To be able to send children to school, parents have to fork out a lot of money
By Yanzalong
@yanzalong (18984)
Indonesia
July 1, 2012 8:11pm CST
It seem to me education has become one of busineess areas. Schools have demanded a lot of money. What if parents have no money? They cannot send their children to school. In our country, it is clearly stated that education is the responsibility ot the country. It guaratees that all citizens shall obtain education. However, that is on paper. In reality, school management or private school owners make this educational field as their profitable source of income.
What about in your country? I believe in developed countries like USA and England, schools are free for all. So parents there should have no worries about their children education, right?
15 responses
@jjzone44 (917)
• United States
2 Jul 12
Public schools are free to an extent, they are paid for by the taxes of the people that live in the school district. Private schools are available but they cost parents money. There are people who will move to another area if they have children and they think the schools are better there. And there has to be a profit motive even in education. You will find that those "better" schools have higher pay rates for teachers, and higher property taxes to pay those rates. You can't really force people to work for less money, or they'll just go where the money is. Not too many people are going to do a job in one place, when all they have to do is drive 5 miles and make $2 an hour more.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
My relative works for bbc in London and his sons finished study in public schools. No school fee was charged.
Now his sons work in London.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
You have to pay unemployment tax too. How much is takehome pay after tax? No citizens complain about taxes?
@ShyBear88 (59272)
• Sterling, Virginia
2 Jul 12
I live in the US only the first 12 years of education here is free. Once a child graduates high school when they are 18 the free ride is over with. Actually in reality it's not for free or tax that people get taken out of there pay checks and stuff that is what pays for schooling and the teachers pays. Now if a person wants to go to College here parents or that child will have to pay for it out of there own pocket. It's not for free at all and most parents help pay for all or half of there college ages childs schooling. But there are ways to get help to pay for college, like scholarships or grants.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
Because the USA is a developed country, i think it is still a lot better than education in developing countries.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
4 Jul 12
Halo, thank for your informative explanation. Without this info, I won't be able to know what the true thing is in the USA especially in terms of education.
@ShyBear88 (59272)
• Sterling, Virginia
4 Jul 12
Yes the US is more developed then other countries and our education systems are better but that doesn't mean all kids go to school here. Yes kids between the age of 5 to 18 go to school for free but not all parents send there kids to school. There are alot of kids that never go to school, or never finish going to school. Higher education such are trying to get a degree in something it coast money and you will have to get a lone and stuff. A lot of people really can't afford to go to school after high school because it's not free our tax money doesn't pay for it at all. Just because we are more developed then other countries doesn't mean we are that much better then any other country we have our issues. When one place in the world suffers we do too. We are all economically connected to each other.
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
4 Jul 12
Yanza, the government in my country is providing free education to children up to secondary school level. Parents only needs to provide pocket money, uniforms and some other miscellaneous expenses. Don’t your country government have set up free education to helps its citizen? Studying in private school indeed is very expensive and only suitable for those children who have wealthy parents. I don’t put my son into private school because it is too expensive for us to support. I prefer him to be educated in government school.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
5 Jul 12
On paper yes. However, in reality distribution of fund is still misappropriated. Many school either private or public have charge parents too much money.
@TrinityDownpour (790)
• Liechtenstein
2 Jul 12
We had public schools that cost next to nothing. And the government even provides free text books in every schools even the private schools. But our public schools kinda suck. So we rely on a tutor that cost money and it's not cheap..
But college on the other hand is different. My college fee is enough to make anyone with low income bankrupt immediately.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
Where was it my friends? I thought citizens in other countries get better and much cheaper education. I heard people in England go to school for free.
@TrinityDownpour (790)
• Liechtenstein
5 Jul 12
We don't get better and much cheaper education in Malaysia. There are only a few good teachers in every school (even in private ones) and the rest not so good.
So it's either you study the subject yourself and not rely on the teachers or you pay for a tutor.
