Is the cash handout to students the right policy?
Just before Naadam 2011, the Mongolian Parliament passed a law granting qualifying students in Mongolian universities MNT 70,000 per month. Implementation started in January 2012. Today, around 140 thousand students from 111 universities, institutes and colleges are receiving a “Student salary.” Our journalists shared their views on this matter.
How granting MNT 70,000 to students is good
By B.KHASH-ERDENE
Mongolia is a rapidly developing country. Our economic growth percentage in recent years has rivaled that of China’s. This is largely due to increasing interest in the mining and mineral resource industries. Mongolia needs work forces and personnel capable of fulfilling future demands.
If we are to develop and become a self-sufficient nation, our people must be capable and productive. This is why education is vital to Mongolia’s future. We all know from history that those who contributed to humanity were men and women who thought and looked at world as it is. In other words, those who achieved and succeeded were those who saw reality as it was with no filters of society or its conditionings. For example; Albert Einstein did not make up the energy-mass equivalence formula, but he discovered a part of reality, Thomas Edison did not make up a way to use electricity to make light, but discovered the reality of how electricity can be used to make light. Every discovery, innovation and achievement of man that has progressed mankind as a species, is the products of man’s mind. Man’s mind is his greatest tool for survival.
Education allows people to hone in and utilize their minds in the most efficient and productive way possible, thus enabling students to reach their full potentials. This is why Mongolia should support education any way it can. MNT 70,000 monthly grants for students is one way to support education, because the life of a student can be financially difficult, especially those who come from the rural areas of Mongolia. There are nearly 140,000 students in Mongolia, many come from the rural areas, and it is hard for them to ask for money from their parents. Indeed there are many scholarships available for students who are majoring in mining and geological areas, but not many in other areas. Students can’t get any loans from the banks and finding a part time job that doesn’t affect their studies is incredibly challenging. Even if they manage to find a job, the wage they receive will be unfair in comparison with the amount of hours they work, and the amount of energy and time required for part time jobs will make it extremely hard for students to study and perform well in colleges and universities.
There is a lot on the shoulders of the future generations of Mongolia, because their time will determine many important factors that are vital to Mongolia’s future. If Mongolia is to prosper and reach her highest potential, we must pass on the values and principles it was founded upon, (which is liberty, democracy and the right for everyone to prosper and benefit from what he has been earned through hard work and creative faculty),- to the future generations. This is why in my opinion by granting MNT 70,000 monthly to students, we are not only helping those students, but investing in our own future and in the future of our children.
Poor Mongolians, Rich Students
By E.OYUNDARI
The lives of Mongolia’s miserable students who miss breakfast and lunch most of the time because of financial difficulty, has been changed. When I walk in the street, I see long queues of students at ATMs getting money out. When I am at my University, I hear students discussing about how to spend their “monthly salary.”It doesn’t matter if a student’s grade is good or bad or if they attend lessons or not - every student is being given MNT 70,000 each month. I am witnessing many bad consequences of this cash handout to students, more than I see advantages.
I am an undergraduate student at university and I am a part of a “students’ life bowl”. Usually there are two or three good and active students in a typical university class and the rest of them are “golden middle students” or students who occasionally attend lessons. Initially, when the rumor started that the government was to grant MNT 70,000 to all students of Mongolia, they were very excited and started to think about how to spend it. Some of them were thinking about giving it to their parents, some were thinking about spending it efficiently and others were planning on buying new clothes and so on. But in reality, the majority of students are spending it on their entertainment, wasting it on alcohol and clubbing. Government welfare is becoming an income for clubs, stinky pubs, restaurants and cheap hotels. The government policy is spoiling students. Now, small pubs around the universities are full of girls and boys with a cigarette in one hand, sitting on the table drinking beer or vodka, instead of doing their assignments or sitting in the library. The consequence of a cash handout is obvious;it is promoting alcoholism and laziness. Students have stopped trying to earn some money to cover their expenses. Since cash handouts came in, studentshave just become lazy and inactive people who wait for their cash.
So the Government is distributing the “student salary” to every single student. For what? For wasting parents’ hard earned money on missing classes and visiting pubs and clubs? There should be some criteria for receiving this allowance, for example MNT 70,000 will be granted to those students who are active and firmly attend the classes or for those whose grades are high. In that case, students will make an effort to study to obtain their allowance. Giving away MNT 70,000 without any criteria is preparing students for the ready-made things; for the easy life. MNT 70,000 must be the award for effort and hard work.
The next thing that I feel the student allowance (and the monthly allowance from Human Development Fund that each citizen receives from the state) is doing is making inflation rise. Every citizen of Mongolia has noticed that when this allowance was introduced prices started to increase.Instead of just handing out the cash, it would be better used to create job vacancies. This would reduce the poverty in the country. This money should be invested in things that benefit all Mongolians.
