Essay Sample on Education Should be Free

The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' says that education is a fundamental human right for everybody. No matter how rich or poor, this is because of the implications of not having an education in today's society. The right to education entails that you have access to primary education that is free, compulsory and also universal. 

From an ethical point of view, it seems unfair that the people that have less money than others are going to miss out on more opportunities. Ethically, opportunities should be open for all people, rich or not. Though it may be true that the availability of a specific opportunity shouldn’t guarantee that a person receives that opportunity, the opportunity shouldn’t be inaccessible for them. For example, all people should be able to become qualified to work in, for example air traffic control, and even though a blind person is hardly guaranteed to get hired at such a position, the opportunity shouldn’t be ruled out by default. Free education, especially free higher education, can open up tons of different opportunities that some people would otherwise have been unable to enjoy. And even if those opportunities are not guaranteed, they shouldn’t be ruled out by default, which is exactly what happens when some people cannot use higher education because of financial reasons.

If all forms of education should be free for students, then it would become very easy for a person to waste his or her life on meaningless education. The decision to get into thousands upon thousands of dollars of debt in order to pursue a career should be agonizing and very difficult so as to make the student think long and hard about the decision. If all education is to be free then less thought is required and students may waste years of their life studying for qualifications that they do not need or even want.

If a student is genuinely looking for higher education and is not looking for a reason to do nothing and mess around for years by exploiting other people’s tax money through free education, then such a person may enjoy a longer education process. For example, a student taking a series of law qualifications is going to need five to seven years of education, which is also very expensive. If the cost of the qualification were removed, such a person may be able to take up jobs on an intermittent basis, stretch out his or her qualification duration, and take longer to gain said qualifications in a more comfortable manner. Instead of having to spend years as a low-income student while building debt, such a student may spend longer on a qualification and work while studying so that he or she may enjoy a more comfortable education experience. Plus, all of this would occur because of the pressure of accumulating student debt.