Problems of Working Students Essay

1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The financial burden of education fees are rising. Due to the increasing price of tuition fees, school fees and other education finances, families tend to face financial crisis particularly on managing the budget of the family basing on their family income. These include the budget for food, education, electricity bills, and other financial bills. The family is unable manage it all since their income is incapable of affording those bills especially the valuable price of education finances. Considering those facts, students affected by the crisis experienced by their family, students will be necessitated to work while studying; it’s either a part-time or a full-time working student. Student jobs have become sort of a trend among students around the world  primarily college students whereas college tuitions and finances are more high-priced and costly than high school learners. In short, the term that suits this trend is ‘Earn and Learn’ policy. Another factor is students who have no relatives or family who aspire to fulfil studies prefer to be a working student unless they’re students who comprise scholarship. Every student has their own aspirations in life, and that is the reason why some students are now working by virtue of aiming those aspirations. Students of Palawan State University also have their own aspirations. Now that the number of working students on Palawan State University is rising, working students will be queried regarding the questions that answer the problems that working students experience. A study done by Jonathan M. Orszag, Peter R. Orszag, and Diane M. Whitmore entitled â€Å"Learning and Earning: Working in College† states that since 1984, the fraction of college students aged 16 to 24 who also work full- or part-time has increased from 49 to 57 percent. Not only are students more likely to work today, but they are more likely to work full-time: the share of students working full-time while going to school full-time has nearly doubled, rising from 5.6 percent in 1985 to 10.4 percent in 2000. In 2000, 828,000 full-time students worked full-time, compared to 366,000 in 1985. The researchers stated the difference between a part-time and full-time working students, including the implications and factors that my affect their academical performance. They somehow concluded that being a full-time working student has more negative effects due to the lack of time. The researchers declared that the population of full-time college students has risen sharply over the past 15 years. The number of working students is increasing continuously and several problems experienced by those students have risen. As the main purpose of this study, this paper aims to determine the problems that exist on working students, the factors that affect their academical performance and the advantage and disadvantages of being a working student. 1.2STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS This study was conducted to determine the problems that working students of Palawan State University during the school year 2012-2013 are encountering. 1.)What are the profiles of the respondents? 2.)What are the reasons why students at Palawan State University are oblige to work while studying? 3.)What are the work-related problems of the respondents? 4.)What are the advantages and disadvantages of students engaging in work while in school? 5.)What are the aspirations in life of the respondents? 1.3SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This research can be a source of information about students who are working and studying simultaneously. This study is beneficial to students who will be engaging in work while studying, for them to be aware of the situations and problems they will be encountering. By knowing these factors students who prefer to work and study simultaneously will be responsive and ready for the situation he/she entering. Further significance is the non working students and faculty members will be able to understand the situation of the working students and help them to cope up with their studies. This study has significant implications to provide an idea to people on solving the problems encountered by working students. This study may be a source for further research regarding the problems of working students. 1.4 SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study focused on the problems encountered by working students of Palawan State University. The study also encompasses the reason of students of Palawan State University to work and study simultaneously, the advantage and disadvantages of being a working student, and their aspirations in life to pursue working even if it causes problems to them. The main location of the study will be the Palawan State University and the most target respondents would be the working students specifically the college students, but possibly, the researcher will also request other students or also school administrator and faculty members to gather some information and will use other resources to be able for this research to become possible and effective. CHAPTER 2: THEORETRICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Foreign literatures Angela Walkup published an article entitled â€Å"The Down-and-Dirty-Life of Working Students†. Angela Walkup was a grand prix dressage driver. She explained how she learned the ropes as a working student. It is stated on her article that being a working student is hard but that is the real situation of a working student, it is a rough path. It is embodied there what a working student should be because a working student is constantly being watched and evaluated. If a working student is seen as a hard worker and a quick leaner then it will lead him/her to more responsible duties. She testified that experiences from being a working student are good and bad but it will be helpful for your future. Janet McGreevy (2002) published her own article about working students with a title of â€Å"Working Students Face Tough Challenges†. It is declared that the degree belief in the fundamental need for a college degree cuts across all sectors of American society. She proclaimed that college life is visualized as days of intense study coupled with â€Å"getting to know yourself† through campus involvement, the last hurrah of a carefree life prior too joining the real world of work after graduation. The affordability factor of today’s college education has eroded that image and many students find that they must make some tough financial choices by getting into school, and then to be able to stay in school through graduation. Working students encounter debt containment strategies by going to a less expensive college, taking fewer classes during the given semester, or opting to work instead of participating in civic activities or unpaid internships and research  opportunities. Tina Tuttle with Jeff McKinney and Melanie Rago published a literature with a title of â€Å"A Review of Research Related Literature on College Students and Work†. It was articulated that college students today face dilemmas about whether to attend college, where to attend, how to pay, how much to work, how many jobs to take, how to pay credit card bills, and car payments, how to juggle family