Economics and Politics of Development
Class Discussions
Topic: Private vs. Public (education / health)
Health and education most certainly are one of the most important parts of human life. Education
determines people’s path in life from early years on, so it is of crucial importance to choose wisely
where one gets education from. Health comes above all, so the question arises which health service is
better: public or private?
This paper will speak in favor of private education and health.
Both private education and private health care have better quality and better outcomes. Since they
need to be competitive on the market, they must invest and innovate constantly, which makes them
more appealing on the market. Brand new technologies for treatments in private hospitals and
internationally recognized diplomas from private universities make these private institutions
outstanding. For this reason, private institutions achieve far better results in comparison to public
institutions.
When attending private schools and universities, students participate in small interactive classes, where
they can concentrate on the lecture and participate in class discussions. In addition to this, professors
are able to pay attention to each individual student and communicate with them one-on-one, which is
of great benefit both to students and professors. This is unfortunately not the case in public universities,
since they must fit an enormous number of students into amphitheaters, which makes it impossible for
a single professor to reach out to each of the student sitting in the amphitheater, and vice versa. Among
other things, students attending private schools are open to better networking opportunities.
As mentioned before, private hospitals use the latest technologies for treatments and are hence
upgraded and more advanced than public ones. Patients get high quality service, and the hospital staff
makes sure the patient is taken good care of. An additional benefit of choosing private health care is
having shorter wait times, which is especially important for elderly patients.
Although corruption is prevalent in all sectors, it is less present in private hospitals and universities. In
public hospitals, it has become an unwritten rule that doctors expect inducements like gifts, money and
similar benefits. The same goes for state universities, where some professors will not let the student
pass the exam unless he/she pays for it. This issue is well-known to the public, but unfortunately society
is silent about this.
Although benefits to private schools and hospitals prevail, there are some cons that also need to be
mentioned. It is for sure expensive to afford private schooling and health care. Unfortunately, the
majority of people worldwide – BiH citizens included – cannot afford this. For many people, private
education and private health care are considered a luxury. For this reason, the inequality in society and
the difference between social classes are noticeable.
On the contrary, for those who can afford to visit private schools and use private health care services,
the returns on this kind of investments can be many times higher.