In Quebec, between secondary school and university, you usually do a two year preparatory college called CÉGEP. For sciences, for example, you do all your general science classes (Chem 101, Math 101, etc) with professors with master degrees in CÉGEP at a cost of ~200$ a semester, and then spend three years in university specialized in your major.
That way you can faf about for two (or more) years in CÉGEP at a lower cost (to you and society) and then go into university a lot more focused. A lot of people complain of the completion rate of students in CÉGEPs but I wonder how the completion rate of people once they get into university compared to the rest of the world.
The way I understand it, CEGEP is not held on the same campuses as universities and the teachers are not professors (usually not PhD graduates either). Think of it as doing college 100-level courses in a high school setting with high school teachers. I believe we can agree that faffing about in high school has a lower cost than faffing about in college?
Yes high school is different than college. They are not equivalent and that is not the issue in the instant case. What is the societal cost of a 19 year old faffing about in CEGEP in Quebec and how is it different than the societal cost of a 19 year old faffing about in college in Ontario?
It's way lower, because the teachers are payed less, the campuses are smaller and easier to manage, the curriculums are more standardized across the MEQ, so they are cheaper, etc.
If we really wanted to reduce the societal cost of fafing about in school, we could eliminate all tax-payed school systems entirely, but no (developed) country in the world does that, even the United States. However, Quebec, as a society, is happy to pay the cost for the "inefficiencies" CÉGEPs if it increases the overall education levels of its population.
That way you can faf about for two (or more) years in CÉGEP at a lower cost (to you and society) and then go into university a lot more focused. A lot of people complain of the completion rate of students in CÉGEPs but I wonder how the completion rate of people once they get into university compared to the rest of the world.