The Rising Cost of Quality Education
(Biaya Mutu Pendidikan)
It appears that the ever-rising costs of education and medical care are open sores on the finances of every citizen in many a Western country. Those of us who have children to educate know full well what education costs are all about.
Trying to secure good quality education is a very expensive business. Worst, still, the cost of education in many countries is expected to continue rising faster than the average inflation figures. Some of the elite private colleges in the USA reckon that it costs them over $60.000 per year to educate a single student. Parents cover a good portion of this cost, whilst gifts, endowments, the taxpayer, etc cover the rest. The earnings which students have to forego whilst studying full time is another major, and often neglected, cost factor. Especially for students attending graduate programmes.
Good colleges work with sizeable budgets, covering primarily operating costs, such high salaries and annual maintenance, and capital investment in new buildings, sporting facilities and the like. Yet, despite the high costs of education demand for places in good colleges remains high and places are always in short supply. Strangely, even poorer students somehow find the money to pay what appear to be exorbitant fees. Naturally, the budgets of parents are strained often to breaking point, and many students are forced to go into massive debt on the “study now pay later” system.
Those who plunge into debt or are forced to maul their life’s savings are often tormented by concerns over the rate of return on their investment. Admittedly, many graduates from elite colleges end up securing well-paying jobs compensating in this way for the investment and pain student and parents had to endure. But, not all students are lucky, and many do not land the expected lucrative jobs--particularly in times of recession and general down turns in the economy. The costs of education in first-class, but not elite, institutions are as bad even if graduates earn much less than the graduates from elite colleges. This situation brings into an even sharper focus concerns over the rate of return on money invested in education.
More seriously, the high cost of attending elite schools brings to the forefront concerns about elitism in education. In other words, is good and expensive education geared to students with rich parents? Can the vast majority of lower and middle income students afford this kind of education or are we drifting into a situation which will, in time, make good education mostly the prerogative of wealthy people?
State education does not seem to offer a credible answer to the above concerns. More and more decision makers are now taking the view that State run educational institutions are wasteful, bureaucratic and with little if any accountability. Proponents of market driven education believe that unless more “privatisation” is introduced these institutions will gradually deteriorate and will be unable to provide the quality education elite schools now offer and creating in this way a vicious circle.
The cost of good education is and has always been of concern to parents in Cyprus. Happily, now most students have the choice of studying at the local university (all funded by the taxpayer), studying in Greece (courtesy of the Greek taxpayer) or attending one of the private colleges in Cyprus. Still, others opt to study in the United Kingdom and the United States at considerable cost. The local State University has announced plans, which will enable it in the next decade or so to take nearly any one who is qualified and wishes to secure State education at tertiary level. This announcement has raised concern over funding and the ability to the taxpayer to finance this kind of grandiose project. Others are concerned that this kind of approach will create huge financial problems for private educational institutions that will need to attract fee-paying students.
More and more voices are now supporting the voucher system which essentially will allow students and parents to “cash” their voucher with the institution of their choice and paying any difference between the value of the voucher and the fees of the institution. This approach is expected to bring more equality and more competition between State supported and private education. Proponents of the voucher system have a lot of good arguments to offer, chief of which is accountability. They reckon that choice will make everyone more accountable for the quality of education they offer. The final arbitrator on who offers better education will be the student (and the parent) who, as a mature individual seeking good quality education which will enable him to compete for jobs later, will ultimately select the institution which will provide what’s best for him. This kind of logic seems reasonable and addresses the serious concerns of cost and quality of education.
Note
Mencoba menjamin pendidikan yang berkualitas baik adalah bisnis yang sangat mahal. Meskipun biaya tinggi permintaan pendidikan untuk tempat di perguruan tinggi yang baik tetap tinggi Apakah kita hanyut ke dalam situasi, yang akan, pada waktunya, membuat pendidikan yang baik sebagian besar hak prerogatif orang kaya? Semakin banyak suara sekarang mendukung sistem kupon yang pada dasarnya akan memungkinkan siswa dan orang tua untuk "uang tunai" voucher mereka dengan institusi pilihan mereka.
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BalasHapus