Students Should Learn Not Earn

Education is a luxury that many cannot afford. If you want to study, you have to pay for it. Once the poor knew their place and it wasn't in the classroom. Today that no longer applies. We are told we have a choice and that education is freely available.

Debt, however, seems to be part of the student's lot. For those that have chosen to study and go onto higher education there is a high cost to be paid. The average student debt today is more than ten thousand dollars. Increased tuition fees, high living expenses and the day-to-day charges mean that many students cannot afford to realise their dreams. The reason is simple. To study means costly loans, high interest top-ups and credit card debt. Many students are forced into bankruptcy before they have even begun their full time working lives.

Our students are forced into low paying jobs to subsidise their education. Many Governments agree that students should work no more than ten to fifteen hours a week at these jobs. The reality is that many students find themselves having to work 40 hours a week or more in order to survive. Even this is not enough to offset the rising tide of debt.

Students shouldn't have to work this hard. They shouldn't have to get into such huge debt. Yet for many there is no choice. That is the harsh reality. Tuition fees, subsistence money, the loss of income whilst studying all mean that for many students continuing education is often a debt ridden struggle.

Many thousands of students will never complete their studies. They will never realise their potential. The cost to the taxpayer is millions of wasted dollars. We live in an expensive world that demands you pay. Students burdened by debt do not make good grades. Often they cannot afford to finish the path they have chosen. Worse still the pressures of work and study combined not only cause many to fail. Many who get this far find that they are unable to begin to repay the loans taken out. In the U.S. students default on $3 billion worth of loans each year!

For many students, the rigours of their study mean that the jobs they are forced to work in are badly paid with unsociable hours. Their choice of continuing study comes at a high price as they struggle to meet the demands of their courses through tiredness and poverty. No wonder so many give up the struggle. Their failure comes at a cost to us all.

Even the reluctant scholars in our midst, grudgingly admit that we are bettered by our years of schooling. Yet once we have reached the ripe age for broadening our minds, we are met by a problem. We have had our taste buds whetted only to find that our achievements are costly, expensive and out of reach. The only way that we can progress to is work long hours in menial and badly paid positions. These jobs distract us from the very things that we wish to learn. The alternatives are costly loans and spiralling debt.

Our society benefits from our better education. We are all agreed on this point. We benefit from education. We learn and grow. We take on responsibility. We become interested and interesting. It is then with our qualifications under our belt that we can go out into the world and contribute to it. All society has an interest in better-qualified and less debt-ridden students.

Many people say that hard work doesn't harm anybody. They are right of course but, for students, the work should be at their books. In the West we are lucky. Our countries contain some of the best education systems in the world. We are at the frontiers of knowledge and learning. How sad then that so many of our citizens are unable to take advantage of this fantastic knowledge. Despite the lip service we pay to education, there is a glass ceiling over those who do not have funds

In days past, our Fathers and Mothers were forced to cut short their education. They were told to get out into the real world and forget about their studies. A lucky and determined few were able to return to education and develop themselves. The one thing most such parents wanted was for their children was to have the education they were denied. Yet for many the choice is one of years of hardship while trying to focus on their books. Even today in our Western society it seems education is still the preserve of the wealthy.

We need to examine all the facts of course. There are students who work simply to ensure that they can afford a good social life. They are entitled to their fun if they study hard. Yet their social life should be at a reasonable cost and provided by college authorities in the interest of have fully rounded students. It should not mean that their studies have to suffer. New students should be routinely asked to join the debating societies, the drama groups and sports clubs as a matter of course. These activities should be encouraged and made so enjoyable that they won't want to leave the campus for other, more expensive, places of entertainment.

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