Education as a Service Provided to Consumers - Essay Example

Running Head: EDUCATION: A SERVICE TO CONSUMERS EDUCATION: A SERVICE TO CONSUMERS Name Institution Education: A service to consumers Introduction Everyone will accede that there is no loftier and therefore sacred task facing humanity today than the desire to be successful. It is precisely for this reason that every parent struggles to ensure that their children receive the best education, as education is the main tool for disseminating information and freeing people from the shackles of ignorance. In fact, in 1848, Phillipson (1992) wrote, “Education beyond all other devices of human origin is a great equalizer of the conditions of men-the balance wheel of social machinery” (p.61). However, many questions have arisen over the past few years as to the truism of this statement. Whereas there is a consensus that education will enable people maintain economic stability, there is an argument as to the kind of education that will enable people achieve this fete. Tomasevski (2006) argued that education has become a service provided to consumers. In essence, this means that access to education is tantamount to buying goods [the wealthier one is the better the education he/she receives]. Therefore, the rich have access to the best education and make unprecedented development as compared to their poor counterparts who live in squalor conditions. How has education become a service provided to consumers? Tomasevski was levelheaded in making this assertion that education has become a service provided to consumers. Indeed, the basic tenant of education encompasses more than a teacher giving instructions to his pupils. The quality and the ease of accessing the education should be considered when analysing our society’s commitment to education. The world today is dynamic and in reality everything is changing, people’s ways of life, their values and aspirations. It is therefore important that children are given education that will enable them understand what is happening around them and also make them competitive in the global market. However, a question that needs to be asked is whether this education is easily available to people the world over or its provision is on a discriminative manner. Furthermore, one thing that should come to the fore in analysing this observation is whether there are any effects of the unequal access to education if this is undeniably the case. These two issues should form the basis of the analysis of Tomasevski’s assertion (Tomasevski, 2001). Tomasevski based his claim about education on the view that public investment in education is higher in rich than in poor countries. He felt that most countries have grounded their investment on education on the criterion of affordability. Tomasevski (2003) opined that the right to education should have globally institutionalised a minimal entitlement for all humans premised on two characteristics; That it is a human right rather than an entitlement limited to citizens and that those governmental human rights obligations are universal rather than circumscribed by national borders (p.34). However, this is not the case because there are many disparities in the investment on education. No one single narrative can explain the problems facing education than its affordability. It constitutes one of the biggest crises and the biggest threat to global education especially in poor countries. A cursory look at some of the countries in the world can help analyse the axiom of Tomasevski’s statement. UNESCO has listed education as one of the human rights yet there is no single global structure for education. The reason is that when the countries are in the policy making phase, it is one state one vote but when it gets to decision making, the weight of individual government in global education is therefore determined by the power of the purse. This is one of the key factors affecting education in the third world countries and it has a potential of driving an irreconcilable wedge between the rich and the poor nations in the world (Thornberry, 2002). An example is a minister of finance in an impoverished country supporting debt servicing. This example delineates a scenario observed daily. Under the sway of mass media, this is portrayed as a positive move. Most citizens from these countries jump with jubilation when they hear that a rich country has serviced their debt without sitting down to look at the implications of such a move. With a decisive view at the situation, you realise that the move is grossly over represented. These actions usually have a huge potential especially of impeding free primary education. The result is that the levels of education continue deteriorating in the poor countries while the rich countries develop. This impedes the aspirations of bright and ambitious children who are at the base of social pyramid and want to climb to top of the ladder because the education they want to access becomes expensive. Even those who try to finance their education fall off the ranks leaving the lucky few to move to the apex. The power of the purse then comes to play in the poor countries. The fortunate few are able to pay for their children’s education while the rest of the country remains illiterate thereby hindering development in education. Actually, in most African countries today, a parallel degree programme has been introduced. Those children who do not qualify to join university because they did not attain the minimum degree entry requirement are able to gain admission through this route. It is however noteworthy that this degree programmes are very expensive as compared to those provided by the government. In addition, a student is able to choose the kind of course that he/she likes provided she meets the standards (usually lower than the public university entry standards). Besides, he can study for a shorter time because most parallel degree programmes are offered in trimesters while the government programme offers two semesters per year. Basically, this means that a parent with enough wealth can take his child to the university despite his child’s achievements in high school and in effect his child is able to venture early into the job market while his equivalent is still studying in the university. The discrepancies observed in countries that do not offer free primary education are also observed in those countries that offer it. In fact, they are very subtle that it is extremely difficult to find those countries blameworthy. Proceeding from this realistic outlook, let me make some sombre but reasonable observation of the claim. Most