In contemporary times, having a gap year between high school and university has been increasingly common among high school leavers. There is a growing trend that high school students tend to delay university enrollment for one year to join the workforce or expand their destinations. While I understand the upsides of this tendency, I would argue that the drawbacks are far more significant compared to the benefits.
Notably, there are those who believe that gap-year takers can reap a host of benefits from this tendency. For one, postponing higher education for a year can enrich students’ life experiences. A year away from formal education, to them, can allow them more time to immerse themselves in new cultures, traditions, and ways of life, which helps them discover novelty, usefulness and uniqueness. This exposure can be seen in their participation in festivals in another country, where they can widen their understanding about various cultural and traditional knowledge of the countries they are taking part in. In addition, if high school seniors engage in a gap year, they may have a good chance to unwind themselves and gain their energy. This is because three stressful academic years at high schools indeed deprive students of their quality time to release stress because they always strive to achieve their better academic performance. As a result, when they spend a year travelling before attending university, they will feel a keen sense of relief and feel more energetic.
Despite the benefits, I opine that the upsides from this development are outweighed by the significant downsides. Firstly, becoming gap-year takers can make students fall behind academically with their peers. This can be explained by the fact that a year away from formal schooling can lead to their inability to keep track of knowledge and skills that their peers are acquiring at college, which results in their demotivation and a decline in their confidence when they want to continue their education. Aside from this, if high school leavers delay university enrollment for a year, they will have a slight chance to find a better job. The fact that the job market is already highly competitive and more beneficial for earlier job seekers. Hence, those who graduate from university one year earlier seem to have an advantage over those leaving college later. This is a testament to my belief that taking a year off prior to embarking on university actually does more harm than good.
In conclusion, although a gap-year can hold significance for students, such as a chance to enhance their life experiences and recreate themselves, I maintain that the desired outcomes are more substantial in comparison with the merits, like being lagged behind with their peers and being less employable.