As a student, I know, for certain, that education is the key to life. Education is the best tool which can be used to mobilize people from the lower to higher social classes. Meaning, when there is need to empower a person from a poor background, education can be used. It can benefit them in many ways such as the creation of knowledge and prepare them for lucrative and rewarding careers like teaching, medicine, engineering, just to mention, but a few. However, it is always not easy to achieve that because of the many challenges faced on the way. The paper argues against the attempts of learning institutions to increase tuition fees for the learners.
As a person who has the first-hand experience and encounters with school-life, I understand that there are many challenges which hinder people from acquiring quality education. One of these factors is lack of affordability. Many people cannot go to college because they cannot afford. If school fees are increased, many children will not get an opportunity to acquire education. It will impose a heavy burden on the parents who are already struggling with the high costs of living. A larger number of parents will face a lot of difficulties because they might force their children to drop out of school. Such actions might be justifiable because the parents might opt to provide basic needs at the expense of educating their children. The counter-argument is that fee increment is necessary because it can make the learning institutions financially stable. So, even if some people argue that schools should increase fees because they require adequate resources to sustain their operations, I take a different stance. In my opinion, this is unnecessary because it will disadvantage the poor people a great deal. If people are locked from education, it means that they cannot empower themselves and get a platform to compete for their rich counterparts favorably.
I also argue that the school fees should not be increased because the new changes will result into the decline of performance for the learners. When school fees are increased, the teaching and learning process can be paralyzed because the learners might be sent home for school fees every now and then. Should this happen, the learning process can be interrupted because learners will not concentrate. Since all learners rely on their parents and guardians for support, it means that if the fees are increased, they might face some financial challenges. The parents might be overburdened and fail to get enough money to use in providing all the needs of their children. The counter-argument here is that school fee must be increased because of the increased costs of operations. However, I disagree with the people who support the issue of fee increment because it is justifiable by the current economic trends. I disagree because the cost of living has risen to the level that people struggle to survive. Meaning, if school fees are increased, the learners will not get transportation, textbook, uniform, food, and all the other extra costs which help them while in school. This is a clear indication that the school-going children will suffer a lot if the school fees are increased. The increased burden will translate into difficulties because we, as learners, will have to forgo some needs.
My last reason is that the fee increment will work against the society in general. As already hinted, education is what is used to empower people. However, when school fees are increased, the disadvantaged groups will not afford it. Whereas the poor children will be dropping out of school, their rich counterparts will be acquiring high-quality education in high-cost private schools across the country. In the long run, the poor-rich gap will increase thanks to the high drop-out rates by the poor. The counter-argument is that school fee increment has no effect on the financial position and capability of the fee-paying households. I, therefore, disagree with the people who argue that fee increment should not deter parents from educating their children because they should consider it as a matter of priority. When the rich go to school, but the poor drop-out, there will be a high level of illiteracy and inequality in the country. I believe that no one wants to see such an unequal society. However, if we are not careful, we can create a high level of inequality that might be quite disastrous for the society both currently and in the future.
In conclusion, I disagree with any attempts that might be made to increase school fees. As a learner, I have a deeper understanding of how difficult it has been for our parents to educate us. As much as I agree with the government and school administrators for doing a commendable job of providing us with the education we need, they are not justifiable to increase our school fees. It will disadvantage everyone including the parents, government, society, and the learners as well. Therefore, instead of rising school fees, the government should increase its share of school funding. It will, otherwise, make learning more efficient, effective, and responsive to societal needs.
