for the reason that the owners take advantage of the high demand as a result of the high student population. What the owners of most accommodation apartments around learning institutions are mainly interested in is making a profit (Biden, 2016).

The fourth most appropriate strategy that can help cut the cost of education is letting the government subsidize tuition fees. If you ask me, this is the best strategy of all. One of the reasons for this is that it will relieve all students the heavy burden that they have in regards to payment of tuition fees. This does not, however, mean that such strategies as scholarship and grant opportunities are useless. The significance of scholarship and grant opportunities is that they help to lower the high cost of education further. They, for example, lower tuition fees below the level reached by the government subsidy (Gorski, 2017). 

Other than the government subsidizing tuition fees, the cost of education can be cut through offering student loans at very low interest rates. The interest charged on the student loans has been slowly growing over the years. The justification given for the slow growth is inflation. If the rate of interest on student loans will be left to continue, this will make many students avoid taking these loans. The impact of this is that they will not be able to meet most of their college expense. Another strategy that can be employed to cut the high cost of education is letting the government fund student researches (Herbers, 2015).

To conclude, education should be made cheaper for such reasons as it is essential to living and also because such a move will bring about a balanced development. One of the things that make education to be essential to living is the fact that it enables individuals in society to learn how to live better. It is wrong to bar people from debating the cost of education through such replies as “try ignorance if you think education is expensive”. This common reply prevents many people from airing their grievances about the high cost of education. The fact that something is good does not mean that it cannot be debated.

References

Burney, V. H., & Beilke, J. R. (2018). The constraints of poverty on high achievement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 31(3), 295-321.

Biden, B., & Obama, J. (2016). Making College Affordable for Everyone. Retrieved April 20th.

Gorski, P. C. (2017). Reaching and teaching students in poverty: Strategies for erasing the opportunity gap. Teachers College Press.

Herbers, J. E., Cutuli, J. J., Supkoff, L. M., Heistad, D., Chan, C. K., Hinz, E., & Masten, A. S. (2015). Early reading skills and academic achievement trajectories of students facing poverty, homelessness, and high residential mobility.Educational Researcher, 41(9), 366-374.

Howard, A. (2014). Students from poverty: Helping them make it through college. About Campus, 6(5), 5-12.

Jesse, D., Davis, A., & Pokorny, N. (2013). High-achieving middle schools for Latino students in poverty. Journal of Education for Students Places at Risk, 9(1), 23-45.

Swanson, J. D. (2016). Breaking through assumptions about low-income, minority gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly,50(1), 11-25.