Report: Evaluating Free Education Policies and Impacts in Britain

This report explores the concept of free education in Britain, examining its potential economic impacts and societal benefits. It delves into the UK's education system, considering arguments for and against government-provided free education, including impacts on equality, debt burden, innovation, and the need for vocational skills. The report references various authors' perspectives, highlighting the importance of balancing higher education with vocational training to ensure a skilled workforce and a robust economy. It concludes that while free education can enhance productivity and living standards, the government must carefully consider both the advantages and disadvantages to improve the overall education system and economic well-being of the country. Desklib provides this assignment solution and many more resources for students.

Britain government providing free
Education to its Citizens

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Education and its influence on economy:...................................................................................3
UK's education system:...............................................................................................................3
Arguments which favours the opening of free educational schools and institutions:.................4
There are arguments that goes against free university education such as: .................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References :......................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
This report focuses on Britain government providing free educational facilities to its
citizens. In this, arguments of various authors are taken into consideration to reach out to the
valid conclusion. Moreover, this highlights on how these steps of government would be helpful
to serve the society. Besides this, various educational policies are considered such as free
schools, private and independent schools, compulsory education for citizens its starting and
leaving age and various other policies with regards to education.
Education and its influence on economy:
Education is the process of transferring knowledge to others and receiving knowledge
from others. It is the knowledge received through schools or universities with the objective of
attaining skills, values, morals for the purpose of personal development. When it comes to UK it
doesn't offer free education to its citizens except Scotland. Education has positive influence on
the entire economy if it it left to market forces then whole economy would suffer due to lack of
skilled graduates. (Gardner, 2018) So, government should provide free educational facilities to
its citizens as it comes with numerous benefits such as :
1. It enhances self esteem and confidence of individual because it will give them learnings
to deal with various societal issues.
2. It will improve the understanding of political concerns. They would start taking part
actively in communal activities, get deeper understanding of laws and legislations of the
country, trade union rights and powers and others.
3. There are various social benefits which comes with acquiring knowledge such as it will
improve understanding about family planning, health care, reduce the crimes and
violence in any of the cases and so on.
UK's education system:
UK's education is overseen by united kingdom's department of education, as it follows
tradition of independent schools which are also known as public schools. There exist a culture of
home education where parents may choose to educate their children by permitted means.
Moreover, education system of UK follows certain process based upon age for instance, primary

education is given at the age of five to ten, secondary education is given at eleven to fifteen and
at the last, tertiary education begins at the age of eighteen and ends nowhere. (Hookway, 2017)
Arguments which favours the opening of free educational schools and institutions:
There are many authors who has come up with their justifications why government
should provide free education to its citizens. There are numerous benefits such as:
 Equality of getting education : UK government can take steps to provide free education
to everyone. It would allow everyone to take benefits of free knowledge. This will help to
upgrade nation as most of the generation is skilled and would be able to survive in case of
uncertainties.
 Avoid any kind of debt burden : Free education will allow youngsters to avoid taking
loans for higher education purposes. Moreover, this will encourage them to learn as there
will be no burden on their shoulder to make any payments for learning. This will boost
their morale and enthusiasm to use their knowledge in real situations and take
experiences.
 Increases innovation and productivity : There are other positive factors of offering free
education as it would contribute educated and productive workforce. Countries with high
level of education would led to innovation and improve the productivity due to skilled
workforce.
 Increased the specialization of work areas : with the rapid development of countries in
all sectors it becomes essential to make continuous improvements in industries such as
organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear technology and others. Therefore, innovation
in all these areas requires skilled workforce which would be possible only by offering
equal chances to each and everyone to show their abilities and capabilities. This will
ultimately boost the reputation of country in front of all nations and would help it to stand
apart.

 Increase in the living cost : as in modern era, cost of living has gone high. And it
becomes really challenging to bear house and rent expenses . This ultimately depicts
youngsters are facing all these difficulties to meet their survival needs, this forces them to
work at early age. Well offering these free tuition facilities will restore their confidence
to learn and improve their standard of living.
 Societal benefits of education: It is has been persistently seen how skilled generation of
nation is raising the income of country. Not only this, education brings standards and
mannerism to deal with society. It will encourage individual participation in community
activities, trade union and other local political issues. Furthermore, it will improve the
ability to mix up with others cultures and understand concerns of everyone.
There are arguments that goes against free university education such as:
 Opportunity cost : It refers to cost which is left due to its spending on other activities. If
UK government only focuses on spending on higher education then there will be no funds
left for other departments. As per the prevailing situations, it has been found that UK has
shortage of basic vocational skills. If everyone would get higher education then would
aim to reach at higher levels which will ultimately put country to resolve all basic issues
in industries like health case, building construction and others.(Kogan, 2018)
 Need for more vocational skills : As in recent decades there has been rapid rise in
number of graduates or many of them are doing jobs which doesn't require any degrees.
Therefore, its a mistake to do funding in universities for educational purpose because
country is in demand of vocational skills.
 Higher quality of education : Due to rapid rise in growth of economy it pressurizes
countries to arrange resources to carry out the operations of universities. In case, if
government would not be able to make sufficient funds then it will negatively impact the
quality and reputation of university. As they would not be able to maintain high standards

or provide quality teaching due to lack of funding. So, it becomes relevant for universities
to charge for education to maintain its high standards across globe.
 Charging fees urges them to take learnings seriously : If people have to go to university
to acquire knowledge and they pay for it, it will ultimately create worth of it. If it would
have been free, they would have taken it unworthy.(Wall, 2017)
So, as per the above arguments stating whether free education should be provided or not
has reflected arguments of various authors. It gives crystal clear picture of what all steps should
government take in order to improve the living standard of people.
Conclusion
With respect to above report, it has been concluded that government should take some
steps to improve the education system of the country. This can be done by offering them free
online sessions, workshops and classes which will ultimately improve the productivity and
revenue making capacity of the country. so. Government has to take all the required steps after
taking into consideration all the pros and cons of allowing free education. This report also
highlights the concerns of various authors to balance the economy by equally emphasising
vocational skills.

References :
Books and Journals:
Gardner, P., 2018. The Lost Elementary Schools of Victorian England: The People’s Education.
Routledge.
Hookway, H. T., 2017. National library planning in Britain (pp. 43-50). KG Saur.
Kogan, M., 2018. Educational policy-making: A study of interest groups and parliament.
Routledge.
Maduro, W. E., 2018. Leading Assumptions. In Caribbean Achievement in Britain (pp. 3-23).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Wall, C., 2017, February. Standardization on Site: skill and the construction process in mid-
twentieth century Britain. In Standard Architecture Symposium.