This modern and dynamic world is money oriented. Nothing comes for free these days and most of the products and services are so expensive that many people cannot afford them. Education is one of those services that are very expensive and society should provide it for free. About six percent of the children in the world are uneducated because their parents can not afford it, and their countries do not provide free education.
Some countries with highly developed economies and societies like Norway and Finland offer free education on all levels from primary to post-graduate studies. These countries do not charge education fees even for foreigners. Here education is free for all people no matter on the ethnicity, colour or social status.
In the past Sweden was also offering free education for everyone but now the laws has changed and foreigners must pay some fees if they want to finish their education there. Denmark provides universal free education based on a monthly grant. Greece and Brazil also provide free education for their citizens. In Greece education is completely free. In Brazil it’s provided by the Ministry of Education and it’s based on scholarships that the ministry offers for different levels of education, from graduate degrees to post-doctoral degrees. Argentina also provides free education for all levels for Argentinean nationals.
There are examples of countries that in the past also had free education. Countries like Germany, England and Australia offered free education, but the scene had changed by the end of the 20th century. In other countries in the world free education is mostly in the primary levels. For the higher levels free education is based on scholarships, but only for selected students that have shown great results in their studies.
Not all countries have changed their educational system backwards. Some countries like China, Sri Lanka, Libya and Cuba made some steps forward and upgraded the free education up to tertiary level. Many developing countries from the Balkan region like Macedonia, has also changed their educational system and now education is free end compulsory up to secondary education. In Albania primary education is also free and compulsory. Bulgaria has implemented compulsory education for children from 6-16 years old and the education is free up to secondary level. In these developing countries free education is offered by the state owned schools, but the boost of privately owned schools, universities and other forms of education institutions has grown rapidly in the past ten years. These private owned educational institutions are very expensive, although sometimes they offer free education in the form of scholarships for selected students. Education is the key for success and growth of every society and the governments in every country in the world should work and aim towards free education for all people.
