Unpaid Community Service as a Compulsory Part of High School Programs

Unpaid community service has been considered by many as an essential step in today's world. There are debates about making unpaid community service as a compulsory part of high school programs. To a large extent, I tend to agree with the given statement because such programs are able to provide significant amount of personal development and other benefits to the students.

It is generally accepted that volunteer service allows the students to practice their academic content outside the context of classroom and develop critical thinking skills while solving real world problems. Moreover, this kind of practical-based learning or applying what you have learned in the classroom to the real world has a lot of positive benefits for students apart from meeting requirement to graduate. These include a better understanding of the value of teamwork, decision making skills, development of leadership abilities and the gain of practical skills.

Not only this, there are other issues to be considered while discussing about unpaid community service. The most important of all is that the experiences that students gain by being involved in volunteering will also look great on their resume. This will obviously support students while trying for a job in their later life. Furthermore, numerous studies over the past several years have shown that volunteering isn't just good for student's career, it's also nice for their mind. By focusing on others' problems instead of their own, students have reported reduced stress and overall improvement in mood and health. Therefore, unpaid community service should be made as a compulsory part of high school programs.

Having said all these, some people deny to make unpaid community service compulsory for students. They believe that students have limited time frame for their studies within which they have to complete heavy syllabus. And, being involved in volunteering in this fruitful time may hamper their studies. Additionally, some students may think that it's not worth to get involved in such task because it doesn't pay like a normal job would. However, in considering about positives in free community service, the experiences students gain by being involved in volunteering will be able to develop valuable life skills within students such as leadership, communication, working in a team and finding solutions for problems. In considering all these life changing skills that students learn from community works, including unpaid community service onto the high school programs worths the effort.

In order to achieve this with positive impact, Curriculum Development Center and Department of Education should devise a proper policy tool so that the inclusion of unpaid community service as a compulsory part of high school programs becomes effective.