The Consciousness and Humanity Behind Free Tertiary Education

Francis Bacon once asserted that, “Knowledge is Power”. This means power to impact change, live a decent life and earn a decent income, power that brings you respect and dignity. When knowledge can bestow the power for so many things, it should never be it restricted to a few who have the advantage of wealth, as is the case. Knowledge needs to be free for all those who deserve it, and what a person deserves should be decided by an individual’s capability, interest and intelligence, not by wealth.

The best and simplest way to disseminate knowledge to all those who deserve it, is through free education. Education, a is very important tool; it prepares one for life, work and citizenship, and further helps produce independent thinkers, innovators, inventors and problem solvers.  As student activists, as once observed by Eve Ensler, we are not motivated by the need for money, power or fame, but driven by mad injustice, cruelty and unfairness towards to ourselves, our brothers and sisters, towards the black Namibian child!

Ours is an infatuation with education because like many other factors it is an important requirement of and for human beings. The stress of paying for tertiary education alone is a huge distraction for most students. Trying to find the money to get through each year or working alongside studying just to have a place to live and eat, is a difficult thing to do, especially for young children just getting out of high school. The cost of education is the barrier to entering and completing one’s education.

If we have produced the grades to get accepted, shouldn’t we have the right to attend the University? Because the point for tertiary education is for a person to pursue a higher level of knowledge than what you had when going out of high school. Those who aren’t lucky enough to see the light of a classroom, end up joining the job market at a very young age, to be exploited and their human dignity overlooked. And these are people who end up in low level managing portfolios or working for a minimum wage just to get by. While those who gain access to our exclusive economic opportunities to become successful either have outside help or establish small businesses that lack innovation, creativity and original thinking.

There are downsides to education being free, and one of them is that taxes would increase, and people would be paying a lot more, but in doing so a child has the ability to do something with their lives, without having to put themselves under a mountain of debt or force themselves to take on a fulltime job while trying to not fail any of their classes. Free education is a remedy to social ills that plaque our society. Given our societal wealth division, amidst it all is impoverishment, unemployment, and destitution. Education is the only means that can open up the doors that lead to employment, and through it food, shelter and better quality of life. And such an opportunity to the deserving ensures that at least the future generation steps through these doors to a better living.

Free education would have a very positive impact on the overall quality and thinking in society. Through better employment and elimination of the struggle for basic needs, people would concentrate on the higher aspects of life, such as improving administration and management of issues that impact society in general. By making education free, we prod our society towards the path of better governance. Educated people would make better choices in electing their representatives and are better equipped to engage and participate in national programs and thus question corruption, misuse of power and misprioritisation of resources.

Intelligence and talent are not the forte of the wealthy alone. There is lot of untapped and undiscovered talent and intelligence lying covered under impoverishment and destitution. Through free education, we gain the assurance of a better tomorrow by maximizing their academic potentials. Providing free education will enable students to concentrate on learning, instead of struggling with the payment of tuition fees and meeting other expenses. This will lead to a better academic performance and empowerment of the youth to work towards an increasingly intellectual society.

Not only is higher education a key to economic advancement, by removing the need for students to go into debt, the government will promote graduates to be more productive and if all 17-23 year olds were in school, we would reduce the unemployment rate and pressure on governmental assistance. Not only do we need an educated workforce but we also need educated citizens and communities with higher education degrees report a higher level of health and happiness. In fact, societies with a high rate of degree attainment have lower crime rates and higher rates of social welfare.

Moreover, by improving access and affordability, the government can help improve the quality of instruction by directing both university establishments to invest and concentrate their energy on research and instruction development. While President Hage Geingob, has symbolically endorsed the need to transform the students’ loan system into a grant system, he has done very little to support this process.

As active and conscious civil society members, we need to push our politicians and business leaders to support free higher education. Similar to an understanding of international progressive individuals and establishments, education is a human right and not a luxury or privilege. Where everybody is talking about equal and better opportunities, the idea of free tertiary education is smart, civic minded, forward thinking and right. The world is changing and we have got to change with it. 

The debate must continue!

* Matheus Pendapala Taapopi