I remember when I was in elementary classes, our school was a standard one and I loved almost everything about the school. Not until we changed schools due to our relocation and I never think I enjoyed all the schools I attended as compared to the one i started with.
At the end of the session or graduation party, there is always a presentation awarding gifts to the best-performing students from different subjects and different classes. I remembered how my brother never let go of the position of being awarded the overall best student in his class right from kindergarten to primary 6.
When I joined, I wasn't as good and serious as my brother, but I also got awarded for being the best student in many subjects. And there were times when I would stand out as the overall best then the next session someone else might take over.
The fun fact about it is that any time I lost the award to someone else, Mum would make sure I get more serious the next session, she would give me a lot of tutorials during the holidays. And I would conquer anyone again.
So rewarding students with gifts is highly encouraged. During those days we were rewarded with textbooks that we would be using the next session. So it's like we were given preparation against the class we are promoting.
Many other students would always want to see what was packaged and that would make the competition even better.
As for monetary rewards to students. I won't encourage this for some level, and I would be encouraging it to some levels. As for students who are yet to finish college, I think the best way to reward or commend them for their hard work is to give them material things. And these could be things that would aid their studies.
For example when a secondary school student passes exceptionally, then they can be awarded with a calculator, mathematical sets, and many other items that can aid their studies.
But when it comes to the tertiary level, I would encourage the awards of academic excellence to come in the monetary aspect. This is because, at that stage of their academics, most of what they require to have a successful education is related to money. They have handouts and textbooks to buy, and to further their research they also need money to have them done.
There was a time when my institution awarded the highest GPA of each department in the university with some amount of money. My roommate was among the top students in his class and was the one with the highest GPA. He was rewarded with about 100,000 naira then. And that was so huge.
It helped him get more stable with his education and even stood as an encouragement for him not to relent. He collected the monetary reward for about two sessions before it was stopped again by the newly appointed vice-chancellor.
Other things that could also work well in place of money for any level of education are scholarships. In both low-level education and the tertiary level, the students in college could be sponsored to the higher institutions as the best and outstanding students. Those in the higher level of education could be sponsored for their master's and PhD degrees.
Recently I heard that the Lagos state government awarded about 1 or 10 million to the best graduating students from the Lagos state university. I am sure the students would either continue to further his/her studies with the money or probably establish his/her self after school and from there be able to fund himself/herself with their education.
This is my response to the HIVE LEARNERS weekly prompt in hive learners community for the Week 118 Edition 2 and the topic to be discussed is **
CASH REWARD FOR ACADEMIC BRILLIANCE**
