Showing empathy to our students

Roughing it out is very much part and parcel of student life. Unless you were lucky enough to be born into privilege, there just won’t be enough to spend.

Apart from cost of education that seems to be rising by the day, the peripheral costs associated to getting an education – lodging, food, reading material, etc – are also on the rise.

It is quite normal for a student to skip meals or survive on instant noodles or plain fried egg with white rice, especially towards the end of the month when money is scarce, while waiting for the next cheque from their scholarship, or in the case of those without one, the Pama (Papa Mama) Fund.

But eating a meal a day, not eating for days, rupturing an intestine in the process – that isn’t and should never be part of any student experience.

Like any Malaysian problem, a knee-jerk reaction can be expected.

Politicians will express their outrage. Government officials will assure Malaysians these are isolated cases and that everything is under control.

And well-meaning Malaysians will mobilise and do their bit to assist these students.

But will this solve the problem?

What could possibly drive a young person bright enough to gain admission into a university to brave hunger?

Surely there are jobs they can do, on or off campus, to earn a living that will help them get a decent warm meal. As young, able bodied kids, working in a fast-food joint, or a coffee place, seems a feasible idea.

These are probably the questions playing in the mind of many, particularly folk who may have had a private education.

Firstly, the kids in question are of a different socio-economic strata than those usually asking these questions.

Unlike their urban counterparts who often have the luxury of choice, at the very least, between a private college and a public university, for most rural students, a public university is their only shot at a decent education and a career that hopefully would uplift their economic status.

For many of these students, they not only study for themselves, but often with the hopes and dreams of their families, and sometimes extended families, resting squarely on their young shoulders.

It would have been a tough journey even qualifying to get into a university. Although many of these students are on some form of scholarship, often a large portion of their spending money is sent back home to assist their younger siblings who are in school.

But surely they can get a job?

Again, perhaps it is not as straightforward as it looks. Time schedules for public university, for some courses, are pretty long and so are the semesters.

That aside, many of the scholarships or grants obtained by the students are conditional – they need to keep their grades up or pay a penalty they can ill afford.

Also, unlike the older universities and newer private educational institutions, newer universities tend to build their campuses in isolated areas with significantly little commercial activity or shopping malls, where part time jobs may not be as plentiful as you may find in big towns. The concentration of students in these universities competing for these jobs are also proportionally much higher.

So when the Minister of Higher Education vowed to take on the matter and ensure not a single student goes hungry, it was a refreshing move, especially with the somewhat less than sterling performance seen in our ministers of late.

However, the suggestions that came from the good minister a day later – suspended meals and working part-time in the cafeteria, and paying it forward – was a tad disappointing. These steps have already been in place for a while now, even before the ministry’s suggestion.

Perhaps it is time to relook the whole picture. Instead of relying on the goodwill of part-time jobs that would consume their time and a lot of their energy, the universities themselves, with their influence and considerable clout could work out some part-time jobs tailored to suit the students’ needs and qualifications and at the same time benefit the community?

Given that many of these universities are not in urban areas, some form of collaboration could be made with nearby schools and communities, for example, to teach tuition classes or fill in as temporary teachers, both of which are always in demand in rural areas.

As an institution of higher learning, the university itself could perhaps offer night classes or courses, taught by these students for the local working class as a means of upskilling.

Another possible programme would be mini-internships with nearby small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) that could stand to gain from any expertise already acquired by these students.

If getting to the workplace presents a problem, remote work, such as programming or data processing or even translation services would enable the students to gain valuable experience without sacrificing their studies. This way, the students, the taxpayers funding the student, their families and the local communities stand to benefit.

But at the same time, the students themselves should realise that higher education, especially a public funded one, is a privilege not to be abused.

There are countless others before them who have had to go through much worse times to earn their scrolls, and some had to give up on their dreams and make sacrifices in order to support their families. – January 12, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.