In our modern day and age, education, mainly academic education, is commonly believed as the number one factor that can severely affect our lives in the future. Parents are constantly forcing their children to study hard so that they can have what they think is a better future later on. From small things such as our living choices, to more bigger things such as our job offers, our entire future in general is dependent on our level of academic education in one way or another. It is no wonder that education comes with such a hefty price.
However nowadays, many people are starting to feel that a price should not be placed on education. Should education be free?It is said that a good education allows one to be successful in life. However, not everyone is able to afford to pay for their school fees due to income issues, leading to them unable to attend school and receive quality education.
With the high requirements of many well-paid jobs such as having a certain degree in an aspect of education, this means that this group of children with only the education they receive will be from their parents, might not be sufficient for him or her to apply for what is known as a ‘proper job’, and are unable to receive a good and stable salary, therefore forming another generation of living with income issues. As this goes on generation by generation, the cycle of poverty forms and these families will not be able to get out of this cruel cycle easily. With free education, anyone and everyone will be able to receive good education and there will be a fair chance of receiving a stable and well-paid job, which helps these poor families break out of their poverty cycle.However, having free education has its negative aspects as well. With people not needing to pay for school fees, who will be paying for the education these children receive? Who will be funding the schools with the learning materials and resources needed for teaching the students? Who will be giving the teachers their salary for teaching as a job? This is where things will go a few ways, either having the whole country to pay for their education, or teaching will become voluntary. If the former happens, everyone’s income tax will increase, to cover the costs of materials used and the salaries of teachers for the education that is now seemed as free. If the latter happens and the teachers now are volunteers, not many people will willingly volunteer to teach, making the number of teachers available fewer.
As they are not paid to teach, some teachers will not put in their best effort in teaching and might not give the quality education that the children are there for, making the number of quality teachers giving quality education even fewer. With the high demand of quality but free education wanted by children, with the small amount of teachers that can actually provide what is needed, classes can become huge and the quality of education received might not be there due to the lack of teacher-student focus. In the end, free education has been achieved but the quality of education hasn’t, and the outcome might not be much better than paid education, maybe much more worse.Although it seems like making education free is a good thing, but its outcome might not be as well. Education should come with a price, but at a reasonable price that most can afford and we can always give support to low income families so that everyone is able to receive education for them to succeed in life in the future.
