Education being the backbone of a nation is a vivid indicator of development. I partially agree with the view that education, in particular the primary level of education should be free for everyone.

To begin with, it is a natural human tendency that anything which is made free, declines in its value. Same can be the case with education also. The reason higher education is viewed with so much of respect is that there is an immense effort which goes into acquiring it. If it was otherwise, a lot of students would not put their mind & soul into it. Furthermore, making higher education free would even lower the motivation level of professors & faculties, thereby lowering the overall quality of education. Consequently, there are chances that the failure percentage may increase in case education is made free as the student would not have to bear the burden of fees anymore.
There are various ways in which the avenues of education can be widely opened & access made easy to every section & strata of people such as providing easy education loans with reduced rate of interest, introducing various effective scholarship policies to the meritorious students at the school level, maximum funding to colleges & universities. For example, the already existing Swami Vivekanand scholarship for the single girl child, for students from socially & economically backward communities has enabled India to progress in the field of education & research. To substantiate further, it has been reported that the number of school drop-outs has reduced from 25 millions in 2003 to 8.1million in 2009.

To conclude with, primary education should be made free but higher education should be made more accessible & not completely free .

Important Vocabulary and Phrases:

• backbone of a nation
• vivid indicator
• immense
• meritorious