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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

How does the Average Grade for the Merit Scholarship

Affect Students’ Academic Performance?

Alexandra Nicolau and Matei Olaru

11th E Grade

“Nicolae Titulescu” Highschool Brașov

Professor Carmen Gabriela Crișan

2nd May 2023

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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

How does the Average Grade for the Merit Scholarship

Affect Students’ Academic Performance?

In January 4th 2022, the average grade necessary for granting the merit scholarship,

was increased to 9.50 (Order No.5 870). Along with the increasing of the average grade, the

sum of money, granted for this scholarship, was increased as well. We analysed the ways in

which it affected students from 10th, 11th and 12th grade ending up with a total of 32 subjects.

We based the data analysis on the survey that we conducted for the past month. Although the

survey was completed by a variety of students with different backgrounds, the data collected

shows mostly similar results when comparing the subjects.

The purpose of this research paper is to discuss and interpret these results, in order to

reveal the actual impact that this increase has on students from highschools based in Brașov

and to determine what students think about Romania’s education system.

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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

Method of research

We conducted a survey to help us collect different opinions from students in Brașov.

Our targeted subjects were highschool students (except for freshmen, as they did not

experience the change in the minimum average grade for granting the merit scholarship,

while in highschool, therefore not meet our criteria). We asked them 10 multiple choice

questions and 5 linear scale questions (on a scale from 1 to 10), to determine if their attitude

regarding the merit scholarship has changed this past year and to analyse what the reasons

behind these changes are. A number of 32 participants took part in this survey, anonymously.

While analysing the data we will provide graphs and charts, so as to illustrate the

interpretations given.

Analysing and interpreting the results

Our participants’ backgrounds ended up varying a lot, which helped us getting a clear

view throughout the analysing of the data. The results came up showing that, among the

participants, 50% were 11th graders, 31.3% were 10th graders and 18.8% were 12th graders

(76.5% living in urban areas, 23.5% in rural areas). We will provide you the raw answers and

some other statistics that we calculated in order to display more accurate information on this

case study.
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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

We began the analysing and interpretation process by looking at how the increase in

the necessary average grade for the merit scholarship influenced the number of students that

were granted this sum of money. According to the survey, among the 32 students that

benefited of the merit scholarship before its increase, only 12 managed to still benefit of it

after the increase. This shows that 62.5% of the students that were granted the merit

scholarship, do not benefit of the money in the present, as a result of this major increase.

After the minimum average grade for granting the merit

scholarship increased to 9.50, did you still benefit of it?

Yes
37%

Yes
No

No
63%

Regarding the fact that the majority of the students did not benefit of the merit

scholarship after its increase, we determined that this not only took a sum of money from

them, but also decreased their motivation in school. Considering that the scholarship was

reason for them to continue their studies, those who do not meet the criteria for it in the

present do not show the same interest in school as they did before. Therefore, only 15% of

the students (3 students), that do not benefit of the merit scholarship in the present, said that

they feel motivated to achieve better results in school, whilst 85% (17 students) feel the

complete opposite.
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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

Motivation of students that do not benefit of the merit

scholarship in the present
Yes
15%

Yes
No

No
85%

There is also a lack of interest in school from the students that still benefit of the merit

scholarship. Out of the 12 students that still benefit of the merit scholarship, 66.7% said that

they do not feel motivated to achieve better results in school. Although, they have better

grades than other students, this shows that the sum of money that they are granted does not

meet the satisfaction levels necessary to fulfill their emotions regarding the effort that they

put in their school work.

Out of the 32 students that answered our survey, only 2 state that they consider the

9.50 average grade to be a suitable one for granting the merit scholarship. 93.8% consider this

average grade as being too high, and that it should be lowered. Those students that

represented the 93.8%, stated that they would consider other average grade values for

granting the merit scholarship. The majority (15 students) considers that an average grade of

9 is suitable for granting the merit scholarship, whilst the others either feel they should return

to the old average grade necessary for the merit scholarship (12 students) or they feel that it

should be even lower, such as an average grade of 8 (3 students).

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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

What students consider the average grade for granting the

merit scholarship should be:
16 15

14
12
12

10

4 3
2
2

0
Wouldn't change it 9 8.5 8

As students are not satisfied with the average grade necessary, some of them also

stated that the effort you must put in school in order to achieve the merit scholarship is not

worth it.. This information comes after we analysed their answers to the question “On a scale

of 1 to 10, how much do you think the effort required to achieve a 9.50 average grade is

justified by the merit scholarship?”. Their responses were gathered in the following chart:

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think the effort

required to achieve a 9.50 average grade is justified by the
merit scholarship?
6

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

We can clearly see on this chart that, although the levels of satisfaction “5” and “10”

are most popular, being voted by 5 respondents each, most students chose levels between “1”

and “6”, which we consider to be low levels of satisfaction regarding the effort input for the

scholarship. Another question in our survey also states that students are not that impressed

with the sum of money given.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like the amount of money

you get for the merit scholarship, based on the minimum average
grade necessary?
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

In the end, we would like you to see some thoughts that our respondents had on the

reasoning of the increase in the average grade necessary for the merit scholarship:

The reasons behind this increase:

Other
12%

The desire to push

the students to The lack of money
learnmore
16%
The desire to push the students
to learnmore
Other

The lack of money

72%
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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

In the “Other” category we found the following answers:

• “The desire to push the students to learn more is just a pretext for the fact that

government tries to invest less money in education, but that's not determined

by the lack of money”

• “To not consume a lot of money”

• “I think the lack of money was just a excuse from the government just to save

money”

• “A combination of both and other political reasons.”

We believe that the reasoning behind the increase of the average grade necessary for

the merit scholarship is another factor that influences students into wanting to improve.

Considering the information above and everything mentioned earlier, this might contribute to

students’ reluctance for studying harder.

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STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE REGARDING THE MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

Conclusion

We believe that this survey gathered important information regarding the students

attitude towards the average grade necessary for the merit scholarship. In our perspective, the

increase had a bad influence on highschool students and we think that our research has

proven you that this is the case. We consider this path to be an inefficient one for the

performance of highschool students on long-term, as it only promotes “elite students” and not

effort and education itself. The data we collected has helped us understand the cruel reality of

Romania’s education system and its impact on highschool students.

We thank you for your attention and/or participation in our survey and we look

forward to collaborate with you in order to further our research for the greater good of our

national education system.