Should Post Secondary Education Be Free in Canada: My Arguments

Introduction

Should post secondary education be free? This is the topic of my essay. Although many people may say that there should be fees for post-secondary schooling, I somewhat agree that post-secondary education should be free. In recent years, it was common for teenagers to pursue post-secondary education in Canada. It is because people understand that education is extremely important. Moreover, times have evolved. Therefore, if some students just only graduated from secondary school, they will not be able to face a lot of different job requirements in the future. However, the cost of post-secondary education is a major obstacle to young people. Large debts have become usual for grads, putting barriers up where, instead, encouragement should be provided. Research has shown that education boosts opportunities for students, improves all of our lives, and leads to the improved overall economic strength of Canada. Taking into consideration the importance of following post-secondary education, free post-secondary education should be provided by the Canadian government.

Why should post secondary education be free?

Firstly, if post-secondary was free, there would not be any student loans. Students will not be bothered about taking student loans to ease their education at their university. This guarantees that students stay debt-free. Even after the person has gone to school for whatever program they have chosen they still have hundreds, perhaps even thousands of money to pay off. And when you add this with all the other things you may have to pay for, it totals up to a lot of money. And this can leave the student feeling stressed. One of my best friends who attended his first year of university in 2017 stated that he fell behind and got low marks in his assignments. The reason behind his low marks was because he did not know where he was going to get another $11,000 plus to pay his tuition. And his parents were not rich. They made approximately $80,000 altogether.

Secondly, if post-secondary education was free, it would not be limited to higher-income students only. Quality education is one of the public goods that every nation endeavors to deliver to its citizens by enacting relevant education policies. While in many nations including Canada, basic education is delivered by the state at much-subsidized costs, financing post-secondary education causes people to dig deep into their pockets both in the developing and developed world. From an economist's perspective, increasing the prices of post-secondary education has the impact of decreasing the demand for the public good. In this sense, increasing the fees for post-secondary education would mean a reduction in the accessibility levels. Many students who complete high school are forced to work because their families don’t have the kind of money to pay for their education in university. Hiking of fees for post-secondary education makes it only affordable for wealthy people. This claim means that the less fortunate people would not have equal accessibility levels with the more fortunate members of the society. One of my mom's sisters who was planning to go to Humber college had to start work at two jobs as a Retail Store Cashier and a fast-food restaurant at the age of 16 to get a decent amount of money to help her parents pay for her tuition.

Thirdly, if post-secondary education was free, they guarantee education. Free education is vital because it guarantees every student in a country has some level of education. This signifies that every student has an equal opportunity to get this level of education on the same scale. And they have access to the types of degrees that they would want to pursue their programs, that consist of the associate’s degree, Bachelor's degree, Master’s degree, doctorate, and Ph.D. One of my dad’s friends who live in Canada said that he wanted to do his Master's in engineering because he wanted to earn a good amount of money. But he could afford it, so he had to go for his bachelor’s. Then as soon as he finished his 4 years at the university, He quickly went to look for a job. And after he had saved a decent amount of money he went back for a master’s degree. And he stated that it was worth it, but it was also kind of a waste of time.

On the other hand, one might argue that post-secondary should also not be free. If post-secondary education was free. There are 3 reasons for this. The first one is because free post-secondary education can cause overcrowding of institutions/ too many graduates devaluing the programs, pupils will not be worried about taking student loans to ease their education at the university. This guarantees that learners stay debt-free. Even after the person has gone to school for whatever program they have chosen, they still have hundreds, maybe even thousands of money to pay off. And once institutions are overcrowded it can depreciate the program you are studying. Many people who graduate from universities are unable to capture a job due to the small number of jobs, but large numbers of candidates. The second reason is that there will be financial irresponsibilities. When pupils have debt, they learn many points on financial responsibility. A student loan is a graduate’s first vital financial transaction, and making the payments gives them a lesson about paying off debt for the future. Also, when a pupil pays off their debt, it helps them to build credit. If universities and colleges were free, these lessons wouldn’t be learned, and it would be more difficult for graduates to build good credit. And the final reason post-secondary education shouldn’t be free is that there will be a low quality of education. Free education may change the quality of education in the long run. This is because the classes will be packed with many people, causing them to have limited resources.

Conclusion

In conclusion, some people may think otherwise about free post-secondary education because of some good reasons. I somewhat believe that post-secondary education should be free because there will not be any student loans, and there will be a guaranteed education for each student who enrolls themselves into the college or university of their choice. Even, if they cannot make post-secondary education free. They should decrease the amount of money you are paying for your tuition. These are the reasons why I think that post-secondary education should be free.  

References

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