DEBATE: Should scholarships be given on merit or need?

It is the poor student’s only opportunity There is something that makes a poor person vulnerable. Today, we choose to talk about education and in particular, scholarships and my firm belief is that scholarships should be awarded to the neediest students because without this financial aid, they may never have a chance to attend school at all. In most cases people from a poor background are likely to get fewer opportunities to excel. For instance, there are children who end up completing primary education, but due to financial restraints cannot afford to transition to secondary schools, yet if they were to be provided with a full scholarship, they would turn around and possibly elevate their families from the cycle of poverty. Leaving other factors constant, for one to excel in school, they need to have a favourable environment to study. How can one excel in school when they can’t fully attend lectures or classes because they have not been able to pay tuition to attend class? Most students who are academically bright in most cases have had a smooth transition in school which has helped them excel. Providing scholarships based on merit entirely can be compared to providing financial assistance to the rich while arguing that they are the only ones who can provide value for money or impact society than giving it to poor. Assistance is meant to help change lives, If we need to equip our society with knowledge and the benefits that comes with it, we need to provide scholarships to needy students and not only to those that have excelled. For instance one thing that contributes to low intakes at universities is lack of financial assistance and unfortunately most scholarships are based on academic merit not vulnerability. I recently came across a publication on The Wall Street Journal titled ‘Should More College Financial Aid Be Based on Need, Not Merit?’ I liked a comment by Cassie Smithen on the issue. Cassie Smithen stated that: “I’m a proponent of a dual system the base rate for aid is determined by income, but adjustments are made based on a student’s academic performance. It is wasteful to squander aid on high-achieving, high-income students who would attend college regardless of receiving a merit scholarship. These funds can be better allocated to middle or low-income students with an above-average academic record, even if they might not have the perfect transcript of the $500,000 income student who has been receiving private calculus tutoring since junior high.” The respondent put it right that for anyone willing to provide scholarships, they should always put into consideration the needy aspect more than the merit issue. editorial@newtimes.co.rw We need to stop encouraging self pity I don’t mean to discriminate people based on social class but let’s get down to the basics. What lesson are you giving when you give someone something they haven’t worked for? How do you expect them to actually value a scholarship and not take it for granted, misuse it and dump it right at you. Give someone something they have worked hard for and you will see how they nurture and treasure it. I am of the school of thought that belonging to a very low social class doesn’t necessarily make you an automatic candidate for an academic scholarship. You have been granted the right to education like everybody else, why should you be treated with kid gloves just because you are poor? Academic excellence has very little to do with someone’s social background, at least not in Rwanda. Even students from humble backgrounds do perform extremely well and that leaves the battle for best performers with a level ground to compete for excellence. People should be encouraged to work hard and achieve certain goals in life. Handing out scholarships to the less financially privileged leaves no room for hard work and only encourages self-pity and laziness. Just because someone is financially handicapped doesn’t mean they are smart. The best universities do get rid of students who don’t perform according to their standards. We can’t have a situation where a number of scholarship students are being chased away because they were admitted because of their social class other than their academic potential. Scholarship students must portray a certain level of performance that makes everybody want to snatch them to study in their college free of charge. Scholarships which are based on social class create social class separations in universities. Those on scholarships are seen as the lower class and those paying for themselves feel like they are above the others in the upper class. Scholarships based on merit on the other hand don’t create that inequality but rather encourage others to work hard and become the best. There is no true measure of someone that should be on scholarship and someone that shouldn’t. Even today, university students are always complaining about how they were unfairly categorized in classes in which they don’t belong. Numbers don’t lie. If one gets certain marks, they are a better measure of who should or shouldn’t get a scholarship. I believe the government of Rwanda is on the right track where students get loans from a private bank and pay back after school, and then the best performing students get to study free within Rwanda and abroad. Somehow, everyone works for it. The best get it free and the others get a loan or pay the fees themselves. In the end, everyone wins. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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DEBATE: Should scholarships be given on merit or need?