Besides being the cornerstone of success in a society, many barely understand why education should be free. This blog post covers that and more.
Education is the only mechanism available to you that allows you to shape your life. It is the most powerful weapon you can take up in the fight against ignorance. Unfortunately, it is mostly used as a tool for economic gain.
The rise in the cost of education is one of the biggest problems to hit our world today. The rising costs make it even harder if you have limited means to get educated and compete with those who can afford it.
This post views reasons why education should be free, and how it helps develop society while improving your standard of living.
What is Free Education?
Free education is education without economic cost, tuition, fees, or other products. You could also define it as one controlled or completely funded by the state, free of charge, or free to all students.
Over the past decade, small but devoted groups of people have worked together to make education accessible to everyone. After all, education should be free because it helps you develop your abilities and take part more in society.
Also, free education means expanded access to education by everyone. So, instead of education being available to certain people based on social status, it expands to everyone to ensure that they can attend for free.
Free schooling should always be available to everyone, not fee-based as with most universities and colleges.
What are the Importance of Free Education?
The idea of free education is growing around the world as more and more people realize the importance of free schooling. Some countries provide free education for their citizens, but it is not as common as it should be.
However, free education helps create a better and more productive future for people around the globe. Also, it provides you with the knowledge needed to succeed and allows you to take on challenges with confidence.
1. Education Empowers People to Be Agents of Change
Education empowers us to be agents of change. It is the only sustainable force for global progress and social justice. It should be free because it is also a human right that goes beyond school.
Quality education also extends to you learning beyond the classroom through life experiences.
Also, education is important to create real, sustainable change in the world. It equips you with knowledge and building capacity for marginalized or oppressed individuals. Access to free education can also make positive changes toward a more fair world.
2. It Will Stop the Brain Drain
Brain drain is the migration of skilled workers from one region to another in search of quality life and better standards of living. This includes better education, higher salaries, better healthcare, access to state-of-the-art technology, and better security.
More educated people will stop the brain drain. The human capital theory describes how knowledge is always of value to everyone. This means that if you have acquired knowledge, you hold more value than an ordinary person.
Hence, access to free education leads to an increase in skilled workers available in your country. A country with more skilled workers will not suffer from brain drain when some move in search of greener pastures.
3. It Increases the Choices Available to Learners
Free education increases the choices available to learners and reduces the barriers we currently face. The goal of education should be to free us from a controlled and scheduled curriculum and not to limit or define our thinking and creativity.
4. Education Is a Basic Human Right
Education being a human right is a statement confirming that it should be available to all without restriction due to financial, cultural, linguistic, or gender disparities.
Also, education is a basic right because it is a form of human capital that facilitates capacity building and opportunities in life. It also allows you to live a fulfilling and productive life.
In modern times, uses of this right may include public literacy programs, public libraries, open universities, and free Internet resources.
What are the Benefits of Free Education?
Education should be free and accessible for every individual.
There’s no better way to have the tools and skills needed to succeed in today’s ever-changing world than through higher education. If the government doesn’t invest in human capital, we will end up with a workforce lacking vital job skills.
Also, an under-educated population will bring down the economy. While educational platforms like Coursera and Udemy help by offering free courses to people, more can be done to make it a reality.
Below are some reasons why access to free education is crucial.
1. Access to Free Education Increases Your Opportunities
By removing the financial barrier to education, everyone can enjoy all the gifts and benefits education can offer. Free education will break the poverty cycle and give people the power to get out of poverty.
2. It Reduces Inequality
Education should be for everyone, despite your financial position. After all, education contributes to success and equality and increases your chances of prospering in a nation.
Through free education, you will get the same amount of knowledge as others with higher societal standards. You also won’t have to live with such a big gap between you and those who attend expensive institutions.
3. Free Education Leads to Lower Crime Rates
The argument that a more educated society has fewer crimes is one of the most popular arguments for free public education.
Studying improves human behavior and reduces government costs on law enforcement. This also means lesser costs on damage repairs caused by criminals.
Also, two-thirds of juvenile crimes are from people who lack a high school diploma or proper education.
4. Free Education Helps Develop the Economy
Education allows a country to grow economically as it becomes more educated. Education equips you with the skills to work in the job market, from entry-level jobs to higher-paying jobs.
