This essay requires a balmy investigation into the key words of the topic under discussion and economic terms. In economics, public good can be defined as a commodity that is no excludable and also non rival in the sense that a person cannot be excluded from its use and where its use by an individual does not reduce its availability to other people. Examples of public goods may include lighthouse, natural air, water, education and many others. Because of their nature of non -excludable and also non-rival public goods are subjected to excessive use resulting to what economists’ term as negative externalities. This may affect a portion of users or at times all users of the entire commodity.
Privatization refers to the process of transferring ownership of a property, enterprise or public service from the public sector to the private sector. For several years, government has been providing education services to its citizens for free. In this case, the government assumes the responsibility of providing these services which is termed as public goods. Because knowledge can grant the power for several things, it should not be limited to few rich people but should be free for everyone those who deserves it. What individual deserves should not be determined by wealth but by one’s capability and intelligence. Government has therefore, adopted the policy of providing free education as the public goods because it is the best simplest way of disseminating knowledge to all students who deserve it.
Many students have benefited through this program. Education is viewed as the only means through which one can get formal employment, hence ensuring enough food better life and shelter. Free public education would produce more educated people in the society leading to development in the society. Through employment and reduced struggle for essential needs, people are able concentrate on the higher aspects of life, like management of issues that affect the society as a whole. Therefore, free education has a very positive influence on the quality and thinking of the society.
Today many private, schools have been established in many regions. Therefore, it means that education that for many years have been provided by government for free is now being privatized. Now a day it is possible to exclude students who do not pay. It means that there is a positive externality to education that community term as public. This is because all benefits do not accrue to all students.
One problem of privatizing public school is that it increases inequality among learners. This is because private schools may not admit every learner in the school. The admit students on the bases of qualifications that are set by the school.
Another harm of privatizing public schools is that public schools lack social cohesion. This is because most private schools concentrate more on religion, or academic level hence creating less diversity for learners. For a long period if time, there has been an existing institutional bias on private schools. This bias prohibits schools from generating and accepting new ideas.
There are many potential dangers to children who attend private schools. There are some fears that separating them from their parents could damage them psychologically. Research shows that separating a child from their or her parents is not good for their development.
Private schools are quite expensive compare to public schools. This is because of the huge tuition fees that are paid in private schools. Despite of huge tuition fees that are paid by parents, teachers may not have valid certifications as they are not employed by merits. This may affect the learner negatively as he or she fail exams. Because private school chooses its own curriculum and employs their own teachers without control of the government, parents are added extra responsibility of approving the processes of selection. Private schools also seem to discriminate against children from poor backgrounds who cannot afford tuition fees.
Although there are many drawbacks associated with privatization, government should not dwell too much on public sector. It should privatize public sectors that are not doing well. Since every person is entitled to enjoy the public goods freely, it is obvious that it faces the free-rider problems or the tragedy of the commons. This may lead to under production or even under utilization of the commodity. Public goods may also be subjected to restrictions on access and may then be considered to be private goods.
If privatization of public sector conflicts with the equity goal, state involvement would be attractive. It is important that state involvement be increased in the private sector institutions so as to enhance the share to the deprived sections and facilitate human resources development in order to keep pace with the emerging necessities. It is important to ensure that a change is attempted without making any change. Only by this that public sector will be improved and move in the desired direction. The public sector is hindered by lack of funds and cannot meet the requirements of the industry and other sectors in the entire economy. Therefore, private sectors should be initiated in the programmes of training manpower in order to take advantage of high technological opportunities.