Cost Effective Education

In Third World countries like the Philippines where progress depends largely on the
collective intellectual well-being of the people manning its movements, considerable resources
must be allocated to ensuring that policies and guidelines are in place to provide these people
the forerunners of the developmental frontiers with enough knowledge and competence to
function according to the demands of the changing fortunes of time. It should not therefore strike
anyone as surprising if in the Philippines, particular attention is given to the provision of
accessible education to its constituents. The Education for All (EFA) Act is among the many
programs resorted to as a means of providing free basic education for everyone and ultimately
meet the academic needs of the Filipino learner in preparation for an optional functioning in the
fields where they will later delve into.
However, cost-effectiveness in education goes far beyond providing free basic education.
It should encompass means and measures that are to be undertaken in order that education is not
seen as a financial threat or burden by families particularly those who are on the brink of poverty
line and the marginalized sector.
Glocalize. This is a newly coined term which is a combination of globalize and localize.
The education sector must not just allow but rather encourage and ensure that in the course of
instructional delivery, teachers are able to innovate locally available methods of delivery to
achieve globally competitive results. After all, the pencil that Einstein used in drafting the
various scientific postulates attributed to him is the same pencil that the Filipino in the barrio is
using. Well, they may be made of different materials but they do the same thing. The point here
is that if locally available resources can achieve results similar to what expensive resources can
achieve, then it would be capricious to demand that the latter be provided if only to provide
quality education.
This glocalization, however, entails that the teachers delivering the instruction have
adequate intuitive and innovative capacities to glocalize. And this requires the education sector
of the government to rigorously evaluate the performances of these teachers so that those
teachers who are not so keen on this innovation are given opportunities for enhancements
through trainings and workshops.
Optimize the allocation of resources. Notwithstanding that among the various
predicaments that confronted and still confronts the Philippine society is poverty and considering

that this poverty ultimately results to insufficient funding of the various government sectors, the
education sector included, then the Department of Education (DepEd) being the department who
regulates the educational system must conduct micro-evaluations and thorough analysis of needs
beginning from the grassroots the individual schools so that specific needs of these schools
are identified and properly addressed. Perhaps, not immediately, but having identified the various
needs will give the DepEd an outlook as to which needs are most urgent and which are readily
remediable. This way, the phenomena of scarcity and oversupply is eliminated.
Making education cost-effective is relevant to the aim of readying the youth the
footholds of national success for a better performance of their impending task.

Cost-effectiveness in higher education, for some, is just a dream. This is due to the fact
that the government has not been allocating more than enough budget to support the needs of the
government-run state colleges and universities in the Philippines. This scenario puts most
government-run state colleges and universities to look for alternative solutions which may elicit
equal results to that of resources unavailable in the community. These schools are trying to
maximize available resources to achieve optimum results which are parallel to the mission,
vision, goals, and objectives of the institution.
Quality education must not be compromised because of the cost it entails. Having quality
education does not mean spending much money. People conceptualize quality education as
someone who graduated in a Level IV accredited university as the likes of University of the
Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo De Manila University, La Salle University, and
others. And those who graduated from universities in the provinces are considered to have less
quality of learning.
While it is true that there is a significant relationship between the use of resources in the
delivery of instruction and the academic performance of the students, cost-effectiveness of
education is in contrast to this research. Students have innate abilities which are only reinforced
with use of resources which at times are costly and put students to resort to whatever is at hand.
Most conceptions about internet-based learning are costly. So, when people are asked to
give example of cost effective education, most of their answers do not mention distance
education or distance learning, or online education or e-learning because in their minds, how can
distance learning or e-learning provide quality education without spending much money. How
can distance education or online education not costly which in fact it made use of internet and
other technologies like computers, laptops?

So in that circumstance, the question on whether or not distance learning or e-learning

can be an alternative solution to cost effective education remains questionable for some. Lets see
how alternative learning system like online education can also be cost effective.
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How many times do you have to go to school?

How much money is spent in transportation, to and fro?
How much money is spent in having snacks during breaks?
How much is spent when unexpected project arises?
How much money is spent when there are contributions asked by the instructors?

A lot of questions come in mind when we actually think of every details of having formal
schooling? Little did we know that online learning has its advantages and benefits when it comes
to lessening spent money.
Lets try to see the details on what is paid in having online learning.
1. You dont go to school.
2. You just surf the net once in a while.
3. You dont buy your snacks. You just go to the fridge and grab whatever is there for
snacks.
4. You dont give unexpected contributions or projects.

Come to think of it. Practically speaking, the less money you spent if you go online
education than attending a formal education. So, its up to you to decide.