Some people think that schools should reward students who show the best academic results, while others believe that it is more important to reward students who show improvements. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

While

one school of thought holds that only elite

students

should be rewarded, others are adamant that it is even more important to

reward

those who have made progress. These views are not mutually exclusive and make tremendous sense in their own rights, so they should be adopted simultaneously. Granted, one might argue that only

students

with outstanding academic performance should receive

rewards

.

This

is predicated on the assumption that these

students

have worked more diligently, and justifiably earned the

rewards

.

This

reward

scheme, so the argument goes, can

also

encourage other

students

to exert themselves more to win the

rewards

,

hence

overall

academic gains across the board. It is

also

true that

this

winner-take-all kind of competition exists in all aspects of life, so schools should expose young people to

this

reality to best equip them for the real world.

However

, supporters of giving

rewards

to those who show signs of improvement justify their position by citing the potential stultifying effects on slower

students

that the winner-take-all

reward

scheme might have. They say that

instead

of feeling motivated to work harder, slower

students

might simply feel that they can never surpass those outstanding individuals and lose the incentive to study.

Furthermore

, placing more emphasis on improvement is arguably healthier than the competitive spirit to win against all others.

This

is because the latter relies entirely on external factors, as seen in how top

students

often feel complacent after winning certain

rewards

,

while

the constant desire to improve themselves can remove

this

sense of complacency and works in everyone’s case regardless of how well they are doing academically. In conclusion,

while

there are justifications to exclusively

reward

students

who achieve the best academic results or those who show improvements.

However

, I am convinced that both initiatives are useful in their own ways and should both be adopted.