There should be lower fees on education to ensure we have a more educated work force?

On average, everyone agrees with nonconsensus between 438 voters.

Reasons To Disagree

Education isn't free, it costs money; to say fees should be lower just means a greater proportion of the cost should be borne by taxpayers and a lesser share by those receiving the education. Taxpayers already meet the vast majority of the costs as it is.

When will we see this great educated work force. Sick of hearing about over the past 6 years and not seeing a lot for it. Education is not free - never has been free. It always costs someone money and I think it is about time the tax payers in this country stopped paying for the "wish list" of this Great Educated work force we keep hearing about. I know students & graduates who don't even know what an automatic payment is or how to set one up.

Education is a privilige, not a right. If it has no value, it tends to not be respected. Fees are one way of focussing people on the value aspect of education

Quantity rarely is a good replacement for quality. I would be happy to support more funding for less students

I think our education is subsidised high enough by the tax payer. My degree makes me worth more in the long run so why shouldnt I pay for some of that. I think if education was free we would have even more people abusing the system and doing qualifications they dont use or need. What a waste then of educators time and resources.

Lowering fees will not result in a BETTER (more is meaningless) educated population. (I strongly object to the term "work force" - we are not ants!) I believe that anything which the individual has to pay for is better valued and used than freebies. Let the student be aware of the full cost of his education - and assist him according to his merits (that is potential and industry.)

The funding and provision of quality education in this country is embarrasing. over 3 times the coal face cost - keep the costs high, let it be valued for what it is.

NO they shouldnt lower the fees because sometimes the parent/s dont keep a eye on their child and they could skip school and all the parents know they could think that their at school.

no. there are some amazing schools in this country that would lose funding

An educated workforce is pointless, do people need university degrees to mop floors? No? Then people should stop acting like education is an economic good regardless of anything else.

Reasons To Agree

Education should be FREE at all levels. Education isn't just my free ticket to a good job (which is not ensured anyway). Educated people benefit the WHOLE country. It is perhaps the one single thing the govt. can do to improve the quality of our business, art, research, culture, communication. It raises the bar for ALL of us. Take your blinkers off. NZ has a TINY population of 4 million people who live in one of the most inaccessible corners of the world. What do we have to offer the world? How are we to compete in the ever cheapening world market? Quality has to be our niche.

I agree education should be free at all levels as a fundamental right. School fees are too high for some of us. I have studied most of my working life and now after bringing up children I am so far behind I cannot go back to what I was doing without retraining. Since I no longer have time for a demanding career any longer (children) I want to do a thorough job between 9-3 (with school hols)but cannot find this job. I am a single parent with a mortgage and an education over 20 years work experience wanting to work parttime around my 6 year old. I am too qualified to do an unskilled job (unskilled work does not enable me to get off a benfit) and it is my experience no one wants a worker during school hours only that isn't super trained (no obligation from employer to upskill the new worker but also this employee is welcome to work less hours if they can fit a 40-50hour week into part time hours. If one looks at the jobs on offer employers want the most trained / skilled to work long hours including some weekend hours, have no time off to care for and educate my children in holidays, they pay minimum money and if one has a mortgage one does not wish further debt with student loans etc etc and employers do not wish to give on the job training as we're supposed to be trained at our expense - Get real employers there are good employees out there (Mothers returning to work) who are willing to learn specifics on the job but work parttime. When will employers realise they have to look outside the square - maybe job sharing, maybe work from home so that the job requirements are met but working around a Mothers commitents - a win win situation!

eduaction should be free, my main problem is the student allowances, why does it have to go on parents income? My parents own a farm which we have only just bought, we are miles in debt and alothough the income is high we as a family dont even see it so why would i even dream of seeing any of that money to help me with my studying. its not the way to go we should have full time help from the govenment at all times during study

i am a working hard student who goes to college. i agree that the fees should be lowered because they are expecting us young ones to get educated and pay money for our fees and school uniform which is if they want us to get educated they should pay for it for us

Fee's shoud be scrapped all together. Hurting people financially because they want to be clever is a very unclever strategy. We are losing skilled people off shore to pay for their fees. 18000 in 2007 went off shore, our population is stagnant and needs growth. Ozy has grown by 7000,000 in 12 years and have become the cleverer country offering tax breaks to graduates etc. We are so dumb.

Some families can not afford to pay for their child to be educated.

Correct parenting will insure a more educated work force

We are being crippled by our student loans before we even get our feet threw the door...then once we get a job our interest stops us from ever being able to pay it off, i tryed to work my but off and pay it off and ended up in more debt!

OMG It should be free!!

Starting off in a poor family is a disadvantage especially when your child has to miss out on genuine education because you cant provide it, the government wonder why there are so many people on the benefit well they need to put more money into education for all children who actually want to learn as children do it's not until children realize that restrictions such as MONEY can stop them from doing what they want i mean come on that sets our children off to a very sad start they are taught to choose and do what is do-able and affordable they have boundaries set before they even get a chance to start life all because of MONEY, instead of giving the benefit of financial support to those who weren't supported through their education it's given to those who no longer are in education. How can the government understand being less fortunate when our prime minister has been given the financial support through his education, less financial support in education less educated people working..

I understand not everything can be free teachers still need to be paid , rent & power needs to be paid but especially primary & intermediate I don't think there should be any school fees or uniform just buy the stationary & books . At high school there should be a minimal fee and then a small fee for each class you take which requires extra materials such as cooking , photography , art . At a polytechnic I think you definetly shouldn't have to rack up a huge student loan like $3000 or less for the fees of the course plus stationary & books , at a university maybe $5000-$6000 fees for a course plus stationary & books - just lower the costs