Making Money Through Students
We are prisoners to the sunk costs of what we were promised by education
Small bro and siz, twins, are about to join college.
My mother was quick to share with us the course decision after the selection was done and the campuses they should be joining. All was well until they shared the fee structure.
I had to sit up from my reclined position.
A year’s worth of fees was ten times what I paid, and I did not clear campus that long ago. That’s only the fees. We had not factored in the other usual basic expenses. Plus, a campus student needs to act like one. Basic expenses don’t quite cover the cost of being a normal campus student.
The moment I saw it, I pictured slavery. Well, not completely slavery, but something similar. I’m working on another article, which I’ll share soon. For now, I’d like to stretch out the manipulation I envisioned happening behind the curtains of governmental decisions.
Value for the degrees has declined faster than the inflation rate. As the world gets more automated, AI continues to replace entry-level jobs. Why then pursue a degree? I asked myself.
Naval advised his millions of followers to do two things: code and write. AI has already invaded the coding space. It is also gradually taking over writing, although the writing is neither appealing nor memorable. One’s value is now pegged on being different.
What then is the point of hiking the tuition fees if the value of college education is extremely eroded?
These are what Seth Godin calls sunk costs.
Economics cautions against the anchoring effects of sunk costs. Once you have already bought a ticket for an event, the investment pushes you to attend, despite rational explanations that point otherwise.
Godin, however, views sunk costs as a gift to us from our past selves. He writes:
Part of what it means to be a creative artist is to dive willingly into work that might not work. And the other part, the part that’s just as important, is to openly admit when you’ve gone the wrong direction, and eagerly walk away, even (especially) when it’s personal.
Yes, we have to have faith in our ability. Faith lets us do our best work. But successful artists sally forth knowing that abandoning our darlings is part of the deal.
We need to view education in the same light. We invested heavily in it, but it’s about time we give it a proper send-off and move on. Principally because it does not create the geniuses we want, but mostly because it creates a minting factory.
Student loans are a safe bet
After seeing the fee structure for my small sister and brother, I imagined I would have to sacrifice for yet another four years. I asked myself if it would be worth it to hold a paper whose weight in importance continues to decline.
I even contemplated suggesting to my elder siblings that we take the money and start a business for them. Despite the bushy beard, I am still thought of as a small boy back home. My ideas may not take off.
The discussions revolved around taking a loan. I hate loans. I detest loans. I loathe loans.
Loans are also the healthiest way for the government to make money from a population starved of dreams. Here’s the winning formula.
Create a curriculum where nobody is allowed to repeat a class. Everybody progresses to the next level. Teachers, by this standard, are not passionate about teaching the large number of students clogging underdeveloped classrooms.
Students flock to campuses by the droves. But, before they can sit for any exams, they have to pay for their fees. Hike the fees, and offer them a loan, which guarantees them the ‘key to success’, AKA education. They have been told ever since they were young that education is the key to success.
Once they have completed their degrees and their families attend their graduation ceremony, the pressure to seek employment begins. The lending institution starts to charge interest on its loans. Employment rates are not as high because the people who took them to school are still going to work. Work has not grown to match the matriculation rate of students and graduands.
Meanwhile, school teaches compliance, not disruption. The products of education seek employment, not job creation. The frustration builds as they are promised a heaven that eludes them the moment they are given the powers to read.
Student loans are the safest investment the government can make. They then ensure that before you leave the country, you have a certificate confirming that you have cleared your student loans. Practically, it means you will never leave the country. You slave for years, paying the debt, with rising tiers of responsibility every decade.
As in ancient Rome, gladiators had the chance to buy their freedom. Few do. As history shows us, the victors grace the hallowed walls. The rest die in the crevices.
Nairobi is like a big colosseum. Every adult is out for blood. Nyashinski confesses as much in his latest song, Tai Chi. But he has been rapping about it for a while now, and his satirical advice?
Utazoea.
He also emphasizes:
Naieleta tu [raw] vile inafaa kutoka
Ni wapi unajua degrees zinaguarantee kupata job?
Ni maybe kaa unajuana
So kwa matembe na marijuana
Utapata vijana
Na hivyo ndio kuko jo
Out of frustration, a getaway is built through drugs. A society crying in silence from the pain is a society that disparately craves absolution. Drugs are an easy option. Human brains are evolved for budgeting, not rationalizing. Why not pass that blunt?
It’s no wonder we report rising cases of opioid dependency. There are other reasons, such as discounting the benefits of sustained training of the body and mind in a world controlled by dopamine-guided economists.
