Free Education: Arguments For and Against This Reform

Introduction

Education has always been a topic of discussion all over the world. Over the past few years, the question of whether education should be free or not has gained steam. This is free education essay where will be an attempt to answer this question. 

In Namibia, primary school fees are subsidised by the government since 2013. High school and university tuition fees are the two forms of education that are under the spotlight now. Education, especially at a tertiary level, is one of the biggest factors that determine a nations fate moving forward. For a country like Namibia, a third world country, it is vital that the nation builds an army of qualified professionals in different industries to aid the country in the development of different industries and push us from a primary to secondary production country. Below are a few arguments for and against free tertiary education.

Body

One of the most popular arguments for free tertiary education is that it levels the playing field in terms of equality (economics help). What this means is that those from low income households would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and hopefully help their family out of poverty. There have been numerous cases were students with bright futures ahead of them had to drop out of university due to financial issues.

Further, another argument for free tertiary education comes from the perspective that a better educated population could lead to smarter decision making at every level and in turn aid in solving collective problems the nation might be facing (trade schools). There is no doubt that an educated population leads to a productive workforce that’s willing to tackle every challenge that comes their way. An educated workforce also means more skilled graduates, especially in the secondary sector, which Namibia is lacking significantly. This would be a huge push in terms of the country moving the needle from industrialisation to industrialised.

One more point for free tertiary education is the argument that student debts won’t be a burden to young graduates (college raptor). As we’ve already established, not everyone in the country can afford to pay for their tuition fees, which leads to the next best option, taking out a government loan. A loan must be paid back at some predetermined point, usually as soon as the student graduates and starts working. This can create financial problems for the young professional, especially in the first few years, which in turn could force them into further debt to cover costs and the cycle continues.

However, on the other side of the argument we have those that are against free tertiary education. The biggest argument surrounds funding. The money to fund such a program must come from somewhere and it will be a significant amount (economics help). This then raises the question of where to raise the funds and the two most obvious ways to do that would be either through higher taxes or less spending. This in turn would lead to an angry population or other sectors of the country being neglected (e.g. health or military). Another point against free education is the fear that students might end up not taking university seriously considering payment is not coming out of their pockets (trade schools). This would then lead to a decline in graduation rates, which is the opposite outcome of such a program. One last key point against free education is that since everyone can attend university, a lack of space would become an issue (economics help). This would then lead to more public spending on either building new universities or extending existing ones to accommodate all the new students.

Evaluation

There is no doubt that both sides have valid arguments for and against free tertiary education. It is important to note that there are likely to be more upsides than downsides in the long-term especially from an economic perspective. However, this kind of a program is not suitable for a third world country such as Namibia. We already have far too many financial issues to deal with and there simply wouldn’t be room to carve out or raise the necessary funds to fund such a program. For such a program to reach its objectives effectively, no short cuts should be taken, which would simply cause massive public budget deficits.

It would also raise the question of opportunity costs. To fund the program, which sectors should be neglected or better yet, where else could the funds be used to help move the country forward much faster and efficiently.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a free tertiary education program would create vast opportunities for the entire population. This in turn would help the country move much faster from industrialisation to industrialised. The implementation and maintenance costs for such a program would undoubtedly be very high though. The funds would have to be raised somehow, which could lead to pressure on the rest of the population, especially taxpayers. At the end of the day, it could all end up in a big disaster due to students not taking university seriously and wasting hard earned public funds that could’ve been used somewhere else where they would make a genuine difference such as in the health sector.