Money matters!

Money matters!

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 03:10 PM IST
article-image

A handful of students are attracted to the money they make while in college and are tempted to give up their education. Is this a healthy trend? Priti Botadkar finds out.

For commerce student Sunita Waghle, going to college and studying was only a matter of experience. Otherwise, she had already learnt the skills of being a beautician and hairdresser by working as an apprentice for a professional and had starting making much more money than a job after a BCom degree would ever fetch her. There are times when she has to even skip college for arriving on a job, since it is a question, not so much of experience any more, but of money. And that’s the reason that she is happy with her score hovering around the second class range rather than improving it with coaching and moving up to first class.

“I do not need a first class score! In fact, I have started to question myself as to whether I even need to complete this BCom degree. I don’t think I have any use for it in my chosen field for a profession,” says the SYBCom student. She even admits that she doesn’t really need to earn so it’s not out of necessity that she skips college, but because she earns a good amount. “Anyways there’s nothing great going on in college. I can always pick up the concepts they taught (if the lecturer showed up) later. I cannot go back and earn that money later.

Sunita is only articulating the thoughts that many college students are going through today. If they are already making a substantial amount of money without any substantial education or degree, why study at all?

BA student Satish Mane joined his uncle’s office since he wanted to learn about the field of marketing. While on the field, he picked up the skills of marketing cell phones, of which his uncle had an agency. He went door to door from stores to offices for this work, and then slowly, his uncle started paying him a commission over and above the stipend he earned. This commission depended on the work he brought in and was variable.

“There was a time when I actually gave up on college completely, did not attend and even failed an exam because I did not sit for it. I was busy trying to widen my net for my work since I wanted to earn more commission. I wanted more money since my family could not afford to give me pocket money over and above the basic necessities and I fell in love with my new found financial freedom. Academics did not interest me anyway, so I saw this as my way out. I took a drop of a year, but in that year my eyes opened to the fact that I will not even be a graduate if I gave up! Once of my clients even taunted me about it. That’s when I realised that this is the time to study, there will be plenty of opportunities to earn later. And it’s not that I am giving up on work when going back to college. I am just cutting back a little,” he narrates.

Like Sunita and Satish, several youngsters are finding it futile to finish their college education since they cannot see any immediate use or benefit of getting the degree. “In this commercialized world, students are not wrong in believing that money is paramount. And there are these in-between students whose careers are not related to their formal education or degree and therefore choose to give up. Only later in life they understand the value of a degree, when it might be too late to get one. Of course no trend that goes against basic education can be a healthy one,” says counselling psychologist Chhaya Sheth.

The funny part, Sheth says is that most of these students are encouraged by their parents to finish their education, but are swayed by the power of money. Ex-principal and teacher Nalini Mehta agrees. “In my school several girls were forced to drop out of school because they had to work to support their family income. They could not spare a few hours for school every day. College students are not that tight for time, but sometimes they need the money for fun things and pay no heed to parents because they do not have the power to imagine the future. They live for the present and want to earn accordingly,” she says.

Even though educationists believe that it is not a healthy trend, they also say that it is a reality. Students are dropping out of programmes because they have already started earning and do not see the need to continue their education. Even if it is small percentage, it is sad, since education is not just a key to a good income, it is the source of becoming the person you are.

RECENT STORIES