constitutions may mandate primary education to be free but the government may levy or tolerate charges such as caution, tuition, registration, textbook, and school trips thereby making education for-fee. By the government levying these fees, however small they are, they are responsible for cutting out most of the students from enjoying education. An example is in Africa and other third world countries in Asia and South America where most of the population live below the poverty line. The citizens in these countries have very poor family structures because they do not consider the importance of family planning. They therefore give birth to too many children so that in the event that one dies, they will have some surviving members. It is undeniably true that a large family comes with a lot of financial burden on the parents for instance, provision of food, shelter and clothings. This accordingly puts a strain on the available funds thereby making most of these families reconsider their commitment to education which they consider exorbitant. This situation is not only confined to African countries, the inequality has also taken its toll in the Middle East countries. An essential feature of education in the Middle East is that it is neither unified nor uniform. The 2005 Arab development Report described three educational systems that run in the parallel, government- provided, and religious, to conclude that these “mutually exclusive sectors” weaken the social fabric. The increasing cost of education transferring from the parents to the families led the 2002 Arab Development Report to note that, Education has began to lose its significant role of achieving social advancement, turning instead into a means of perpetuating social significance and powers. Furthermore, the report pinpointed that there is a danger that education system in the Arab countries will split into two unrelated parts Very expensive private education, enjoyed by the better off minority and poor quality government education for the majority-and even the latter can be costly for the less well off in view of cost recovery policies adopted by Arab countries in the context of structural adjustment programs (Thornberry, 2002, p.56). The statement has some relevance even in the developed countries. According to a report by the National Centre for Education Statistics (2000), the United States of America provides nearly half the funding for public schools through local taxes. This in turn has led to marked differences in funding because each state collects its own taxes and uses the money generated within the state. Therefore, the wealthy states have more money to invest in the education docket than the poor ones. This is despite the fact that research has proved that well funded schools do better than their counterparts do. For example, in 1996, Rob Greenwald, Larry Hedges, and Richard Laine wrote: [Our analysis shows] that school resources are systematically related to student achievement and that those relations are large [and] educationally important (p. 384) Furthermore, according to The National Center for Education Statistics, 1998, few students from wealthy communities or neighborhoods within generous states attend public schools with funding of $15,000 or more per student per year, whereas some students from poor communities or neighborhoods within stingy or impoverished states attend schools that must make do with less than $4,000 per student per year. This in turn leads to a lot of school dropouts in those neighbourhoods. Most of these neighbourhoods that receive little funding belong to the Americans of African descent (Black Americans). The lack of access to education may constrain them to turn to risky professions such as prostitution in order to survive. A look at the statistics in the USA shows that most of the crimes in America are committed by black Americans and Americans of Mexican origin who also receive the same treatment. A sad reality is that some of the people in these states have their children study in good schools because they can afford. This show that Tomasevski’s view is not limited to underdeveloped countries. Even developed countries have to pay for their education in a manner that is commensurate to their earnings. Consequently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) made two general findings regarding the educational assessment. They described two trends: The proportion of education funding of primary and secondary education tends to be higher in countries with low levels of GDP per capita and that education reproduces existing patterns of privilege (Pennycook, 1998, p.56). Another salient proof of this claim can be seen in the number of schools that cater for disabled children in under-developed countries Vis a Vis those in the developed countries. We cannot gainsay that the difference is very wide. In fact, it is so wide that many children in third world countries cannot afford education if they are blind, or lame because of the financial burden that comes with this education. On the other hand, those children in the first world countries with the same conditions or even worse conditions attend school because they have the economic power to sustain such education. For this reason, third world countries provide poor quality programmes in higher education because of poor qualified, poorly motivated and poorly paid staff, lack of infrastructure and outmoded career. According to a 2001-2002 United Nations Education Science and Cultural organization (UNESCO), an estimate of 115 million children were excluded from primary education with most living in Sub Saharan Africa (Tomasevski, 2006). It is no sheer coincidence that most come from the third world country. The explanation is in their inability to access education due to their poor financial status and the fact that education is available to those with money. As a matter of fact, the level of literacy in a country increases with the level of wealth. This provides sufficient proof that our education has become comparable to a service being sold, the more money you have the better services you receive. According to the United Nations Declaration and conventions of the international labour office, there is a global consensus that education needs to be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. However, Tomasevski feels that education still needs to be affordable if the other principles are to be of relevance. The absence of affordability is what has time without number eroded the equitable access to education (Pennycook, 1998). Some third world countries make the process of selection