sextus: monetary incentives.

Okay, the full title is "Do you think we should give monetary incentives to the KP2 students to motivate them to get better grades?". The post title is shortened for brevity's sake.

 " why, thank you! This certainly does motivate me"

Studying, it seems, is getting harder by the day. Especially in the chemical engineering field. It's no wonder why some students fell behind their studies because of the tremendous amount of pressure that's being put on them. Should we give money in order to motivate poor students to perform better? In my opinion, we should. As a former KP2 student myself (during diploma), this proposed monetary incentive clearly does motivate me to perform better. This is due to a few factors that shall be discussed below.


Firstly, KP2 students are already under pressure to repair their GPAs and to get their grades back up again, which is no small feat. The lack of money puts an additional strain on them and this will reflect on their grades. It will drive them to the point of insanity. A study done by Roland Fryer shows that money does motivate students to perform better to a certain extent. Even though it's only for a short term, at least it's better than nothing.


The next factor is the high (and rising) cost of living. As you know, most students live away from their parents and have to survive by themselves. Without monetary support, some students will be more de-motivated to study. For example, imagine a situation where a KP student having no time to study because he or she has to work part-time jobs to get by. This is not uncommon among students having parents too poor to send them money. The time and energy they spent  working should be used to study to improve their grades.


The third factor is to reduce anxiety and worrying in KP students. Students constantly worry about their grades be it the past or future. It's really depressing to have many things to worry about at a given time. If you have to worry about your getting your grades up AND not having money or knowing when your next meal is going to come, it's not a very conductive state of mine  to study.


In conclusion, all of these factors play a significant impact on a student's ability to study and the betterment of their grades. Thus I strongly agree that we give monetary incentives to KP students to motivate them to get better grades. With this, we can reduce the number of students dropping out of university and ensure a better future for them.


That's it for this time, guys. Here's a song that fits the theme of this blog entry. Sum 41 - Motivation. Enjoy. :)





image credits: http://www.corbisimages.com/images/572/180F51BD-3F41-44AA-8A54-6B87B7FD73E4/42-17614216.jpg