It has been suggested that high school students should be involved in unpaid community service activities as a compulsory part of their educational programmes. Most of the schools these days have integrated community service activities in their daily structure, however there is still a large number that have not addressed this. In my opinion learning community service skills is a great idea for adolescents as it can provide them with several skills.
Life skills are essential and by learning these organizational skills early on in life, students can learn to communicate and work as a team along with being able to manage their time better and work in an unfamiliar environment. Nowadays the study pressure is increasing, and they usually get exhausted from studying for long durations due to which they are not able to devote time to extra activities beyond school hours and in many cases find excuses to run away from these tasks.
By making community service activities compulsory, children will be able to expand their horizon beyond school and this will make their creative juices flow. These skills will not only add to their resume for the future but will also teach them to be empathetic and considerate. Students will understand that not everyone is born with a silver spoon, and they will realise the importance of necessities like food and running water as well as money.
NGOs promote a healthy work life balance and exercise, therefore any kind of spare time invested into visiting these places will prevent children from sitting idle and wasting their hours. It will also possibly reduce the crime rate among the high school age group. If students are engaged in social service, they are less likely to get bored and are able to imagine life beyond their safe little bubbles.
In conclusion, I think it’s a wonderful idea, and I hope such programmes will be implemented affectively in high schools.