Definition
Free Education is defined as the abolishment of school fees. In general, two types of fees exist. Firstly, direct fees or costs such as tuition fees or textbook fees and so on, which means they are spent directly on education. Secondly, indirect fees or costs, which are not directly used for educational purposes, but are a necessity, such as travel expenses to school. There is, however, no consensus about a definition of Free Education or Free Primary Education (FPE), as the predominantly used terminology are used equivalent (Inoue and Oketch 2008: 44). Free Education is mainly seen as FPE and includes the abolishment of tuition or textbook fees (UNESCO 2002). Hence, Free Education is limited most of the time to primary schools and the abolishment of direct fees, but it does not mean a totally free and cost-free education for parents. Research has shown that the best is to lower the direct and the indirect costs for education, as this increases the chances of children being...
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Kretzer, M.M. (2019). Free Education: Origins, Achievements, and Current Situation. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Quality Education. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69902-8_93-1
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