EDUCATION MAKES YOU UNDERSTAND ANOTHER....AND MAKES TOMORROW HAPPIER THAN TODAY....SO HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR EDUCATION?
Posted by Ashram News Reporter on January 12, 2006

 

Education:
How Much is it Worth, Really?
AN EMPLOYABLE UNIVERSITY DEGREE COST PAYS ITSELF IN LESS THAN A YEAR 

EDUCATION POLICY INSTITUTE, Canada: TORONTO, Ontario, July 7, 2005:

A report released today by the Educational Policy Institute (EPI) finds that children from lower-income families may not be attending university because of serious misperceptions about the cost and value of post-secondary education.

“Survey data shows that people from low-income backgrounds, on average, think that the costs of university outweigh the benefits,” said the report’s author and EPI Vice-President Alex Usher.

“Based on this, it is no surprise that we see such low participation rates among poorer youth – they are simply making rational decisions on the basis of bad information.”

The report, entitled A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing: How Perceptions of Costs and Benefits Affect Access to Education is the most recent publication in a series focusing on Canadian higher education.

Based on Canadian public opinion data, the study finds that substantial differences in perception exist between low-income and high-income individuals with respect to the costs and benefits of post-secondary education.

Using data from a survey commissioned by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 2003, this report finds that a year’s average university tuition cost ($3,749) is overestimated by Canadians in general ($4,989) and in particular by those from low-income backgrounds ($6,834).

Similarly, the average disparity in annual income between high school and university graduates ($27,191) is underestimated by Canadians ($5,337) and especially those from low-income families ($4,885).

EXAMPLE; It is thought by non-graduates that university graduates earn only about $5000 a year more than high school graduates. In reality based on 2001 census, university graduates earn an average of $61,000 Vs $34,000 a year income for high school graduates - a difference of $27,000 year or about $1 million in a 35-year working life.  

Effectively, the average Canadian underestimates the benefit of university education by a factor of five.

Many parents may not fully grasp the economic benefits of higher education but they nevertheless completely understand the social status benefits of a university education (e.g. working at a desk instead of factory).

“Poor information is not actually financial in nature – since no money changes hands – but is clearly an income-based, non-financial barrier that deserves serious attention,” said the author. “The policy implications of such mis-estimation of costs and benefits of education are relevant to all stakeholders concerned with equitable access to education.”

The full report is available in pdf format at:
www.educationalpolicy.org

 

PVAF EDUCATION PROGRAM
TO REMOVE POVERTY

THROUGH EDUCATION
GETS CONFIRMATION FROM SCHOLARS

PVAF started a world-wide education program to remove poverty through education in 1999 in the belief and confidence of success gained from the knowledge of vED which is SCIENCES OF CREATION AND LIFE....

"THAT KNOWLEDGE THROUGH EDUCATION
IS THE ONLY THING IN THIS UNIVERSE
THAT WILL REMOVE
DuKH (PAIN AND SUFFERING)
FROM LIFE DUE TO ALL LIFE BARRIERS INCLUDING POVERTY OF WEALTH."

The above vEDik  st`y (TRUTH) has been proved to be the TRUTH even in the present time we exist where knowledge of basic sciences is only about 500 years old....but this knowledge of basic sciences has evolved mankind to live progressively better every day in these following major life aspects:

  • Education of healty lifestyle with sciences which provides for better housing, schools, hospitals, transportation systems, information technology, appliances and gadgets used in every day life;

  • Education of better methods of food production with controlled water sources and pesticides which averts famines due to natural causes;

  • Education for better health with hygienic community systems such as piped treated water supply and sanitary sewerage disposal - many diseases causing epidemics such as cholera have been wiped out with this knowledge based system;

  • Education of nature works from our own human body to all parts of nature on which existence of human day to day survival depends on such as control and treatment of major diseases that causes epidemics, understanding of forces of nature which affects humanity adversely such as extreme heat and cold, weather, space-based phenomenon including effects of planets, stars, comets and the various energy forms that exist in space;

  • Education to the education scope is infinite.. presently humanity is still in infancy stage in search for knowledge but even in 500 years of science growth the average life span of humanity who live with the knowledge of sciences has improved from about 40 years to 75 years.

