Education is one of the most important investments in life someone could make. Spend the time now to learn a bunch of things, and then four years later, you will be enlightened, with a lot more knowledge, skills, and wisdom. Likewise, literacy has been promoted as empowering and liberating. As a part of the grand picture of education, literacy encapsulates not just reading and writing. But, it’s a path to a better understanding of the world. However, not every living person right now would agree with these statements.
Let’s be a bit more realistic and less utopian here. On the surface level, knowledge doesn’t seem to control the world. It’s money and political power that get you what you want, whether with benevolent means or otherwise. Sometimes, even the law will bend to you, kneeling like an enslaved man, if you tell the “right” words and bribe the “right” person.
Additionally, being well-educated and highly literate doesn’t guarantee a successful life. Especially, with how common bachelor’s degrees are nowadays. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. The supply of young, with blank CVs university graduates, is endless, while job openings become scarcer. To add salt to the wound, entry-level jobs now often require three to five years of experience, while college usually takes around four years when students have to take internships, classes, projects, and of course, do their thesis.
Companies hire people based on their experience and what they can give to them. So, does your degree serve as anything besides a badge of honor? Everyone says the 9 to 5 hustle and the job market are the real world, does that make all your struggles in college a mere fever dream? Well, these questions probably live rent-free inside the heads of many college students and people who are considering enrolling in college. So how did it come to be like this?
High Cost But Zero Guarantee of Reward
First, the most blatant issue of any university is the cost. Just at the beginning of this year, one of the most prestigious campuses in Indonesia received a backlash on how they charge their students. Yes, they told the students to use an online loan service to pay tuition. Not only does it come across as bad taste, but it also seems like a downright extortion. And this country dares to keep “enlightening its people” as one of its national goals.
In the US, the issue of student loans, and the high cost of university has deprived many of financial freedom. In fact, for the last forty years, American students have been draining their pockets deeper and deeper as the cost keeps increasing, and it seems there is no stopping inflation. Unfortunately, as if they turn a blind eye to this problem, our universities in Indonesia are showing a similar trend towards sky-high college tuition prices.
What’s so funny about this whole debacle is you won’t get into trouble for simply complaining about how costly college is in the US. However, an Indonesian university student managed to get himself reported to the police for this exact reason. And, the one who reported him, was the headmaster of the university! It seems we, Indonesians, have more expertise in being authoritarian. Step it up, Americans!
Still, all this soaring tuition, and the “no-complaining” attitude from the people who have the power to alter this situation reflect their true colors. So, in this day and age, we need to ask ourselves if it’s still worth it to go to college. Especially, seeing how the common problems for the younger generation nowadays are tied to financial themes.
Survival Is The Main Theme of The Young
Inflation, the cruel job market, rising housing prices, and many more, maybe we’re all too familiar with these topics by now. And now, we must face another rising price of yet another need, like education. Who got the time to go to class when people and their families are jobless and on the brink of poverty? Does going to university solve those financial problems? Not exactly.
“If you’re poor, then just get a job.” “Young people are so lazy these days.” These sentences are making a comeback nowadays. Millennials endured it around a decade ago, and now it’s Gen Z’s turn. Seems we are going nowhere with this attitude, aren’t we?
Not every working environment is a healthy one. Especially, the one which implements hustle culture to the extreme. Hustle culture has been gaining popularity, and it’s starting to show its real downside. Yes, working more hours brings you more money. However, higher education is becoming less accessible, and the requirements for jobs are becoming more and more astronomical. Of course, people start questioning whether those with political power want us to keep working, yet still poor, gullible, and easily manipulated.
Creating artificial scarcity in education by ramping up its price should be a crime. When a nation has a large population of uneducated and illiterate youth, it doesn’t take nuclear warfare to destroy it. It’s a saddening situation when even the so-called number one country in the world also suffers from this problem.
The US’s youngsters are now struggling in this economy, and it seems it’s the same for us in Indonesia. We’ve heard about the terrible student loan situation in the US, and hey! One of our biggest universities just recommended going into debt to pay tuition. How wonderful!
Baca Juga: Are We in an Urge to Live a Hustle Culture?
Why Should We Pursue Higher Education?
Alright, at this point, the general notion of this post might come off as anti-university. The same impression when we got told, “Why bother going to uni when you can work and earn as much or even more?” However, that’s not the case. Education and literacy are among the most important aspects of life. Without education, the young generation will fall apart. Without literacy, we stay ignorant.
Hence, despite the costly financial drain higher education will put you through, if you have the means, then why not? However, there are some points to consider before enrolling in this pursuit of knowledge.
First, can you afford to go to college? Whether you like it or not, the reality is that higher education is becoming more and more expensive. Nowadays, having a degree is not something special, since almost every single person has one (and, most jobs also require one). Hence, it’s not viable to spend a lot of money for a degree, and then hope there’s a big jackpot waiting for you. Sounds like gambling, doesn’t it?
Second, are you passionate about what you’re about to study? There’s nothing that will make you feel emptier than to study a subject that doesn’t intrigue you one bit.
The number one beneficiary of your study should be you and your passion, not your financial gain, and certainly not your social status. If anything, studying based on passion is a testament to how highly you appreciate your chosen subject. Truly, it’s a rare reason, but it should be more common.
Literacy Is, And Always Be, A Big Deal In Life
Being well-read and highly literate are privileges in life, in a way. It’s why we should never stop reading. It doesn’t matter if it’s fictional books, a completely unrelated subject that piques your interest, or a random book a stranger recommended. Sometimes, there is knowledge that will carry our lives more than the stuff we learn in an established institution. Besides, financial literacy might be the number one thing everybody should work on, considering the current economic circumstances.
Aside from that, reading fictional stories is also beneficial for our lives in general. Through creatively made tales, not only do we learn how to appreciate well-crafted stories, but we also learn to empathize with the characters. It’s one of the biggest reasons we enjoy movies, series, and other fictional works. Neglecting our need to enjoy some good fiction means we deliberately kill our ability to appreciate stories and numb our imagination, slowly but surely.
So, despite the depressing economy and the rat race we have to endure each day, go ahead and pursue your love for knowledge. Go ahead and read as many literary works as you can read. As the younger generation, we shouldn’t let the gloom of reality swallow our fascination with the wisdom and imagination the world has to offer.