The cost of education has been gradually rising over the years, making it quite difficult for financially disadvantaged individuals to access education. Different bodies such as academic institutions, governments, non-governmental organizations, and even individuals have come up to help these students by offering scholarships. However, not all the students who need this kind of assistance actually succeed in getting it, owing there too many candidates for these scholarships among potential students every year. In addition, there are those who are neither aware of the existence of these grants nor of the process of applying for them. This has led to a large number of people dropping out of schools or failing to enter higher educational institutions due to lack of funds. Education is extremely critical for the development of each individual and the whole society in every country. This should force us to realize the significant role played by scholarships and the need for them to be accessible to all students.
Scholarships are educational sponsorships that the beneficiaries are not required to refund (Spencer). Today, many higher educational institutions offer different scholarship programs, both to innate people and foreigners. Information is provided compellingly and in full detail, essentially making it easy to choose a program, which is suitable for you. This information is always open and can be found on the Internet or by contacting the corresponding higher educational institution. In addition to above mentioned, most of these institutions try to raise awareness of such they have such programs.
Nevertheless, many students have low income, so they would not be able to afford going to school or college. And taking into account that this issue is out of higher educational institutions’ jurisdiction, governments of all levels should take the wheel by increasing funding for education. Therefore, students would be allowed to get scholarship and a chance to achieve education. By doing that, government will perform a very important move – increase nation’s education level and reduce crime rates, helping the economy, students and even their parents.
Role of Scholarships in Raising a Nation’s Education Level and Reducing Crime Rates
According to David Deming who did his research on the impact of school choice, the study in North Carolina shows that there is a link between education and crime. The study reveals that education plays a role in reducing crime in various, ways especially among high-risk young people (Deming 1). Attending school is a tremendously great opportunity to occupy young people, so that they do not find the time to carry out criminal activities, possibilities of which always endanger the young years of an individual; an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Scholarships are sustained on the basis of the beneficiaries’ performance and this makes students devote more time and work extra hard in order to safeguard their education and themselves - from dangerous activities. This way the students even work overtime, ensuring that they are even occupied during in the crime peak hours, over which there is the chance they get involved in crime or suffer from one. Secondly, when young people are occupied with their studies, they are usually excluded from the company of crime engaging peers in the society and therefore they are not influenced to engage in crime. According to Deming in his research on the impact of school choice in Charlotte, North Carolina on youth crime and incarceration, which will appear in the Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Some scholarships even provide for the accommodation of the beneficiaries within the institution offering the education and this goes a long way to reduce crime as the students who come from high-risk communities are isolated from their peers over a considerable period of time hence the disconnect helps them to avoid being coaxed into participating in criminal activities (Deming 1).
We all know that education gives individuals and opportunity to gain knowledge and skills that are necessary to secure well-payed employment and prosperous future. Lochner agrees with Deming that education increases returns to legitimate work, raising the opportunity costs of illegal behavior. Consequently, subsidies that encourage investments in human capital reduce crime indirectly by raising future wage rates (Lochner). In addition, more educated individuals make for to a more educated nation that is capable of solving more of challenges it faces. A well-educated educated individual broadens his or her outlook on world, therefor is able to make better decisions in his life, career and family. Moreover, such well-educated people easily get accustomed to society, making it easier to start new friends and relationships.
Scholarships of higher educational establishments are helping the economy. There are families that are not even able to afford childcare services for their children. These low-income families require financial support from the government in order to raise their children more profoundly and easily. Without government support, these families are only able to access less expensive childcare services which do not offer all the benefits of childcare and this in return affects the growth and development of these children. It is rather unlikely that such families will be in a position to afford good education for their children due to economic constraints and this is where scholarships should come in (Greenberg 1). A study reveals that family income has an influence on the cognitive ability of children which in return affects their education. The well- being of children is substantially affected by the income level of the family. This occurs as a result of poor health and of parents’ upbringing of their children. Education and health seem to be strongly interconnected, because these two important factors account for a large percentage of a country’s gross domestic product. This ensures that these families are able to direct their income on other crucial needs besides education hence an improvement in their economic and social wellbeing.
In addition to all above mentioned, scholarship helps a student and his parents psychologically. Economic challenges come with a lot of mental stress in people’s lives, especially in low-income families. Parents undergo a lot of negative emotions as they strain to educate their children as well as for other urgent needs of the family. There are quite few economic opportunities available to the families with low income. For instance, poor families are not encouraged to take up loans in order to finance their children’s education as they see this as a great financial burden to them. According to Gary Berg in Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality, scholarships come in handy to relieve such families of such financial stress as they are not required to refund the money granted for such a purpose (Berg). In addition, Dominic Brewer and Patrick McEwan wrote in their book Economics of Education that Education has been found to play a major role in determining the health status of a population (Brewer and McEwan 80). Therefore, scholarships play a major role in as far as the economy is concerned as low-income families have the financial pressure of having to work for the education of their children for least to be taken off their backs. Needless to say, that when parents know their children have a chance to get scholarship and corresponding chosen education, they become less stressed out, therefor starting being more efficient at their working place, and therefore doing better there provide for their own family and country’s economy.
