The cost of education. Not free, but accessible.
The first part of this blog tackles the basic question: How much does education cost? This is not a battle between private and state education (that’s for another blog post) but I have put both sets of data in to give more context.
The second part I have some controversial questions and thoughts about the quality and equality of education and its increasing gap. This area is supposed to generate more questions than answers, so I hope you respond to this with your thoughts and more questions.
And, finally finishing off with what I am doing about it? It is all well and good talking about inequlity and how bad the system is, so here is what I am offering in the things in my control.
I hope you will respond and tell me your thoughts on this subject.
Cost of State Schools
From the UK government website:
‘On a per-pupil basis the total funding allocated to schools for 5-16 year old pupils, in cash terms, in 2024-25 was £7,690’
Cost of education taken from gov.uk (1)
This is on the presumption that there is no more inflation, the government does not invest more into schools and university fees do not increase (currently they are £9000/year).
Costs Private Schools
The price for private (or known as public schools) in the UK varies depending on age and geography. From nurseries, to Prep, to Secondary schools the price changes. Annual school fees can range from £3000-£57000. (2)
Here are a few examples:
Price of School fees per term. (3, 4 & 5)
These costs do not include boarding, food/lunches, examination costs, extra activities etc.
The opportunities that these schools provide are fantastic. From class sizes not (usually) exceeding 20, extra curricular activities and pastoral care it is very hard for the state school breakfast club to compete with.
University costs
Currently the cost of university is £9000 per year. This does not include accommodation, exams, food etc. When you put together the total cost of education for someone who went through the state system and they were to finish at the age of 21, it would have cost £126,970.
*Side note: I think that the cost of university will increase from £9000 to £12000 in the next 5 years. To reach the aggregated rate of inflation of 25%.
Controversial Questions and Thoughts
If you have a view on any of these questions please message me.
Should education cost anything?
A part of me says No and a part of me says Yes. See the bottom for the real answer.
No I do not think education should cost anything. If you put a price on education then you automatically divide some people that can access and others that cannot and over time create a greater gap of inequality. This inequality then deems that certain fields are more important than others e.g. a plumber vs a lawyer. However, if the lawyer's kitchen has a major flood and is destroying his office with all his papers, who is more important now?
The Yes part of the answer comes in two parts. First of all, someone has put time into learning and understanding a particular field, so why should they not be rewarded for that after all- time is money. The second part is that if the student thinks it is valuable then they should put a price on that value to show commitment to it.
Is education unequal?
Yes I believe it is. Some have access to the best facilities and schools others do not.
Now, the question is should it be unequal? Most will say no. But what does this look like in practice?
Paying for the accreditation or the knowledge?
I realise before I answer this question, there needs to be an element of standardisation. We can’t have rouge house builders or lawyers. However, I think this needs to be looked into more. Why are we actually paying for a course when we can probably learn it ourselves for free. Course providers and governing bodies have a monopoly and exert an element of control over their industries. Some are legitimate, some are just darnright ballshit.
Elon Musk has a view that everything has to be questioned. He says find me the guy who actually wrote that into the rule book. If you can’t find the guy then we will ignore that rule.
This comes to a bigger question of our time about universities. Are we paying for the knowledge or the accreditation?
Where does the money go to (in state education)?
I do not have a good answer to this. Just an opinion, which could be wrong.
I think there is a lot of waste and over pricing in schools. If you look at any school catalogue where the school has to buy its resources from, everything is more expensive and the school HAS to buy from a particular catalogue. Why? Are the products safer? Or is there another reason?
A super interesting video is Toxic culture of education by Joshua Katz at TED. Watch this if you want to see who the villains are in the education industry. (I will do a blog post about this soon). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnC6IABJXOI
Will schools implode?
Yes, I think they will. Or if they don’t there will be a watering down.
I know from first hand knowledge that many schools in the UK are working at a deficit. They are spending more money than the government/council are providing. In the news in the UK 2023 Birmingham city council went bankrupt. Many councils are feeling the same and the education and social services are expenses they can’t afford to keep. Something will break, but where and when I do not know. (6)
Private vs State schools
I am going to dive into this topic in greater detail at a later date, but here are some initial questions.
Without doubt private schools provide a much better opportunity than state schools on the whole. There are some brilliant state schools that provide clubs to their students every day of the week but competing against the sheer force of a private school with their facilities and specialised staff is not helpful.
Do you think there should be private and state schools? Are there other ways of organising education?
What I am trying to do about it
I think education should be accessible to all. Not free, but accessible. How do I do this? Rather than packaging up lessons which many services do, I have given the choice to parents. You pay what you can afford. Usually if you find something really valuable you pay for it. Money is just a measurement of value, and subjective. A price for a service for one family may seem more expensive or a bargain for others. Wanting your child to have the best chance at being confident in class, is there a price for that?
Have a look here on how I make education more accessible.
Ask me a question here or tell me what you think!
References
