Page 68 - EducationWorld March 2022

Special Report

Advantages of taking a gap year arships to engage in further civic engagement, national and
international exchange programmes.
ACADEMIC • Gap year students have the opportunity to apply 12 years of
• According to the American Gap Association, 90 percent of school classroom knowledge.
students who take a gap year return to university within a year. • Field experience and cross-cultural exposure sets gappers
Not only do they return, but their subsequent grades tend to ahead of other job applicants.
be higher than of peers who haven’t taken a break. • Universities tend to accept school-leavers with a gap year
• Sydney University researchers found that students who as they are more invested, better community members, and
defer their academic studies after high school for at least a have better employability prospects.
year, have greater academic momentum in college. This is • Gappers tend to write better admissions essays because of
because the gap year usually includes developmental ac- their immersive experiences.
tivities — traveling, volunteering, taking informal or formal
classes based on interests — that remedy “lack of academic PERSONAL
motivation and post-school uncertainty and assists university • Gappers tend to have superior comprehension and com-
students to develop adaptive patterns of behaviour important petence because of cross-cultural immersion experiences.
for academic success at university”. • Better people-to-people communication skills.
• Gap year often ameliorates academic burnout with healthy • Superior problem solving skills.
choices. • Gap year students usually have better self-knowledge and
• Enables identification and practice of extra-curricular inter- awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses.
ests and facilitates choice of study programme that results in • More likely to become life-long learners.
a deeply invested college-to-career future. • Tend to be more independent and self-directed.
• Re-ignites curiosity for learning through exposure to real-life • Endowed with greater global perspective
situations and vocations through hands-on field work.
• Gap year takers are more likely to be supported by schol- (Source: American Gap Association)

cleaning the boiler room of a lumber year. They warn that prolonged in-
mill, before rejoining economics and decisiveness and inability to get busy
physics classes at the University of with purposeful activity can lead to
Pennsylvania in 1992. “gap year depression”. “This is not un-
E IGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Su- to academics but also personal issues
usual. Internal issues, not just related
heal Basha, a Plus Two
like unresolved romantic breakups
science graduate from
a modest family back- are likely to resurface in gaps between
school and college, junior college and
ground — mother is a homemaker and the undergrad years,” writes clinical
father an artist who writes names on psychologist Seema Hingoranay
grains of rice for tourists in Krishnag- in the Hindustan Times (September
iri district (Tamil Nadu) — has been 1, 2019), who advises parents and chil-
highly inspired by new-age tech start- dren to make the best of the gap year
up success stories, especially of Elon through “trust and mutual respect”.
Musk and Ritesh Agarwal, co-founder When well-planned and executed
of Oyo Rooms, and has taken a gap Basha: constant reassurance with care and attention, a gap year can
year to “discover his true entrepre- be a game-changer in the life of young
neurial calling”. “Though my parents taking a year off for yourself. I have adults trapped in the quagmire of sky-
are supportive of my idea, I know they to constantly reassure my parents that high parental expectations, academic
are worried when people ask why I let I will make the best of this year even stress, anxiety, and peer pressure. A
go an engineering seat in a top-ranked though I do tend to feel a little lost at thoughtfully planned gap year offers
college to take a gap year. I want to use times,” says Basha. school-leavers an ideal opportunity to
this year to pursue a start-up idea to Indeed child counselors and psy- develop hands-on vocational and life
use technology to curb drunken driv- chologists warn that the decision to skills, usually neglected in K-12 and
ing in the country. This wouldn’t have avail a gap year shouldn’t be taken higher education, that will not only
been possible if I was full-time in col- lightly. The feeling of being lost, lone- enhance the tertiary education expe-
rience but also prove useful in adult-
lege. Unfortunately, society makes one ly, and confused within an unstruc- hood careers and workplaces.
feel like you’ve committed a crime for tured routine, can lead to a wasted

68 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2022