• Accessible And Affordable Education For All (consider The Challenge Of Inaccessible And Unaffordable Education) Extending Your Work From Assignment 2, Write A 1200 Word Paper That Briefly Critiques A Global Issue.

Accessible and Affordable Education for All

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Accessible and Affordable Education for All

Introduction

As discussed in the previous work, domestic violence leaves adverse effects over the mental and physical well-being of a person (Donley et al., 2006). Domestic abuse, spousal abuse, dating violence or intimate partner violence leaves great scars not only over the body of an individual but also on the soul. Domestic violence is a very common issue nowadays and as per the statistics provided by United Nations, almost one quarter and one-half of the women have faced domestic violence, once in their life. The severity of this issue can be judged from the fact that out of the total number of the murders of the female population, the reason behind 40 to 70% of the murders is domestic violence. The country, most affected by the evil of domestic violence is Australia, where every fifth woman is a victim of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is carried out in two forms; physical and psychological. Physical domestic violence involves various kinds of physical abuse like hitting, pinching, pushing, burning, slapping, and even killing, On the other hand, psychological violence does not involve any kind of physical torture but consists of mentally and emotionally torturing a person. It may involve insensitive comments, frequent insults, taunts, use of abusive language and hitting someone’s self-esteem (Rozensky, 2014).

The issue does not end here. The evil of domestic violence further gives rise to many other problems which prove fatal for the society and the psychological wellbeing of the individuals in the longer run. Domestic violence creates the roots of stress and fear within the children of the parents who fall prey to domestic violence. As per many scholars and researchers, one of the major causes of domestic violence is a lack of education. Among many factors, lack of education also contributes significantly to the increasing number of cases of domestic violence in the society.

Discussion

This lack of education occurs when fair and equal opportunities of education are not available for everyone. People remain deprived of educational facilities because they do not get easy access to the education or the facilities, and the facilities available in their easy access are out if their financial range. Not everyone has access to quality education and most of the people, in this world cannot afford to educate themselves or their children. Resultantly, it gives birth to many social evils and when such individuals become teenagers or grow into adults, instead of becoming a responsible citizen, get involved into criminal activities like theft, robbery, and even murders. Same is the reason behind individuals committing domestic violence. This issue is more prevalent in the under-developed or developing countries, where crimes and social evils are a common sight, happening due to non-access and non-affordability of education, especially quality education, along with the ingredients of hunger, poverty and political issues (Riep, 2014).

Education is an essential need of the 21st century; in a time of increasingly complex and global economy. In an era of ever-changing global markets, education helps to fuel the business, running nationally or globally, by preparing the students for the tough and competitive business environment and making them compete for the challenges in their upcoming career (Sullivan J. 2001). Education provides a groundwork, a platform, to learn and excel in the skills, which are the part of the global economic challenges, in an effort to make them a productive member of the worldwide workforce.

Education, notably higher education, is also very necessary in order to secure a promising career in the future, after completion of the degree. Many experts agree that that in current times of severe competition and highly skilled workforce, a much better and competent level of education is required than just a high school degree (Amer, & Peralez, 2014). To be precise, research states that by 2020, around 65% of jobs will demand an education, just beyond a high school diploma.

The major issues that is being faced by the students, after getting free from the high school is the skyrocketing prices of the college degrees. Many students completing their graduation from high schools, want to pursue their education further, but the ever-increasing costs of higher education becomes a barrier in the way (DeMillo, & Young, 2015). To cater to this issue, students and their families have to take student loans and debts, which becomes an extra burden on the shoulders of students as well as their parents. As per the statistics, student debt accounts for the biggest growing debt of the economy, mounting up to $1.3 trillion. As per another study, the average student or education debt that a student has to bear is $28,950; and these are just tuition fees.

Apart from just tuition expenses, students have to bear a number of other costs which add up to the total expenses of the higher education. These expenses include the charges incurred for textbooks, research expenses, accommodation charges, mess expenses, transportation expenses. The expense of textbook is another burden which the students and their families have to bear. On an average, textbooks cost up to $1200 in a year.

There need to be proper policies regarding making education approachable for everyone. The government needs to devise suitable student educational plans, which can give relief to both students and their families. Another appropriate approach to get this issue resolved is the regulation of tuition fees. Colleges and other educational institutes should be limited to making increases in the fees and providing more budget-friendly educational programs.

One of an appreciated and very common method for encouraging the students to carry on their education further is the introduction of scholarships. The government, along with the educational institutions should introduce various scholarship programs so that the students can get an education without worrying about their educational expenses. This approach can especially benefit those bright students who secure good grades in high schools but have to leave their studies just due to non-availability of funds for further education (Johnstone, & Soares, 2014). To eliminate the burden of expenses of textbooks, students should be provided free of cost books or at least books on discounted prices.

Another doable approach suggests that secondary education should be made free so that the parents can send their children to seek an education with the relaxation in mind that the state is there to bear the expenses of their child’s education. The idea may sound absurd or even ridiculous, but it is not impossible (UNESCO, 2015). In fact, it won’t be much of a burden on the education budget as the total estimated of almost $1 billion.

Lastly, apart from the tuition fees, the government can also facilitate the students by properly making legislations regarding the accommodation charges or the rents for the students, so that accommodation affordability can be increased. Introduction of specialized hostels or flats at affordable rents, especially for those students who travel to other cities just for their studies, is another useful method to encourage students to pursue higher education.

Conclusion

In short, it can be deduced that making education accessible and affordable for everyone can not only kill the roots of many evils from the society but also produce a well-educated and more skilled workforce of individuals which may be beneficial and productive for the whole community. Steps need to be taken at a grassroots level, to cater to this issue, especially for the middle class and lower class people. If serious action is not taken over this, the country may face a severe shortfall of skilled workers in the coming years, and the jobs will either remain unfilled, or the companies will be bound to compromise over less competent staff.

References

Amer, A., & Peralez, P. (2014, October). Affordable altered perspectives: Making augmented and virtual reality technology accessible. In Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 2014 IEEE (pp. 603-608). IEEE.

DeMillo, R. A., & Young, A. J. (2015). Revolution in higher education: How a small band of innovators will make college accessible and affordable. Mit Press.

Donley, Grandjean, Jairath, McMullen and Shelton, Nursing and the Common Good, November-December 2006.

Johnstone, S. M., & Soares, L. (2014). Principles for developing competency-based education programs. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 46(2), 12-19.

Riep, C. (2014, May). Omega Schools Franchise in Ghana: “affordable" private education for the poor or for profiteering? In 2014) Education, Privatisation and Social Justice: case studies from Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, Oxford: Symposium Books, http://symposium-books.co uk/books/bookdetails.asp.

Rozensky, R. H. (2014). Implications of the Affordable Care Act for education and training in professional psychology. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 8(2), 83.

Sullivan J. Catholic Schools and the Common Good, in Catholic Education: Distinctive and Inclusive, Chapter 8, Springer, Dordrecht (2001).

UNESCO (2015), Rethinking Education. Towards a global common good?