Another Look at Education Part 1

By Francisco J. Colayco, Ph.D

Most parents assume that the best education is the most expensive one. Going to the higher tuition schools is almost always equated to high quality education. Graduating from such expensive institutions is taken as a guarantee for a good career and personal financial success. Indeed, education is an investment for one's own future.

But what if we were to look at education as strictly a financial investment decision? Though clearly, it is not all about money, determining the most appropriate type of education for our children boils down to affordability. Here is where the pitfall lies. Most of us will kill ourselves to give our children the most expensive education (at the expense of other just as pressing needs) we can afford. Why? This is because we have been conditioned to believe that the higher the investment in education, the higher the return. Worse, some of us may even believe society will judge our stature by where and what category of school our children go to. NOTHING COULD BE MORE IRRELEVANT TO OUR LIVES THAN THIS!

Purely on a return on investment perspective, we must evaluate the cost of formal schooling versus the lifetime cash return to the graduate. Presently, even graduates of the so-called high-end schools are having a hard time finding jobs. There is now clearly a large-scale mis-match between what our economy needs and what schools are turning out. We continue to send our children to take courses with no serious economic potential other than perhaps getting employed with a reasonable salary. Getting college degrees are no longer as imperative in securing gainful economic activity after graduation. Being creative and logical with a facility for communication seems to be the order of the day. Entrepreneurial education founded on liberal arts is, today, the key to personal economic success. Liberal arts teach us to how to think and assess, to define problems and arrive at solutions, to create and add value. More importantly, it develops a mindset that forms the seed of our intellectual capital, which for most of us, is our only true capital in this life.

If we accept this premise, securing “profitable” education need not be concentrated on formal schooling. We can then even have the option of combining formal and non-formal schooling at very low cost. Two-year communication arts courses augmented by practical vocational and small business training can reduce your educational investment by as much as 50%. Though your children may not initially have impressive degrees, they can nonetheless be awarded diplomas and/or certificates of a recognized educational attainment at their chosen time in the future. We should open our minds to the practical norm of taking more time in formal learning but getting more practical experience “on-the-job”. Such combination of formal and non-formal schooling would actually impart more real learning and develop a more serious entrepreneurial aptitude. The big advantage in this approach is that our children will be able to use their time with “hands-on” education. Learning could then really be not only profitable but also enjoyable and fun!