The more skilled labor that exists in a country, the more economic growth that country experiences.
5. Free Education Attracts Tourists
If education is free in a country, that country records a rise in tourists coming to enjoy the top-notch education system. This in turn leads to diversity and economic growth.
6. It Helps Prevent Conflict
While education is the key to any nation’s success, the lack of access to education leads to ignorance and the rise of conflicts.
Yet, when proper education is free and available for all, we can better handle social and political problems. It also helps us live together peacefully.
7. Free Education Means More Better-Educated Employees
Education promotes critical thinking, creative development, public speaking, and resourcefulness.
These skills help businesses to thrive and develop. So not only does free education create informed workers, but it also creates a higher level of understanding among you and your colleagues.
Businesses benefit by hiring educated staff who are smarter and more productive than uneducated ones.
What Are the Challenges Facing Free Education?
Challenges facing the actualization of free learning include inadequate facilities, systematic corruption, and insufficient funding.
Also, inadequate support from the community, negligence from the government, and a high level of insecurity contribute to the challenges faced.
Free education finance is a long-term problem for governments worldwide. These challenges make it difficult for most countries to effect free schooling in the system, as their attention is usually diverted.
Corruption within the system and among the politicians in power also makes the implementation of free education a hard task to perform.
Ways to tackle the challenges facing free education include:
- Combating corruption in the system.
- By preventing acts of terrorism and insecurity that cause damage to infrastructure.
- Allocating more funds to the education sector.
- By helping communities provide more support to combat illiteracy in society.
Examples of Countries with Free Education Systems
Ideally, the education system should be fair. The rich should not live a better life through education simply because they can afford it.
There are several countries where you can find free higher education such as:
- France
- Germany
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Malta
- Finland
- Norway
- Brazil
- Argentina
FAQs
How does education improve your life?
Education helps you by building your knowledge, improving your abilities, and getting you a good job. It also helps in making a decent living and in bringing an overall improvement in your lifestyle.
Why is education so expensive?
One key reason is educational bureaucracy.
Modern education models are set up to be extremely bureaucratic with different entities controlling various aspects of education. This can stifle innovation and give rise to corruption at all levels of the ecosystem.
How does the high cost of education affect your standard of living?
It becomes harder for you to have a complete education when schools charge higher fees. While this might not affect people of higher social status, it affects the common man.
As a result, you may have to take out student loans or work many jobs to pay for your education.
What is the greatest advantage of free education?
The greatest advantage of free education is that it is available to all who need it.
A lot of us are not given the chance to receive higher education due to its high cost. However, if education is available to everyone, everyone would have a shot at getting a good job that pays well.
Also, as a business owner who is better educated, you make wiser decisions for yourself and your employees.
Your employees will also be more informed about the way they work because of their ability to understand. This means that you and your staff can improve the business, maximize profits, and help people.
Does lack of access to free education lead to poverty?
Yes, the lack of affordable or free education leads to poverty for the majority.
Education is perhaps the cornerstone for both children and adults of the future. Because most parents do not have that much money to pay for their child’s education, a college education is often neglected.
Furthermore, as a result of this inability to afford an education, a good job is out of reach leading to poverty. This is a circumstance that no one deserves.
A lack of proper education means limitations to most high-paying jobs. It also means more turn to a life of crime in other to get a better life.
Conclusion
Education is a powerful and important tool for shaping the world. It empowers you and sets you free, allowing you to do anything you want to do in life.
Unfortunately, education is not currently free in most countries but is a business. And like all businesses, education serves to make money.
Effective education should not be a luxury for the rich, it is a necessity in any society, in any culture, and in any country. Also, education isn’t just a workplace skill—it’s an economic and societal driver. It breeds success and helps families succeed.
Additionally, education leads to new careers, higher wages, a secure society, innovation, tolerance, better healthcare, improved law enforcement, and much more.
Finally, free education should not be a charity, but rather an investment in human capital. I believe this will lead to economic growth and societal development.
You should also read more about why education is important to society. You will be convinced of the benefits of free learning if you read this.
I hope you found this post helpful. Thanks for reading.