How granting MNT 70,000 to students is good
By B.KHASH-ERDENE
Mongolia is a rapidly developing country. Our economic growth percentage in recent years has rivaled that of China’s. This is largely due to increasing interest in the mining and mineral resource industries. Mongolia needs work forces and personnel capable of fulfilling future demands.
If we are to develop and become a self-sufficient nation, our people must be capable and productive. This is why education is vital to Mongolia’s future. We all know from history that those who contributed to humanity were men and women who thought and looked at world as it is. In other words, those who achieved and succeeded were those who saw reality as it was with no filters of society or its conditionings. For example; Albert Einstein did not make up the energy-mass equivalence formula, but he discovered a part of reality, Thomas Edison did not make up a way to use electricity to make light, but discovered the reality of how electricity can be used to make light. Every discovery, innovation and achievement of man that has progressed mankind as a species, is the products of man’s mind. Man’s mind is his greatest tool for survival.
Education allows people to hone in and utilize their minds in the most efficient and productive way possible, thus enabling students to reach their full potentials. This is why Mongolia should support education any way it can. MNT 70,000 monthly grants for students is one way to support education, because the life of a student can be financially difficult, especially those who come from the rural areas of Mongolia. There are nearly 140,000 students in Mongolia, many come from the rural areas, and it is hard for them to ask for money from their parents. Indeed there are many scholarships available for students who are majoring in mining and geological areas, but not many in other areas. Students can’t get any loans from the banks and finding a part time job that doesn’t affect their studies is incredibly challenging. Even if they manage to find a job, the wage they receive will be unfair in comparison with the amount of hours they work, and the amount of energy and time required for part time jobs will make it extremely hard for students to study and perform well in colleges and universities.
There is a lot on the shoulders of the future generations of Mongolia, because their time will determine many important factors that are vital to Mongolia’s future. If Mongolia is to prosper and reach her highest potential, we must pass on the values and principles it was founded upon, (which is liberty, democracy and the right for everyone to prosper and benefit from what he has been earned through hard work and creative faculty),- to the future generations. This is why in my opinion by granting MNT 70,000 monthly to students, we are not only helping those students, but investing in our own future and in the future of our children.
Poor Mongolians, Rich Students
By E.OYUNDARI
The lives of Mongolia’s miserable students who miss breakfast and lunch most of the time because of financial difficulty, has been changed. When I walk in the street, I see long queues of students at ATMs getting money out. When I am at my University, I hear students discussing about how to spend their “monthly salary.”It doesn’t matter if a student’s grade is good or bad or if they attend lessons or not - every student is being given MNT 70,000 each month. I am witnessing many bad consequences of this cash handout to students, more than I see advantages.
I am an undergraduate student at university and I am a part of a “students’ life bowl”. Usually there are two or three good and active students in a typical university class and the rest of them are “golden middle students” or students who occasionally attend lessons. Initially, when the rumor started that the government was to grant MNT 70,000 to all students of Mongolia, they were very excited and started to think about how to spend it. Some of them were thinking about giving it to their parents, some were thinking about spending it efficiently and others were planning on buying new clothes and so on. But in reality, the majority of students are spending it on their entertainment, wasting it on alcohol and clubbing. Government welfare is becoming an income for clubs, stinky pubs, restaurants and cheap hotels. The government policy is spoiling students. Now, small pubs around the universities are full of girls and boys with a cigarette in one hand, sitting on the table drinking beer or vodka, instead of doing their assignments or sitting in the library. The consequence of a cash handout is obvious;it is promoting alcoholism and laziness. Students have stopped trying to earn some money to cover their expenses. Since cash handouts came in, studentshave just become lazy and inactive people who wait for their cash.
So the Government is distributing the “student salary” to every single student. For what? For wasting parents’ hard earned money on missing classes and visiting pubs and clubs? There should be some criteria for receiving this allowance, for example MNT 70,000 will be granted to those students who are active and firmly attend the classes or for those whose grades are high. In that case, students will make an effort to study to obtain their allowance. Giving away MNT 70,000 without any criteria is preparing students for the ready-made things; for the easy life. MNT 70,000 must be the award for effort and hard work.
The next thing that I feel the student allowance (and the monthly allowance from Human Development Fund that each citizen receives from the state) is doing is making inflation rise. Every citizen of Mongolia has noticed that when this allowance was introduced prices started to increase.Instead of just handing out the cash, it would be better used to create job vacancies. This would reduce the poverty in the country. This money should be invested in things that benefit all Mongolians.
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