@Austina (92)
• Philippines
5 Jul 12
Yes, its true. Education cost alot of money. If a parent does not have enough money, then children would not be able to send to school. In our country, one has to suffice their education. Only scholars get the benefit of free education but there are company who give scholarship to those in need. But tuition fee does not end there. One has to earn more just to finance other things needed along the way.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
5 Jul 12
No wonder in my country, many parents have to borrow money from banks just to send their children to school. I do not know how come government doesn't seem to care about the difficulty experienced by her citizens. I thought it happened in my country but from this discussion I finally know that advanced and developed countries have the same problems.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
2 Jul 12
We have private schools that cost lots of money but we also have plenty of public schools that cost next to nothing. I have been to both and for me personally I have found that the private school gave me a much better education than the public school. It could be that the public school I went to was very bad. Bad teachers and facilities and it was hard to learn and study there :(
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
Where was your school? I thought Australia gave free education to all her citizens.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
2 Jul 12
I'm from Melbourne. You still need to pay something to go to the schools. I think the yearly fee was like $50 but for the private school it was a lot of money :(
@xtinelee (3371)
• Singapore
2 Jul 12
Well, for our schools, it is not free for all, but it's not so expensive that people cannot pay it. If your family is not well to do, the government does provide free education for your child, you just need to qualify for it. However, having a secondary school education is not good enough, you need to go to college, and that is when where cost is really expensive.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
3 Jul 12
From the discussion,I can conclude that education is very expensive no matter where. I thought at the beginning that education was cheap in advanced countries like USA, England and Australia but I was wrong. Thank for responding.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
2 Jul 12
I am from England, and while education is free over here, there are still worries because the fact is that people have to stand out from the crowd to be able to get the jobs that they need. So many people now are being highly educated and are then not able to find another job because of the fact that there are so many other people with the same qualifications as them who are going for the jobs. Also, you can go to private school in England which costs money but means that you know that your child is going to be getting the best level of education possible for them. I know that English children are privileged to be able to go to school and get an education free of charge if they want to, and it is certainly something that they shouldn't be taking for granted.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
3 Jul 12
That is right. What school do English people prefer, private or public schools? I still find it very strange how come it is difficult to get a job in England, whereas England is one of the richest country? Are there any actions from the government to overcome this problem. Is it related to the number of homeless people? I mean homeless people are those who failed to get a job?
@jazel_juan (15747)
• Philippines
2 Jul 12
I do agree that private schools here in the Philippines can be quite costly, but parents still strive their best to really put their kids to those schools because these schools offer better education at times..
plus public schools can be pretty crowded.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
It is probably public schools are free so that they are crowded. In Indonesia public school teachers also teach at private school. The teachers do not teach everyday so they can use their free time to teach at private school.
@jambi462 (4576)
• United States
2 Jul 12
No i would have to say that the United States and England probably have some of the most expensive schools because they are some of the most developed countries. I don't think that we will see free education anytime soon even though I think that should be one of our number one priorities within the world other than healthcare and providing good food and clean water to all.
I've been paying my way through college and it hasn't really been that cheap. I've probably spent close to 10,000 dollars on college over the past two years and I'm just in community college right now. To move on to a college that will offer classes that will actually allow me to get a better job will be even more money.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
They still pay but probably half of the cost is paid by the state, right? In Indonesia public schools charge students as much as private schools.
@asyria51 (2861)
• United States
2 Jul 12
While the education is "free", there are still things to be bought which makes education expensive. even with our "free" education I know that the school supplies and fees can get expensive.
Then there are all the fundraisers and field trips that also add on to the bill.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
4 Jul 12
You are right, free schools don't mean everything is free. There are others that need to be bought like books and other expenses.
@AgentGulaman (3546)
• Philippines
2 Jul 12
Yeah! Even here in our country, schools become a business thing and not really of education thing. It is really disappointing to see. The fact that can fight this one is bumping up free education by government funding to force the private schools and universities to cut down their fees. However, even the government is trying to look for ways to cut off the budget for education purposes. Investing in their own citizens is the best bet to improvement and development of a country. However, it is not the case happening right now at all. It really saddens me to see such thing is happening with the current education system. If they can imagine having well educated citizens in a country, they should be putting up a lot of good money to education.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
4 Jul 12
I think your country is still better than mine. In other countries private schools are better in quality. In mine both public and private arb the same. Only few private schools are much better in quality.
@mikyung (2232)
• Philippines
2 Jul 12
By reading your title alone, I can really relate on you with this. I'm from a third word country that education is really expensive. Good thing we have those public schools from grade school to high school. I hope my government should prioritize the education. Good thing, they have a multi-billion pesos for education in the bdget for next year, I heard. Thanks@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
3 Jul 12
Indonesia has borrowed a lot of money from other countries. Some of the money is probably used for school improvement--building or education system or quality. Teachers are sent abroad to study at the cost of borrowed money.I personally think that improvement made is not significant and quality is still low.
Now what parents have to do is to bribe school officials in order that their children can be accepted as students.
@joevanosa (303)
• Philippines
2 Jul 12
i hope that in our country, education is free. ill be in school forever! i want to proceed medicine but my parents can not send me to school anymore because of financial reasons. i ope next year, i could go back to school again.
indeed, many school institutions have been so demanding about school expenses and tuitions - exaggeratedly increasing fees. i hope they would see that the world today is in global crisis.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
2 Jul 12
Where are you from and where do you live? I don't think public schools in indonesia will work out as we expect.
@lady1993 (27225)
• Philippines
2 Jul 12
Yeah, countries in which school is free, the kids are lucky. In our country, there are some public schools,but when it comes to college nothing is free. And most colleges are so expensive.. 
Students are either looking for scholarships or become working students..
Students are either looking for scholarships or become working students.. 