and children, and how to balance these competing priorities while in school. It was elucidated that the amount of time students spend working has been of increasing concern for the educators that serve them and, in some instances, the students themselves. Recent data would indicate that 80% of American undergraduates worked while attending college in 1999-2000 (King, 2003).This represents an 8% increase over the class less than a decade previously, among whom 72% worked (Cuccaro-Alamin & Choy, 1998). Further, there appears to be a strong body of literature that points to the positive effects of not working versus working while attending college (King, 2002; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Local literatures Veronica V. Rillorta (2008) also published an article regarding working students entitled â€Å"Youngblood Working Student†. She is a high school honor student but was unable to go to college because of their poverty. She worked as waitress and saleslady but stopped due to some problems. It was stated that she was recommended by her high school batch mate as a working student ad she had her chance to continue college. It is hard for her but it is her opportunity to continue her faded dreams, she had manage to balanced work and study and now she is taking up computer secretarial course at the Vizcaya Institute of Computer Science in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. An article written by a Filipino anonymous blogger wrote an article entitled â€Å"A student’s sacrifice†. The used name of the blogger is Lostsoul. In her article, it was testified that being a working student requires sacrifice to achieve your aspirations. She said that you might even sacrifice your family, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, and your social life. She stated that when you’re a working student, you always need to manage time and sometimes  you even forget to eat and take care of yourself because of your stresses and depressions as a student. You might also forget about your health but you need to give up something to be successful someday. An article reported by Bernadette Sembrano of ABS-CBN News, entitled â€Å"Only half of working students finish college.† (2010). It was affirmed that about 216,000 students in the country are currently juggling school and work, according to latest data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The figure is about 8% of the total number of college students in the country. CHED said working students today are mostly into food service, entertainment and sales, apart from their usual stints as library and research assistants. Lawyer Julito Vitriolo, officer-in-charge at CHED’s office of the executive director stated that â€Å"They need extra income because of the financial crisis.† Vitriolo added that the students are forced to work because of higher commodity prices and tuition fees. The CHED said that only 50% of the working students get to finish college, because not that many can cope up with the hard situation of being a working student, getting stuck up between work and studies. 2.2REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES Foreign Studies A new study conducted by the researchers of the University of Washington, the Temple University and the University of Virginia,states that high school students who work for more than 20 hours in a week can face behavioural and academic problems. Samples of about 1,800 10th and 11th graders were compared for the study. Analysis was made by comparing the students who got the jobs to those who did not get the job and students who left their jobs to teens who continued working. Advanced statistical methods were used to match the teens on the basis of their personality and background. The researchers noticed that teens who worked for more than 20 hours in a week showed a decline in school engagement and increase in the behavioural problems. They even resorted to substance abuse, stealing, possessing guns etc. Things did not change for the better even when these teen cut back on their working hours or left the job all together. On the contrary, students  working for less than 20 hours a week did not face such psychological, academic or behavioural problems. Kathryn C. Monahan, research scientist at the University of Washington and the lead researcher of this study, suggests that parents, policymakers and educators should monitor the number of working hours of the students. The study is published in the journal, Child Development. Jonathan M. Orszag, Peter R. Orszag, and Diane M. Whitmore (August 2001) entitled â€Å"Learning and Earning: Working in College†. They revealed how many students are working and how their population increased yearly. Their study encompasses the different effects between full-time and part-time working students; they also focused on the effects of being a working student on the skills and performance of the student. The researchers aim to conduct their research for it to lead further studies regarding other ways of financing college students without affecting their acedemical performances. A study conducted by Veronica Gonzales, entitled â€Å"The experience of working class students at a Research I University†. She separated two distinctive class categories, the middle class, and the working class. She studied the difference of each other in areas including financing college, as well as other differences based on student’s high school experiences, including reading and writing skills, student-faculty-interaction, and time management. Local Studies These studies are related to this because it will lead to further results and conclusions regarding the problems encountered by working students. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY The present chapter is used to illustrate how the researchers identified the problems of working students in Palawan State University during the school year 2012-2013, with the purpose of letting the readers know the methodology utilized in the elaboration of the studies. 3.1PARTICIPANTS The participants for this study were 30 working students enrolled in Palawan State University (PSU). The 30 participants in this study were from three different departments of PSU, 10 participants were from the College of Mechanical Engineering, 10 participants from the College of Petroleum Engineering, and 10 participants from the College of Business and Accountancy. 3.2 MATERIALS The researchers executed a questionnaire to be distributed to the participants. The questionnaires contained questions regarding the information and data about the participants; state of the participant as a working student; the difficulties and problems the participants are facing as a working student and questions that answer the statement of the problem of this study. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. The first part included questions about the demographic profile of the respondents, the second part contained questions on which the information and data about the respondents as a working student will be gathered and the third part consisted questions which will be answered by number with different level of extent like 1- I certainly agree, 2- I agree, 3- Not sure, 4- I disagree, and 5- I certainly disagree. 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