Working Students in the Philippines: The Life and Challenges They Have

Education in the Philippines doesn’t only require excellence in academic aspects but also endurance from all sorts of problems while studying like emotional problems, social problems, and the most common problem is money. Underprivileged students need to overcome not only their academic requirements but also to hurdle the financial aspect which is why many have opted to become working students.

According to the 2022 survey of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), about 216,000 students in the country from graduating senior high school to college are still juggling school and work. These students are not only striving in their studies but also in their work to gain money to support their selves financially.

Filipino Working Students

The problem was dated years back to the beginning of education in the Philippines from the Spaniard Colonization ‘till this present generation. According to the Working Student (2016), to set down the job options of Filipino working students namely online jobs, paid corporate internships, fast-food crews, and salesman and sales lady just to cope up with their work and studies. These Filipino working students face the struggle of meeting the standards of their work while studying so that they will not lose their jobs.

This causes the working students to face a great problem with their time management. In the study conducted by Lederman (2009) working students mostly work at night and study at day. This daily routine causes the working students to feel stressed and lack in rest and family time.

In the study of Travail (2012), he asserts that the well-being and academic achievement of students can be affected by part-time jobs. He also adds that the effect of part-time jobs on working students is depending on the nature of the job and the number of working hours the student engages physically and mentally.

Academic Performance

In his study, he concluded that working students who work at night are the ones who were negatively affected by their jobs in terms of their academic performance, and it is because of the lack of sleep and rest these working students have. While on the other hand, students who work on weekdays were not negatively affected by their part-time jobs in terms of their academic performance.

Studies conducted about the life and challenges of working students show very alarming information. As poverty rises today many students are suffering from their studies financially. Some, in order to continue their studies they unintentionally destroy both their mental and physical aspect by doing excessive things at the same time. Parents who can’t support their students financially must at least know how to show emotional support to their children who are working students. Suicide reports that students who commit suicide are most likely to suffer from a lack of emotional support from their families.

Let’s always remember that the most important thing that a pressured and stressed person needs is an individual that they can lean on and families must be the important person to do such thing.

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