Why It Is Important to Make Education Affordable

Not too long ago, I graduated from a university of technology owned by a state government in Nigeria. In my final year of college, my annual tuition fee roughly amounted to $267. However, when I was graduating, the tuition fee was increased to $600, an amount that would deny many qualified students the chance to acquire a tertiary education.

Even before the fee was increased, several students had parents who struggled between two or more jobs to send their children to school. Tuition fees were increased in other universities too, leaving many poor students with the ultimate option of withdrawal.

When education becomes too expensive, many young and energetic lives are rendered idle. The effect on the community is terrible, with an increase in teenage pregnancies, broken homes, irresponsible young fathers, and poverty. These social disorders strengthen the vicious cycles that set back the entire nation.

Affordable education delivers true freedom, empowers the poor and gives people a platform for judging their leaders. In fact, national progress can be measured by the economic progress of the poorest citizens in any country. Uneducated citizens are not just poor, they are also vulnerable to exploitation by everyone, including their own leaders.

Youth are talented and energetic. They are the country’s future labor force, and drivers of the economy. If young people are not equipped today with the education, skill and guided exposure necessary for the accomplishment of tomorrow’s challenges, a better tomorrow will die prematurely in our untrained hands.

Similarly, the Millennium Developmental Goals may perish in our unqualified hands and the lives of generations to come will be gravely endangered.

When education becomes too expensive for the brilliant, a bright destiny is suppressed. When education is unaffordable by the masses, their children’s future is gloomed and the nation’s progress suffers.

The energies of young people must not be wasted. Rather, we should receive help in realizing our full potential so that the world will become the wonderful place we imagine in our young minds.