Case Study: Hidden costs in education

As “Education, we have a problem!”, the OBESSU campaign on social inclusion, looked at hidden costs in education (among other topics), OBESSU decided to conduct a case study on exactly this to show how hidden costs affect school students’ access to quality education in European countries.

 What are hidden costs?

OBESSU believes education should always be free and no school student should ever be denied education due to his/her socio-economic background. Every European school student should have the same, equal access to quality education. Hidden costs in education is a problem since costs that are not outspoken and clear cannot be measured and tackled in the same way as for instance tuition fees. Because of the nature of hidden costs it is also harder to directly say how much school students are affected by hidden costs. Hidden costs exist when school students have to pay for school material, books, transport and different extra courses and activities that contribute to the learning.

The case study

The case study was done with a questionnaire that was sent to school students in the following countries; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. In total, 162 answered the questionnaire.

The second stage was conducted at the OBESSU Training Course for International Officers (TCIO) in Brussels, Belgium in December 2013.  On the evening of December 9th, research corners were introduced, at which participants could share their views and provide their inputs on the topic of this report through participatory methods.

 The case study resulted in a few interesting conclusions:

• School students and their parents bear the biggest burden of hidden costs in education.
• The consequences of hidden costs in education may exclude school students from education, which is a violation of their rights.
• School students feel that they are not given adequate opportunities to be a part of the policy planning and the implementation of policies regarding their education.
• Lack of opportunities to play a role in policy planning and implementation is a violation of school students’ right to participation.

Hidden costs in education, which may go beyond what the school student can afford, goes against school students’ rights to education and participation. Education should be accessible to everyone and no school student should ever be denied education. This shows that the work OBESSU and its members are doing to guarantee everyone the same equal access to education is important and needed, and that the voice of school students needs to be heard in education. OBESSU encourages all our members and friends to read the case study and use it in their work!

You can read the case study online on our ISSUU.