Hello everyone. Here is my new essay, this time about tuition fees. I will appreciate any comments, corrections and so on. Thanks in advance and I will be happy to hear/read your opinions.
Tuition Fees
Should university students pay tuition fees? This question provoked a massive wave of demonstrations not only among the students alone, but among a variety of other groups in the Czech Republic. As they are convinced that education ought to be free and available to everyone they decided to express their fundamental disapproval of any obstacles restricting accessibility of university studies to anyone. The problem is that Czech schools' budgets lack in money badly as well as the state itself (Majority of Czech schools is public.). Some demonstrators blame government of fixing holes in state budget by getting more money from them which seems to be a justifiable inference.
Financial crisis struck harshly and expenditures had to be cut down on. Yet the arrangements taken seem to be insufficient. Government ushered higher taxes in spite of their promises never to do it. They are saving on everything, even though it often proves ineffective or unnecessary. Provided that students' perception of tuition fees vanishing in state's cash box emerges to be alarmingly close to the probable scenario.
If tuition fees definitely remained to schools, the law would not gather but a part of its dissenters. Compared to developed countries, Czech Republic catastrophically falls behind as for the money invested in education (It's 3 % GDP, by the way.). No one doubts that these numbers need to be increased and many people would agree on introducing fees as a means of enhancing the universities' quality. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of tuition fees contributing to schools' budgets which disquiets students and educational experts. They believe that schools should serve people, and not become a government's greed victim. In addition, some support not paying at all. In my perception, they just don't realise the situation properly and are unaware of difficulties the economy surmount.
In a different aspect, this kind of discussions always raises a question of impecunious students. Their right to education is commonly acknowledged here, although we miss scholarship attributing systems. The reason is simple: There was no need of them before. This system would have to be established with the tuition fees; otherwise universities could lose many great minds and potential scientists because of their poverty. The new mechanisms' implementation would take some time to plan before it would be able to be launched. Regrettably, projecting demands patience which have neither government, nor demonstrators.
In addition, there is excess of students applying for every university in the Czech Republic, therefore schools could be prone to accept applicants from a rich background regardless to their abilities if the fee was introduced. This would lead to elite schools full of affluent people and the rest would have to settle for the worse ones. Off course, this is a genuinely negative scenario, but provided that every twentieth Czech attends university not so unlikely. In order to prevent themselves from being flooded with bad students, universities would have to take some necessary steps, e. g. tighten up their entrance requirements. Thus their reputation would be built up, their money supplies remain uninterrupted and the quality of students would not drop.
Other contra-argument says that the introduction of low school fees is merely a pretext for their future raising. I find this claim irrational. Nowadays, educated inhabitants are an essential component for developed state's function. Politicians are aware of this fact and it would be silly of them to deprive prospective students of education by extremely high fees that they could not afford to pay. Moreover, it would show immensely financially disadvantageous for educated people usually benefit the state significantly more than the others. Once we assume the government not to be out of wit, the argument mentioned makes no sense.
To summarise my thoughts, I believe that tuition fees could greatly contribute to the quality of schooling in the Czech Republic. But I am not sure whether the government's plans are contemplated well, and whether the proposal is not just a method of solving problems originated elsewhere. Furthermore, government have done a few missteps during the crisis so far, hence I fear this could be one more of them; ill-conceived solution made in a hurry and recoiling on our economy later. Sensible citizens should defy these half-baked policies to defend own interests and to pre-empt dangerous mistakes of politicians. Government ought to listen to the voice of public at last sometimes and either come with a better resolution, or give up the idea of tuition fees per se. As I mentioned earlier, I am not strictly against paying for enhanced education, however I must strictly refuse incomplete government's drafts, because they would cause more harm than assets. Therefore I am obliged to say no; not now and not in this way.
Tuition Fees
Should university students pay tuition fees? This question provoked a massive wave of demonstrations not only among the students alone, but among a variety of other groups in the Czech Republic. As they are convinced that education ought to be free and available to everyone they decided to express their fundamental disapproval of any obstacles restricting accessibility of university studies to anyone. The problem is that Czech schools' budgets lack in money badly as well as the state itself (Majority of Czech schools is public.). Some demonstrators blame government of fixing holes in state budget by getting more money from them which seems to be a justifiable inference.
Financial crisis struck harshly and expenditures had to be cut down on. Yet the arrangements taken seem to be insufficient. Government ushered higher taxes in spite of their promises never to do it. They are saving on everything, even though it often proves ineffective or unnecessary. Provided that students' perception of tuition fees vanishing in state's cash box emerges to be alarmingly close to the probable scenario.
If tuition fees definitely remained to schools, the law would not gather but a part of its dissenters. Compared to developed countries, Czech Republic catastrophically falls behind as for the money invested in education (It's 3 % GDP, by the way.). No one doubts that these numbers need to be increased and many people would agree on introducing fees as a means of enhancing the universities' quality. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of tuition fees contributing to schools' budgets which disquiets students and educational experts. They believe that schools should serve people, and not become a government's greed victim. In addition, some support not paying at all. In my perception, they just don't realise the situation properly and are unaware of difficulties the economy surmount.
In a different aspect, this kind of discussions always raises a question of impecunious students. Their right to education is commonly acknowledged here, although we miss scholarship attributing systems. The reason is simple: There was no need of them before. This system would have to be established with the tuition fees; otherwise universities could lose many great minds and potential scientists because of their poverty. The new mechanisms' implementation would take some time to plan before it would be able to be launched. Regrettably, projecting demands patience which have neither government, nor demonstrators.
In addition, there is excess of students applying for every university in the Czech Republic, therefore schools could be prone to accept applicants from a rich background regardless to their abilities if the fee was introduced. This would lead to elite schools full of affluent people and the rest would have to settle for the worse ones. Off course, this is a genuinely negative scenario, but provided that every twentieth Czech attends university not so unlikely. In order to prevent themselves from being flooded with bad students, universities would have to take some necessary steps, e. g. tighten up their entrance requirements. Thus their reputation would be built up, their money supplies remain uninterrupted and the quality of students would not drop.
Other contra-argument says that the introduction of low school fees is merely a pretext for their future raising. I find this claim irrational. Nowadays, educated inhabitants are an essential component for developed state's function. Politicians are aware of this fact and it would be silly of them to deprive prospective students of education by extremely high fees that they could not afford to pay. Moreover, it would show immensely financially disadvantageous for educated people usually benefit the state significantly more than the others. Once we assume the government not to be out of wit, the argument mentioned makes no sense.
To summarise my thoughts, I believe that tuition fees could greatly contribute to the quality of schooling in the Czech Republic. But I am not sure whether the government's plans are contemplated well, and whether the proposal is not just a method of solving problems originated elsewhere. Furthermore, government have done a few missteps during the crisis so far, hence I fear this could be one more of them; ill-conceived solution made in a hurry and recoiling on our economy later. Sensible citizens should defy these half-baked policies to defend own interests and to pre-empt dangerous mistakes of politicians. Government ought to listen to the voice of public at last sometimes and either come with a better resolution, or give up the idea of tuition fees per se. As I mentioned earlier, I am not strictly against paying for enhanced education, however I must strictly refuse incomplete government's drafts, because they would cause more harm than assets. Therefore I am obliged to say no; not now and not in this way.
