Education is the key to success, and money is the extra lock we have to struggle with before we can unlock that success. But believe me, money is not the only thing we have to struggle with, experience, importance of the qualification ohh and the colour of your skin too…
Is education for sale? Is it a privilege reserved for only the few people who have money? Let me paint a picture for you: why do rich people pay so much money to have their kids educated?. Are they paying for the same quality of education they can get for free? The answer is NO to both questions because we all know above all that resources make learning easier, before we speak about the quality of the teachers available and other more expensive methods of learning like having tutors and fewer learners in class let us ask what should happen to the poor ones?
Let us take a road trip to Eastern Cape, just in case you are not sure why I use Eastern Cape as an example you might need to refer to the matric results for the past 2 years and yes going to school feels like a road trip for the learners there. There is little to no infrastructure and the learners have to walk for kilometers to get to school. If Jumping Rivers and crossing bushes is not enough to push the poor learners to quit school, then the harsh reality of impoverished poverty always distracts them from studying. Even if they study hard we have to acknowledge, not knowing what will happen after high school is not that motivating at all. Is education for sale?
From primary to high school, the challenges of a learner whose parents can only afford uniform, school shoes and a pencil case, but that is nothing compared to the significant and apparent impossibility that they have to face in trying to move to University. Comparing the statistics of a public school to that of private school, one will notice that the latter always performs better, can it be concluded that kids from “affording families” work harder or are just smarter? Education is for sure not for free or when served for free it is somehow flawed. Maybe basic education is for free but quality education is for sale.
“Maybe basic education is for free but quality education is for sale”
Now let assume the kid from rural EC and the one from a private school all manage to pass with good grades. They both apply for a Bsc in Computer Science, are you aware that the kid from a private school has got the upper hand already? Forget that, let us talk about access. More than 50% of public school matriculants never make it into university. Finance proves to be a nightmare at times even for the kids of the middle class citizens. This is were you come to realize education is for sale, no matter how hard you work if you can’t pay for your studies (and have no funding anywhere else) you are kicked out.
The cost of higher education is close to the cost of a brand new car. The difference is with a car you get to pay for 5 years and for a degree your fees have to be up to date every single year and have to be fully paid by the end of third year. A lot of students get financially excluded, not to mention the ones that never make it past the higher registration fees. I know someone is screaming bull**it NSFAS is funding them but are you aware not everyone gets covered? I am not talking about the “too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich” class. I am talking about those who meet all the requirements but never get accepted because the budget allocation was too little.
For all the reasons mentioned above, it is safe to say a kid from a rich family stands a better chance to be more educated than a kid from a poor background. The only difference between the two is money; therefore it makes sense to say a Degree is for sale. Your hard work, dedication and high IQ are not enough to keep you in class…
Article By Dimo wa Moraswi Sekele
