Education has always been seen as the step towards the dream jobs and the career opportunities people aspire. With the relevant education, a person is better suited to become the greatest professional he aspires to be. However the recent recession has been established to limp deeply on the education sector just like it has hit the financial departments. This time the most affected are the students who find it hard to continue with the lives they had before the current economic turmoil. Kinder (16) also noted that “during economic downturn a number of things usually take place as we have experienced lately in our country and around the globe”. One obvious thing that happens during recession is that people lose their jobs which they have worked hard to earn. Additionally, people lose career opportunities, and this is what students find hard to take in. Since the career opportunities for these students are very limited most of them are faced with the option of dropping from school, which is a choice they hardly resist. Studies revealed that a good number of high school dropouts have succeeded in life and have even become very famous. This has prompted the debate whether recession is a contributing factor to the current rate of school dropout or not (Pareles, para 13).
It is agreeable that most students who drop out from school do so because of the hardships and challenges they are faced up with. Student counselors and college representatives have affirmed that these students find challenges an uphill task. Since the counselors have studied students long enough, they have established that when life gets hard, students are usually left with no option but to drop from schools. In the findings, the counselors have noted that factors which are not associated with academics are responsible for the school dropout. Amongst the factors that contribute to the students dropping out, getting work or job is the number one. Nelson (para. 3) has affirmed these statements by noting that community colleges are normally the beneficiary of the students who have dropped out from school. This is because these students accept job offers and instead of going back to high school, they choose community college. However, this time the reports from different parts of the country have revealed a change in the high school dropout pattern. They have noted that high school dropout has reduced due to recession. Dean Dad in the Parenting Forum (para, 6) noted that “my school is exhibiting improved statistics, especially with young men and racial minorities-the demographic cohort most likely to leave college before graduating”. When asked the reasons behind the statements he hinted at the sheer lack of jobs and career opportunities for the students following the current economic downturn. This implies that policy makers may be very wrong by insisting that school dropout takes place because the teachers have not tailored their syllabus and courses to suits the students needs and expectations, because from the above it is very evident that a number of pedagogy factors play very significant role in ensuring success (Stephen, 330).
Study done by Stephen (331) revealed that college students who cannot succeed in getting a part time job are more likely to drop out of the graduate colleges due to recession. This is because some students always work hard to raise their fee, but as reported by the Edinburg University, there have been reduction in the job vacancies by about 20% decrease yet the university has been working so hard to create opportunities as well as to look for external vacancies. Therefore people from poor background have been left with no choice but to drop out of colleges since they can’t raise the expected fees. The same trend has been noted to reflect to other graduate colleges with exceptions of the high schools where students have retained the enrolment (Parenting Forum, para 16).
“Surely we have all experienced the effects of recession, but its effects have been more devastating and more widespread than we have experienced” (Pareles, para 4”. The fact that firms are reducing the number of employees every time, the ever rising cost of healthcare and the persistent increase in the prices of basic goods and commodities do not make life easier during recession. The inability the average families to meet their children education needs have not made things easier either. With high fees, the small income families are faced with no option but to remove their children from high schools when the fees are too high. Some students due to their parents inability to meet the rising cost of leaving, opt to drop out of high school for fear of shame when their counterparts sees them in ragged and unkempt uniforms. These effects are very evident since recession implies that the government tax revenue has decreased in the economic output forcing the government to dig deeper into its resources and sometimes enhance the citizens need by borrowing hence forcing the country to plunge in economic debts which results to inflation. When the inflation takes effects, the citizens are faced with the hardship of spending more as the prices escalates and these affects students. Those in graduate colleges are forced to look for additional sources of income which includes selling drugs, engaging in theft, prostitution or simply dropping out of school (Stephen, 333).
Kinder (17) has noted that parents are usually the hardest hit in the hard economic times. When the leading companies are downsizing the most affected are employees who are usually parents. When parents lose jobs it means they can’t support the students effectively since they are not earning any more. This has been researched and established to have a negative connotation on the students performance, since the students loses concentration due to low standards of living. Studies by Stigler (16) have indicated that peace is a very ingredient for a student to perform well. With low performance, some students feel ashamed that they can’t meet their parents expectations and that they can mix well with their peers, at the long run they results to dropping out of school.