PVAF in its baby steps of establishing the long term Education Program To Remove Povery Through Education started with the community of origin of some of its founders and is now expanding from there. PVAF Gujraat Prajaapati Education Program will 7 produce university graduates by 2006 and will have another batch of about 10 students who will graduate by 2009. All these students are from families who have been suffering poverty for many generations not becomes the families are lazy. But just because the families have not been able to finance the education of their children because of lack of middle-class earning employment which is called poverty. And this poverty is only due to lack of education in theses families - education which could give them knowledge to have higher earning and higher lifestyle.

Please join the PVAF EDUCATION PROGRAM  by informing yourself through the reading of the two articles on this PVAF web site:

Just click on the yellow and blue hilite and you will reach the page on this PVAF web site
 

For those who wish to read the summary of the report A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing: How Perceptions of Costs and Benefits Affect Access to Education on this PVAF web site please click on the next line......



 Executive Summary Of The Report:
 A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing: How Perceptions of Costs and Benefits Affect Access to Education

This study introduces the concept of cost-barriers to education and the decision-making framework within which individuals determine whether or not to invest in post-secondary education, and explores Canadians’ perceptions of the costs and benefits of a university education.

The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold: to investigate the quality of the information available to Canadians and whether or not that information might affect rational decision-making in such a way as to be called a “barrier” to education in its own right.

Using data from a survey commissioned by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 2003, this report finds that substantial differences exist in Canadians’ perceptions of the returns to university education and that these differences are primarily income-related.

However, this barrier of poor information is not actually financial in nature, but can best be described as an income-based, non-financial barrier.

The report’s main findings include:

  • A year’s average university tuition cost ($3,749) is overestimated by Canadians in general ($4,989) and in particular those from low-income backgrounds ($6,834).
     
  • The average annual income differential between high school and university graduates ($27,191) is underestimated by Canadians in general ($5,337) and by low-income Canadians in particular ($4,885). • Similarly, the future value of a university education (taking into account tuition-costs, foregone income, interest, and potential earnings) is underestimated by Canadians in general and low income Canadians in particular.
     
  • When asked directly, 9 out of 10 Canadians agree that a university education is a worthwhile investment.
     
  • There is dissonance between the findings which suggest that Canadians may perceive the benefits of a university education as primarily non-financial.

The results show clearly that given limited and incorrect information, many Canadians –and those from low-come backgrounds in particular – are making rational choices which imply they do not view university education as being a “good investment.” The policy implications of such mis-estimating of costs and benefits of education are relevant to all stakeholders concerned with equitable access to education.

9 out of 10 Canadians agree that
a university education is a worthwhile investment
Still there is
The Disconnect Between
Stated Beliefs and Cost-Benefit Analyses:

The results above show clearly that given limited and incorrect information, many Canadians – and those from low-income backgrounds in particular – are making rational cost-benefit analyses which imply that they do not view university education as being “a good investment”.

And yet, when asked directly about education as an investment, a different perspective emerges.

The Ipsos-Reid Survey also asked respondents “In your opinion is the cost to a student of a university education a good long-term investment or not?”

Despite over-estimating tuition cost and vastly underestimating the financial benefit of a university degree, just over 9 out of 10 Canadians agree with the statement that a university education is a worthwhile investment.

There is very little variation by gender, age, income, or educational attainment. Quebeckers (94%) are slightly more likely to think that the cost of a university education is a good long-term investment than other Canadians do (88%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, university graduates (94%) are also more slightly likely to think that university education is a good long-term investment than are high school graduates (86%).

Clearly, the data indicate some dissonance in that a substantial number of Canadians believe both that the financial return on university degrees is negative and that university is a good individual investment.

How can this discrepancy be explained?

One possible answer is that Canadians are simply poor judges of what constitutes a “good investment”.

Another - perhaps more convincing - argument is that parents may not fully grasp the economic benefits of higher education but they nevertheless completely understand the social status benefits of a university education (e.g. working at a desk instead of factory).

As Wolf (2002) has noted, not knowing the specifics about educational choices does not prevent parents from making choices that are generally rational.


 

 Please click here to read the whole report.......



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