Greetings everyone, we are the 8th and also the last group that’s going on stage to present.

Our
team members consist of 3 people only: Lê Gia Minh, Phương Linh, and myself Khoi Nguyên. In
this presentation we will be covering the same topic as group number 7 which is “Whether or not
should unpaid community service be made compulsory for high school programmers”.

_It is widely accepted that in order to gain adaptability to life, high school students should
develop their interpersonal skills also. During the course of seeking a way to bring about the
development, some people have put forward the idea of making unpaid community service aka
voluntary job an obligation for highschoolers. After having taken the following reasons into
account, we take our stance that volunteering jobs should NOT be mandatory.

 The first and foremost reason that led us to concern the possibility of this concept is its
financial issues. It is obvious that volunteering will require an enormous fund to render basic
necessities to both the volunteers and the service receiver. If unrewarded community service
were made compulsory, high schools would have had to invest a huge amount of money to
finance both manpower and facilities. For example, the needed fund must comprise the prices
of giveaways, transportation, regulators to guide + supervise and ensure the safety of
participants, etc. And it is even more conspicuous that the monetary conditions of every school
are not the same. Private schools can experience little to no problems if this concept is in effect.
But only a number of public schools can take on such a mission without undergoing any kinds of
financial problems, if not financial crises considering the little budgets of them. Therefore, the
idea of obligate activities in which partakers receive no redemption is mostly impractical and out
of the question at the moment.

 Secondly, our point on why voluntary jobs should not be made compulsory in schools is that
they will lose their meaning if they were carried out by forced participants. Volunteering is
allowing students to proactively and freely choose and join an activity, especially to help others,
at their own will and consent, giving them the opportunity to learn valuable skills and social
awareness. Most young adults who volunteer for an organization agree that it is important to
improve the lives of others and that they would like to do so rather than “have” to. Making
voluntary work their obligations can make them feel uncomfortable, rather than an opportunity to
learn and to understand the needs of people in our community. This will result in low morale and
leads to poorer performance than if they were doing things of their own accord. For example,
imagine a 12th grader studying for university and doesn’t have any intention on volunteering but
the school forces him into doing one, then he would feel bothersome, resulting in him not doing
the job properly and not doing well in his studies. And seeing voluntary activities as a waste of
time will make students less likely to participate in them, and if the activities don’t suit their
interest, they will not even care. Also, some students feel that they have nothing to contribute to
the local community and that their presence would not be appreciated so they would rather not
make an effort to contribute. Students have that way of thinking especially when they are forced
to do something. Therefore, it is essential that their feelings and their efforts are acknowledged
so as to make the students feel their contribution can make a difference and motivate them for
future projects.

One of the main reasons why we believe that conmunity service should not be made
compulsory is to not create and problems and difficulties for students. Considering that Vietnam
is a country that values academic study, mandatory community service would become an added
burden for many. The average school hour for a high schooler is approximately 6 hours.
Additionally to this is the amount of time that students take extracurricular classes or fulfill
their everyday needs. All of this has left high schoolers with little to no time to relax or enjoy
themselves which may lead to stress and burnout. According to a research conducted by a
bachelor of public health from the HCMC Medicine and Pharmacy University, more than 70
percent of the city high school students, both from normal and gifted ones, suffer from
mental disorders due to stringent study programs. Thus, if social work were to be made
compulsory, it can lead to unwanted impacts on academic performances, failure in examinations
and even more mental problems for high schoolers. Due to this, the students may not volunteer
passionately and might as well develop negative attitudes and resentment towards social
welfare. All of these have shown that the outcome of making community service a part of our
educational program is not what many of us would anticipate it to be.
Instead, after considering the pros and cons of having students do unpaid social work, we have
come to the agreement that community services should only be encouraged and promoted. To
find out whether a student is truly interested in spending their time doing unpaid social work,
schools have the responsibility to create opportunities and arouse such interest among their
pupils. Teaching staff should educate their students about the importance of civic engagement
and why it is beneficial to consider volunteering. This can be done by giving pupils a chance to
interact with volunteers or to see how charity organizations work so that the students can
understand that doing community service is a privilege and let them decide whether it is suitable
for them.
Inconclusion, we object to the fact that volunteering should be made compulsory in schools
because of the fact that it causes students monetary problems, poor performance, lack of
motivation and unwanted burden.