Paying For Education During the Coronavirus.

 

I stumbled across an article on the news about a hospitality college in Indonesia who is working hard to stay open during the coronavirus.  The Venus One Tourism Academy in Bali, Indonesia has taken the step of accepting alternative payment for tuition since people do not have as much money.

The school will accept coconuts, moringa leaves, or gotu kola plants.  The school uses the coconuts to produce virgin coconut oil which can be sold as a way of making money.  The moringa leaves and gotu kola plants are used in herbal soaps which are sold.  In addition, both moringa leaves and gotu plants are said to have medicinal properties.

The school changed it's tuition policy back in March when the virus hit by allowing students to split tuition into three payments but as the coronavirus continued, they moved to accept produce so they can stay in business and provide other skills for these hospitality graduates.  In addition, the owners of the school claims this helps students learn to entrepreneurs so one day they might start their own businesses.  

The way the scheme works is the student brings in fresh picked coconuts and the school accepts them at the current market price which is around 35 cents.  The amount is totaled up and applied against their tuition.  In addition, they do the same thing for the moringa leaves and gotu plants so a student has an alternative way to pay for education even if their parents have lost their jobs.

In the United States there are at least four colleges who prior to the pandemic allowed students to exchange work for their college education.  Two of the colleges are in Kentucky, one in Missouri, and one in Nevada.  Most of these colleges require their students to work 10 to 20 hours per week to pay off tuition, they are expected to still pay for the other costs such as books, room, and board.  When students do not have to pay tuition, it makes the cost of going to college much easier.

Unfortunately due to the coronavirus, many of these opportunities may not be available but as a math teacher, one can still use these examples to help students determine the amount actually saved by going to one of these colleges.  I found a list of 16 places of learning but many of these restrict their offers to residents of the state or a certain area, to people who want to learn a certain trade, or of certain religious beliefs.  

Many of these colleges do pay a minimum wage to help students pay for the rest of their costs.  Many schools ask seniors to compare the costs of colleges so students know how much they need to find scholarships and loans for.  If you have students do a comparison on if the work programs will pay for all the additional costs or if they'll have to take out a loan to cover the extra amount.

This makes for a wonderful compare and contrast activity for college or trade school. I've learned that many of my students pick out a college based on where their family went but they never think about how to pay for the experience.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.