Loans given to students are a safe bet the government can make and still have money. Loans to start-ups are not as convenient. VC funds know how the money goes. It sinks into almost all the promising start-ups, but they believe they will strike a unicorn in one of them, paying up for more than their losses.
Governments such as ours would rather not take that risk. Let’s riddle the growing population in debt. That way, everyone pays the pauper.
In his song, Bien decries the education system, which praises the performing student, who eventually ends up frustrated:
Lord, I don’t wanna be an A student
Working for the B student
Kwa company ya C student
In the land of the D student
Oh mamma na ma-E student
Huku nje wanatesa na ma-Benz
Indeed, utazoea. That’s what the government tells us.
The alternative option
I contrast this model of upbringing with that of the past.
They never had schools. Rather, they had apprenticeships and tutoring. The claims have always been that tutoring cannot be scaled, but I don’t believe it. It does not defy the laws of physics, so it is possible. We are just not sufficiently incentivized to do it.
What’s more, Western culture has glorified the scaling of projects that ideas lacking this ability would hardly receive funding. The Medici Families are long gone. But I don’t think we need everyone to be a Leonardo for society to thrive. Unfair glory apportioned to a select few can benefit the rest. We can achieve such greatness.
I pictured how this is possible in the medical field, which runs with the principle of see one, do one, teach one. Let’s take a new medical school, starting from scratch.
After matriculation of the first-year students to the following year, they are paired with at least a single student coming after them. This pairing system can be strict to ensure every senior student has a tutor or mentor.
In Strathmore, a class always has 40 students. No more. In that regard, every senior class can have a mentee or tutee a year behind them. The relationship is mutually beneficial, as all one-on-one relationships have shown.
What’s more, it is a recipe for creating geniuses. Once we have a cohort paired to teach the ones behind them, and give them attention for their interests and questions, then education can fade as fast as it started. What began as a school will evolve into a tutor-based ecosystem.
Geniuses also have a knack for picking fights. Soon, we’ll have several of them pitting each other. We’d have created a nemesis culture, which is better than a tutor-based one. Batman’s nemesis is The Joker. Magic Johnson’s nemesis is Larry Bird. Roger Federer’s is Rafael Nadal. Ted Gioia argues the cases for nemeses over mentors.
The offshoot is the budding of geniuses and polymaths who create solutions to our problems and curate art previously untapped from our ever-pregnant universe. No loans, but creating an environment to create innovations that sustain populations for centuries. We still sing the praises of calculus because without it, so much of our current world would be impossible. We only needed two people, Leibniz and Newton, and the generations after that have never shut up about their hallowed achievements.
The Sustainable Development Goal number 4 speaks of quality education, but how can that be assured? Is quality getting to an Ivy League university? Is there any difference besides the legacy badge that the name of the institution carries?
Education has failed miserably, and still, we want the rising quantities to elevate to the skyrocketing qualities we expect. It’s like taking leftover food and creating a task force to make sure it is the best meal. Every generation after it gets leftovers of the previous generation. The task force creates new ways of reheating the food. Nutritive value decays every time. Rather than confess to its failures, it elevates the cash cow to higher ‘standards’, what we call ‘higher education’.
Time and time again, a new innovative technology is introduced, and the promise of an improved education follows closely behind. The public becomes sold on the idea. This time around, it’s AI.
Students use AI. They somehow pass their tests (obviously, not through cheating, I mean), and once they have their degree, they are told that entry-level jobs have been occupied by AI.
I have a hunch that the tuition prices will rise because AI will now be incorporated into the education system. Some AI tools will even sell products offering tutor services to students at a premium.
I work as a tutorial assistant in one of the leading universities in the country, and every so often, we have an online meeting on how we can integrate AI into our teaching. It is happening.
The costs of having AI will justify the rise in the fees.
When will the cycle end?
Or do we sit and sing along to Nyashinski’s song? That tutazoea?
What I’m trying to say is…
We were already sold on the lie that education is the greatest equalizer. Indeed, it was an equalizer, but not of success as was promised. It equalizes most of its products by riddling them with debt and misery.
We are also sold the lie that tutoring cannot be scaled. I believe it can. Just because we don’t have a historic record of upscaling tutoring does not mean it’s impossible. Furthermore, we don’t need everyone to succeed for all of us to succeed. We simply need a few geniuses to create solutions for everyone to reap from.
Until then, governments will continue to make bank from their investments, which are a sure bet. Shirky's Principle states that institutions perpetuate the problems for which they are the solution. Poverty will continue to be seen as a problem that is eradicated through education. This solution will continue to be offered by the government.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Si lazima tuzoe.
This song inspired some of the lines used in this article. Source — YouTube
This song inspired some of the lines used in this article. Source — YouTube