| Higher education is expense: |
| Higher education has become very expensive these days. Right from the pre-primary to post-graduation, education is becoming highly professional and sophisticated. The era of government funded high schools and colleges is over and such institutions are now slowly disappearing. As a result, the parents in the middle class and the upper middle class families find it very difficult to provide a professional education such as medicine or engineering to their children. Even if the student is very intelligent and achieving high ranks, however, as the cost of education in the form of tuition fee, books, stationary, living expenses in hostels and miscellaneous expenses have sky-rocketed, it has become a distant dream for a person with an average income, to provide a higher education for his or her children. As a result, in absence of proper financial planning and securing scholarships, a bright student may have to compromise in education. This is not a matter of getting tensed or frustrated but it is a matter of being alert and well prepared so that the student can pursue an education of choice and liking. |
| A brief understanding regarding educational expenses |
| The self governed schools offering education up to Std. 10th and not depending on the government grants are already very expensive. The same situation persists in Std. 11th and Std. 12th. Amongst this, the education is science stream is even more expensive. There are a lot of expenses involved in coaching classes for Std. 12th science as well as the entrance examinations for the various professional degree courses available after Std. 12th science. After securing admission in medical, dental, engineering, pharmacy, para-medical courses etc, additional expense of hostel facility, food, stationary, transportation, communication etc also incur and at the same time the tuition fee keeps on increasing. If a student is able to secure admission in a local college, some money can be saved on hostel or food bills but the other expenses cannot be avoided. The education expense varies from course to course and from college to college. For example, the average fees charged by the medical and engineering colleges in Gujarat are as follows: 1. Medical – Rs 2.15 lakhs, 2. Ayurvedic College – Rs 1.04 lakhs, 3. Homeopathy College – Rs 32,000/-, 4. Physiotherapy College – Rs 50,000/-, 5. Nursing- Rs 45000/-, 6. Optometry (Eye) College – 40000/-, 7. Engineering – Rs 37000/-. The additional expenses differ as per the factors discussed above. The living expense, food expense and miscellaneous expenses differ as per the status of the college and it may vary from Rs 5000/- to Rs 15000/-. Nowadays colleges are providing packages for the education. Then there are also hidden expenses in form of donation and payments. Hence it isn’t possible to decide the exact budget for any education. Therefore it is very important for every parent to make his or her own budget for the educational expenses of his or her child. So far we have only discussed the expenses involved for graduation. We haven’t discussed the expenses that may involve in post graduation courses. The expenses that are going to incur for post graduation require even a higher calculation. The same expensive situation prevails in the M.C.A degree course also. |