In addition, the existence of non-merit based scholarships is a great opportunity to reduce the psychological stress associated with the expectations of students to attain ambitious grades in school. According to Berg that, most of the needy students who require these scholarships are usually faced with major life challenges which, if coupled with the stress to perform excellently in schoo,l would be an unbearable load of stress (Berg). According to Mary White who works as a professional human resource management and public relations consultant and trainer, who agreed with Berg, in “Stress Causes of College Students”,
Berg and White both agree that scholarships therefore are a tremendously great way of ensuring that students go through education without both financial and psychological drawbacks. The students are assured of financial support throughout their education regardless of whether they are high achievers or low achievers. In this way, intellectually disadvantaged individuals are not denied the opportunity to pursue education hence intellectual discrimination in education is reduced. This gets us to the point, where we can say, that scholarships can provide for better for and more secure future of different people, so almost every individual will have his or her chance of receiving higher education. Returning to the previous statements, it will lead to lowering of crime rate and more consistent, healthy and prosper society. So scholarships are a large force of improving the contemporary society.
Scholarships are very important, as it is through them that these social benefits of education, on having less crime and more educated families. Many students fail to continue with their education due to the inability to afford education fees or payment at the same time. But they want to get the proper education to good a secure job with at least higher-than-average payment.
According to Scholarship.com scholarships have made higher education accessible to many even with the rise in its cost. To be able to secure a well-payed employment, one requires having the relevant level of education (Scholarships.com 1). In this case, scholarships help people be acknowledgeable in life and open new door for themselves by to getting a good job for better life. Consequently, better life means healthy people. Adding to that, according to Dahl and Lochner, in The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit financial support programs have been found to be of great importance in ensuring healthy development of children and therefore impacting the whole wealth of society. With financial support, low-income families are able to provide a better livelihood for the children as well as good education and proper healthcare (Dahl and Lochner 1930). When the students are paid well and are able to financially support themselves, they are, again, less likely to be engaged in criminal activities to gain money for living, effecting not only themselves but the economy.
Contrary to the previous indication that non-merit based scholarships are better suited for the poor, a study reveals that merit-based scholarships act as an incentive to enable students to work harder in order to retain the financial support. These scholarships are renewed based on performance and therefore they are bound to encourage the students to continually improve their performance in college. According to Dooley, Payne and Robb in The Impact of Scholarships and Bursaries on Persistence and Academic Success in University, When the students are faced with the risk of losing their scholarship, they tend to work extra hard so that such an event does not occur (Dooley, Payne and Robb 10). Moreover, merit-based scholarships help to instill a sense of responsibility and hard work in students as they are made to believe that nothing is for free and hard work pays.
There are some people who believe that they do not have to go through education in order to be successful in life. Those people who come from wealthy families, whose wealth has not been as a result of sound education, are sometimes hesitant to spend their money on educating their children as they see it as a waste of resources. This belief has made many individuals fail to join college not because of lack of funds but due to the misguided believe that education is not necessary to succeed in life. It is a misguided belief, because such people fail to realize that times have changed, and that it is harder to succeed today without education, than it was years back. For these kinds of individuals, scholarships would be a great incentive to encourage them to seek higher education, as they would not feel the loss of having to spend their money on something they do not find important (Scholarships.com 1). On the other hand, Matthews argues that it should not be misunderstood: the fact that there are less educated individuals in the society who have been able to achieve a lot of success. Contrary, there are a lot of highly educated people who have achieved very little in life (Mathews 118). But anyway, education is not a thing to be ignored by an individual in the modern society and still is important to our life. It should be there, nevermind what decisions we will further make in life.
All in all, it is more than clear scholarships should be made available to all students. Scholarships make it possible for students from all social classes to be able to attain education. This ensures that more people are educated, which in turn provides many social benefits including reduction in crime rates. Scholarships reduce the strain on the income of families especially low-income families who have many other financial worries to deal with, like proper health care for children . In addition, scholarships have been found to have a psychological impact on families for parents and students, therefore positively impacting health of families and consequently the health of country. Education, though not the only path to success, is a crucial tool in facilitating success coupled with the practical talent and wisdom generated through experience. It is therefore important that scholarships be provided for all students so that the benefits accrued from education are made accessible to all people regardless of their economic or social status.
Works Cited
Berg, Gary A. Low-income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality: Higher Education in America. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub., 2010. Print.
Brewer, Dominic J., and Patrick J. McEwan. Economics of Education. Oxford, UK: Acadmic, 2010. Print.
Dahl, B. Gordon and Lochner, Lance. The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit. 2012. American Economic Review.
Dooley, D. Martin, Payne, A. Abigail and Robb, A. Leslie. The Impact of Scholarships and Bursaries on Persistence and Academic Success in University. 2013. Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. Toronto.
Greenberg, H. Mark. The Next Generation of Antipoverty Policies: Low-Income Families, Work and Childcare.2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=33&articleid=67§ionid=353
Deming, David J. J. "Does School Choice Reduce Crime?" Educationnext. N.p., 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. http://educationnext.org/does-school-choice-reduce-crime/
Mathews, William. Getting on in the World; or, Hints on Success in Life. 2005. Cosimo.
Scholarships.com. Why Students Don’t Go to College. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. http://www.scholarships.com/resources/college-prep/preparing-for-college/why-students- dont-go-to-college/
Spencer, Reuben. College Education Scholarships. Clinton Gilkie.
Lochner, L. (2004). “Education, work, and crime: A human capital approach.”
International Economic Review 45, 811-843.
Wilcox, Kate. "Rising Costs for College Education Continue to Outpace Families' Earnings." TribLIVE. TribLIVE, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
White, Mary. "Stress Causes of College Students." LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