to higher institutions very harsh because there are limited chances for the reason that the funds available cannot cater for a large number of students. This consequently leads to a large number of students dropping out of school. In addition, they do not have any prospects for training or employment. However, some parents who have some descent salary can take their children to study vocational courses like carpentry, masonry, and tailoring which do not need a lot of education. This situation discourages most parents and communities that they rather their children do not go to school than go to school then dropout later due to lack of fees. As a result, there is a lot of crime in such societies for instance South Africa and Jamaica. How has the provision of education affected its equitable access? As to how far the provision of education as a service has eroded the equitable access to education, a superficial look at some of the countries will provide evidence. The United Nations Education Science and Cultural organization (UNESCO) institute for statistics reported in 2004 that 30% of children in seven countries (Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Mali and Niger) never even start school leave alone attending regularly. Moreover, the report stated that Africa is the only region where the end of primary education denotes exit from education for a number of children (UNDP, 2002). When you analyze these countries with a critical scope, you realise that they are some of the poorest countries in the world. Moreover, some of them have been bedeviled with war and other persistent maladies that they would rather invest in weaponry to ensure their safety or on the provision of health services to their impoverished populace than to provide education which is believed to be secondary in importance. Under these circumstances, the person affected the most is the girl child. She is made to do all the household chores so that her brother can go to school because it is believed in most of these countries that the boy child will be the future head of the community. It even goes to a situation where the girl child is forced to get married so that the funds gotten by the sale of dowry can be used to finance the education of the boy child. The lack of funds also affects some marginalised communities in the third world countries. The government does not commit itself to the dissemination of education to such communities because they do not complain since they do not know its value (most are nomadic communities). By doing this, the government believes that it is saving on the available funds yet the move is preventing the equitable access to education. A little sensitisation in these communities can do wonders but no one is willing to be an active participant in this noble course. The enrolments explosion in Kenya triggered by the announcement that education would be free is an example of this. So many children reported to school that the classrooms were not enough to cater for all of them. In fact this announcement led to a seventy-nine-year old man (Kimani Maruge) reporting to school. The teacher student ratio went very high that the government had to employ some more teachers on contract basis to solve the problem. Nonetheless, this did not solve the country’s problems in education because more students graduated from primary thereby creating a need for more vacancies in secondary school yet the secondary school education was not free. As a result, many of the students dropped out of school after completing their certificate of primary education exams. There low salary paid to the teachers also affects the equitable access to education. This is in the sense that most of them would rather they work in urban areas than in rural areas where life is hard and there are no social amenities. Therefore, this explains the reason why most urban schools perform better than those schools in the rural areas hence a clear indication how the sale of education affects its equitable access (Del Valle, 2003). However, there is some relationship between a country’s wealth and its level of education. A clear example to this effect is Argentina. The United States of America (USA) has lower enrolment in primary education than Argentina. This view is highlighted by the efforts made by Latin countries to ensure that education for their young generation is free despite the numerous obstacles that they encounter. In fact, according to a data collected by UNESCO/UNICEF, on the number of children who are out of school, placed the USA lower for its failure to ensure primary education for all children. UNESCO reported that school enrolments in 2001/2002 were at 94%. This meant that 6% of school-aged children were out of school, some 1.3 million. Indeed, it is worth noting that developed countries provide better education than the underdeveloped ones. Conclusion Indeed, there are some countries which are struggling to ensure that education is available to all so that its provision is not based on a person level of income. However, I conceive that this is an ideal position; there is no truly free education anywhere in the world. Despite all the noise made that education should be a human right, I believe that this is an abstract view and we will never achieve such a position. However, I feel that education should not be a province of the parents alone but the government should step in strongly to assist in its provision. Communication between all the stakeholders is the fundamental for achieving the objective in the platform for action. Thereafter, each country should start the process of identifying and quantifying all the charges that are levied. Afterwards, they should proceed towards the reduction of most of these fees with an ultimate aim of making education totally free. References Del Valle, S. (2003). Language Rights and the Law in the United States, Finding Our Voices. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the discourses of Colonialism. London & New York: Routledge. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thornberry, P. (2002). Indigenous peoples and human rights. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Tomasevski, K. (2001). Human Rights Obligations: making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. Right to Education Primer No. 3. Stockholm: SIDA. Tomasevski, K. (2003). Education Denied: Costs and Remedies. London: Zed Books. Tomasevski, K. (2006). Free or Fee: 2006 Global Report. Retrieved from http://www.katarinatomasevski.com/images/global-report.pdf UNDP. (2002). Arab Human Development Report. New York: UNDP. Read More