Kevin and James (73) have indicated that “more students are worried today that they will not get the good jobs which have made them to work hard for several years”. This has instilled fear in the students. Since the effects of recession have led to lose of jobs they fear that they will not be employed after they finish high school or after graduating from college. Additionally, some students have been demoralized by the fact that they are working so hard in school to get good grades but at the end there are no any visible employment opportunities for them. According to David et al., “this has led to students dropping out of school so that they initiate business decisions in attempts to make a living in the hard economic times”. The fact that recession makes the part time job scarce has also led to students dropping out because they cannot meet the electricity and housing bills amongst others which they initially paid through the part time jobs. Since the fees are mostly funded by the government and institutions, these students are demoralized and convinced that they will not be able to pay the loans even if they complete the studies. Due to lack of job and low morale, the students drop out of school so that they don’t face the challenge of paying hefty loans. Further stress have resulted from cut backs of loans that these students are given. Kevin and James have affirmed that “if they can’t pay their bills when their full loan is met, how can they continue with the education at a time when the loans have been reduced and the part time job that enabled them to pay the fee is also not there anymore”.
The effects of recession have resulted in budget cut which have heavily affected the student’s welfare as well as their studies. Instead of the government cutting the budget they should develop kitties to stop students from being faced with the challenges of meeting fee and bills. This implies that these students who are not yet independent shouldn’t be given the burden of looking for the fees and the bills at this early age. As stated by Abdu Salaam (para, 10) “all we ask and pray for is for the government to see into it that at least students are considered as a special group who haven’t fully developed their wings to fly independently, thus to support us during this harsh times by exempting us from budget cuts and allocating the emergency kitties which will support us during the recession, otherwise we might be faced with the challenges till we drop out of school”. Additional studies have concurred with Abdu Salaam noting that one of the most useful ways that the government can use to enhance learning and stop school dropout is by assisting students through all means possible. When the students note this support they will never consider dropping from school. These efforts must be enhanced during recession time otherwise the students will continue dropping out (Kevin and Copper, 79).
According to David et al., (45) the United Sates education system is facing a crisis. The dropout rates have increased such that for every four children there is a likelihood that one will drop out of school. Nelson (para, 6) has concurred with these results and he has noted that the rates at which minorities drop out of school is surprising. One in every three of the minority is at risk of dropping out of school and these are not encouraging statistics. According to him, students drop out means the dropouts will be getting meaningless jobs because they have not completed their studies. Meaningless jobs mean these dropout students will get into debts and at the end they will just continue depending on government pay roll like welfare and food stamps. After a long run these students make the country to end up deeper in recession. When recession sets in the students just want to do work, from part time work to another so that they make the ends meet, while doing this they question themselves why they need to go to school. They instead opt to continue with work since if they stop working they’ll not manage the high cost of living, however they believe that if they continue working they are better placed to support themselves and lead a good life than that of straining in school with academics yet they do not concentrate (Kevin and James, 80).
Work Cited
Abdu Salaam, Ishmael. "Nas to Pursue High School Diploma, Encourages Youth to Stay in School". AllHipHop. 15 March, 2010. Web. 1/11/12. http://allhiphop.com/2010/03/15/nas-to-pursue-high-school-diploma-encourages-youth-to-stay-in-school/
David Grusky, Bruce Western and Christopher Wimer. The Great Recession: New York: Russel Sage Foundation, 2011. Amazon.com. Web, 1/11/2012, pp 45-50 http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=vacp4DtnTkYC&dq=school+drop+out+and+recession&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Kevin Ryan and James Copper. Those Who Can. 2012. Thousand Ox, New Jersey: John Willy and Sons. Amazon.com. Web, 1/10/2012, pp 73-80 http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=4ansiDQq3TEC&dq=school+drop+out+and+recession&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Kinder, Kiewiet. “The electoral impact of economic conditions: who is held responsible” American Journal of Political Science, 2012-JSTOR. Pp 16-17
Nelson Scott. “Presidential Speech”. Texas Community College Association, 2010. TCCTA. Web http://tccta.typepad.com/main/2010/02/recession-may-help-student-retention.html
Stephen Lamb. School Dropout and Completion: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. Pp 330-335. Amazon.com. Web, 1/10/2012 http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CK1-lycvn-kC&pg=PA330&dq=school+drop+out+and+recession&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_X6SUK6LMOnK0QWR4IGwBg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=school%20drop%20out%20and%20recession&f=false
Pareles, Jon. "To Be Alicia Keys: Young, Gifted and in Control". The New York Times 1 January 2012. Late ed.: Al. Print.
Parenting Forum. “High school dropouts are fuelling the recession” 2008. Parent forum, parenting community, pregnancy, and parenting resources. Web http://www.parentingforums.org/showthread.php?t=7882
Stigler, Gloss. “General Economic Conditions and National Elections”. 13 July. 2012. The American Economic Review-JSTOR. Print, pp. 12-17.
Stigler, Gloss. "School Drop Out." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 1. Nov. 2012. Print, pp. 13.
