Reward for Brilliance

Coming out on top of the class is one thing most of us strived for when we were in school and I used the word "most" because I'm sure that some people didn't care about that but for the rest of us, it was a big goal. One thing I noticed about coming top in the class is that the motivation to keep doing so reduces as you get older. It probably didn't happen to some of you but it happened to me but one thing I'm sure of is that if there was some sort of monetary incentive involved, then I would definitely keep getting motivated to fight for the top.

Giving cash rewards doesn't necessarily have to come from the school, parents tend to do that a lot back in the day and even neighbours or relatives do so as well, and sometimes it doesn't even have to be cash rewards, but some sort of gift can do the trick as well. When I was in primary school, one of the daughters of the landlady in my former house promised to give gifts to the kids that topped their class, that was all the motivation I needed to sit up and study harder. Initially, I didn't care much about school and I was okay being an average student but that changed when I realized what was at stake.

That began my reign as the top student of my class and it continued that way till I was done with primary school. The landlady's daughter worked for MTN, so I got a branded school bag, umbrella, T-shirt, toothbrush and a bunch of toys each time I came out top in my class. This quickly turned into a competition between me and my siblings as we all strived to have the best result at the end of each school session. At one point, the rewards stopped coming but I was already used to that feeling of being rewarded, so I kept striving to be the best in my class.

The point I'm trying to make from all these is that when you weigh the pros and cons of giving cash rewards (or any form of incentive) to brilliant students, you will see that the benefits still outweigh the downsides. I mean, the only downside I can see is that it applies unnecessary pressure on students to come out on top, especially if the reward applies to the entire class. In my case, it was not a class thing, so the competition wasn't that fierce, although I still had classmates then who were also fighting for the top after their parents promised them various gifts ranging from gaming consoles to bicycles.

When the rewards stopped coming, I continued fighting for the top mostly out of habit and also because I wanted to keep making my parents proud. It would be bad if I started declining suddenly from being at the top of the class. Seeing as I already set the bar high, I had to keep maintaining that level. It would have been better if my class had some rewards for the top 3 students, that would have probably motivated others who don't take their studies seriously. Some parents don't even care about whether their children come out on top or not, so nothing is motivating those kids from such homes.

I mean, it's a lot of work to come out top of the class, so why go through all that stress if you can't see a benefit to it? In my school then, people who come out top of the class aren't seen as special, it's like a normal thing and at one point (when I got to SS3), I didn't even care about it anymore and I started sharing the top spot with one other boy. But the case would have been different if some sort of cash gift was involved but the question is; why will schools even do such? In the end, they are just business centres and giving cash rewards to brilliant students won't give them many benefits.

In Nigerian universities, cash rewards are given to best-graduating students but the amount is ridiculous and isn't motivating. In my department, the best-graduating student gets N5000 (less than $5) and that isn't something that would motivate a lot of people to strive to be the best. Let's say the reward is pumped to N500k ($350), a lot of people including me would be more motivated to study harder and try to be the best-graduating student. Well, for me, I graduated with a second-class upper division, and that's the best my self-motivation could do for me 😂.

At this point, I'm sure that my perspective on this topic is quite clear. Yes, there might be downsides to giving cash rewards such as stress and pressure but the benefits are higher. It encourages healthy competition among students and motivates them to become better. Having a clear goal they can look forward to can go a long way in improving their studies. But if I'm to implement such a thing, I won't offer cash rewards all the time. I would make it random and only give such rewards when the students least expect it (surprise rewards!).

Thanks for reading

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