Pay students to learn?

[brendan]

Think of the chocolates/lollies your old primary school teacher used to hand out when you got something right, but now replace that with cold hard cash.

Can Students Be Paid to Excel?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/nyregion/05incentive.html?ref=education&pagewanted=all

Straight A’s, With a Burger as a Prize
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/business/media/06adco.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all

Paying Students To Learn
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/education/entries/2008/01/22/paying_students.html

Good grades pay off — literally
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-27-grades_N.htm#uslPageReturn

[excal]

As a uni student who's being sponsored through his entire course, I can definitely say that it gives a major incentive to do well and be conscientious. A number of my peers get somewhat hung up on keeping the retention requirements, it becomes a motivator to do actual study. Mind you, the retention requirements are quite lax.

[iamdan08]

That would be awsome for some students. But for others, there would be a huge incentive to cheat! Also, what are these kids going to spend the money on, considering the socio-economic background in which some of the students in the articles are coming from.

[Eriny]

I get paid $5000 a year to learn (although in reality, I spend much more than that) as long as I maintain a HD average. I also get kicked out of the course if I don't. So, I've got the carrot and the stick, so to speak. Now if that's not motivating, I'm not sure what is. However, I'd probably strive for a high average regardless and most people who care about their education enough to be entitled to a scholarship would probably go to uni to do well as well. It seems to me that excelling in school/uni is more up to the individual than about bribery, although the bribery is very nice.