Why do schools make us pay for education?

Everyone has a right to be educated, but some just aren’t blessed with the money. Imagine if there is a person who is destined to find a cure for cancer but just doesn’t have enough to get an education. So why do schools make us pay for education?

I understand that schools need that money to further upgrade their institution. To be honest, many of us who can afford it don’t want it, and people who don’t have it need it.

Do you remember those times when your parents woke you up for school in the morning, and you didn’t want to go? Sometimes you faked being sick just so you could stay home and sleep. Well that’s because you had other things you preferred to do. But some people don’t have what you have, and they need that education that you don’t want. According to expatwoman.com, Dubai school fees are priced at least Dh10,000 per year. This figure increases as the student gets older. And let’s not forget school uniforms and transportation fees.

Education is vital if you want to be successful, and I don’t mean successful like the Kardashians, I mean successful like Malala Yousafzai who was given the Nobel Piece Prize just last year at the age of 17, and even though she grew up with less opportunity, she made something out of herself, she is an inspiration to a lot of her peers.

Your education level can say a lot about you, and what you can do. For example, if you have a PhD people respect that more than they respect an ordinary college degree. And they get a glimpse of your tenacity, and how much you can handle. For those who don’t have any level of education whatsoever, people tend to label them as uneducated people, when in reality they might be craving for the education that we have, and they can’t get their hands on.

And the way I see it, many people who can afford elite colleges don’t really do much with the education they receive. Why is that? Personally, I think it’s because they didn’t ask for it or had to work for it.

Ultimately, you don’t study just so you can say that you studied - it is what you did with what you learned that really matters.

The writer is a media student at Sharjah Higher College of Technology.

The International Government Communication Forum (IGCF), held in Sharjah, is an annual forum that shares global best practices in fields of government communication and aims to build a platform for better communication between governments and their citizens. This column is a collaborative effort with Gulf News featuring work by UAE-based students as part of that initiative.