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There are different ways that students get rewarded for academic excellence and it is always something I love to see. Apart from the fact that it helps the receiver to be motivated to do even better, it also helps other students to never relent and also aim for the top. To be honest, some students are naturally gifted and they catch up fast while some has to do a little more practice to fully understand what they have been taught. Either way, a method of reward for excellence can bring out the best of all type of students.
It is similar to setting a goal, you get to draft out why you want to achieve such goal and the benefits it will give you. The reward from putting your best towards achieving such a goal gives you all the motivation you can even need. It helps give clarity and also sharpens one's focus, unlike when you are just aimlessly doing somethings without having a particular goal. I am really not against cash reward for academic excellence, it is a form of motivation for students to do better, put in their best to compete for the top. Who doesn't love some extra cash?
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If I had a younger one, I would have used that method to make sure he/she put in the very best in his/her academic. It might look as if they are doing it because of the reward but at the end of the day, they are also acquiring knowlege in the process and indeed getting better gradually--thats a win-win. Infact, some students tend to underestimate their potentials and abilities and a reward system can actually help them discover how much brilliance they actually have in them.
The only disadvantage I see in a cash reward for academic excellence is that it can breed an unhealthy competition among students. Everyone wants to win but the reality is that it isn't possible, there can be only one winner. It's like the survival of the fittest, and the others that actually put so much effort as well can get sad and jealous. It can even demotivate some students on the long run if they have tried to top the class many times and they just fail every time. They might eventually lose the zeal to put in more effort, so I also think it is important for students to aim at excellence for a more genuine reason.
I noticed that cash reward for academic excellence is more common in tertiary institutions and for a country like mine, it is not encouraging at all most of the time. So, students tend to pursue academic excellence for other reasons like scholarships, favourable job opportunities, further education, and so on. Some people are actually very big on academic excellence and it always shows, whether a monetary reward is involved or not. Overall, I think it's a big way of motivating students to take their education very important and it can be shared across different subjects or courses, so other students get to earn a reward as well.
Thanks for reading❤️
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