CHARLES OKEAHALAM: University fees crisis can be attended to by improving school-level education
The desire to have something is different from the right. Many protesting students have a desire, but not a right, to free education. I say "many" because means testing will confirm that some have a right to at least very highly subsidised education. This is, of course, different from the philosophical and political argument for free education, which is not strongly related to economic logic. Nothing is free. The quarrel on fees is a symptom of ill-considered education policy. There are now a lot of negative externalities in the education system. Some of these need to be rectified if the situation is to be tackled appropriately. The education system is not efficient. Universities are production systems and therefore need to be run efficiently. In a globally competitive world with scarce resources, this efficiency becomes ever more important. At a road show in Singapore two weeks ago, someone said to me: "Ah, so Africa — the continent with the least educated people, least resources, ...
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