Free
Education
Francis Bacon, the great philosopher and
thinker viewed that “knowledge means power”. Once one gains power one can lead
his / her life in a decent way. It is the power of education that can bring
dignity and respect in one’s life.
If power is the sublime element for
one’s existence and sustenance rather to say the stamina to survive in this
world, why not all are entitled to have it? Why only the rich can enjoy the
power of education? That means if a person by attaining proper education can
exhibit his / her intelligence and capability, why the person will be deprived
of that due to poverty?
If this disparity gets going, our
society will not see its fullest possible all-round growth. The eventuality of
this will be----somewhere or other the society will be languishing because
actually the untapped potentials will be wasted. This will be a national hypocrisy.
Social
Balance
The simplest and the best way of disseminating
knowledge is to educate every one so that a strong and permanent social balance
is transformed as the balanced social platform, where all can contribute to the
uplift of the single, unbiased and harmonious society.
If education is free from primary level
up to the graduation level, all can get the benefit. Once all are privileged to
get education, the first benefit will be seen as the reductions of social ills.
Mostly our societies are divided over poor & rich. This menace is more
pervading than any of the biting problems.
Actually, our societies consist of
unbelievably rich, very rich, measurably rich, middle class, lower middle
class, poor and the big chunk of utterly poor.
However, the above pulsating discussion
can hypnotise one to blindly vouch for free education for the have-nots. Many
countries are plugging in the loopholes of many of the social problems which
are culminating out of this uneducated lots’ liability. The tax payers are contributing
their hard earned money to the state’s exchequer but the benefit is not derived
as it should have been.
Examples are many like Ecuador, USA
(under Obama Administration), Malaysia and a few more countries including India
have realised the importance of free education for have-nots. Ecuador has taken
up many steps; Obama administration has recently made a significant change in
its education policy and has adopted many ambitious programs under the banner
of free education.
India too is gradually freeing up its
compulsory education up to secondary level. The gigantic step India has taken
under the present UPA government is “compulsory
education” for one and all up to secondary level. Although many countries
are gradually adopting and also experiment this important issue, the fallacy of
the fact is, the sediments (negative sides or the boomerangs) are always
disturbing the planners.
Free
Education Means Mockery of Education
Free education allows everyone to get
education without spending a penny. But this frees the parents from many of the
important responsibilities attached with the “education of a child”. The child
on the other hand also does not learn the gravity and importance of the
education, in Toto (which otherwise is learnt in paid education system).
The free education is not “a miracle out
of nowhere”; it is the taxpayers’ dollars are being made use of. Tax payers mean
not only the direct tax payers; it is also the indirect tax payers also.
Indirect tax payers mean one and all, including the parents enjoying the “free
education of the child”. This means many other projects for social developments
are being either stopped or curtailed or even diverted which could have been
otherwise helpful to the poor strata of people also.
Besides this, since it is the government
run project, the entire administration put their heart and soul in this benevolent
program and leave aside many of the constructive programs that could have
benefitted the society in general and the nation in particular.
Conclusion:
This discussion with the just above arguments
will be rather “abrupt end” of the discussion. With both the positive and
negative aspects as references, it is rather recommended that to justify the
second part of the title--“does it add value”—the answer is “yes”. If the
countries mentioned above should not go with the ‘blanket plan” for free
education for all. It should be only need based, so that people should not
suffer from unnecessary burden of tax, state should not divert the other social
development programs and the nation, as a whole should see the best of the
best.
