Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsory part of high school programmes for example working for a charity improving the neighbourhood or teaching sports to younger children To what exatent do you agree or disagree

In recent years, there has been a growing concern about how to increase/strengthen/improve high school students’ social engagement. This has led to a suggestion that community volunteering should be integrated into part of the school curriculum. As far as I am concerned, I strongly concur with/subscribe to this idea to a large extent for three reasons. Considering its three benefits this essay will illuminate, I agree that compulsory community service should be greatly promoted in school education.
To begin with, a synthesis of student volunteering and the school curriculum is one of the most effective pathways to inculcating in high school students a sense of empathy, which is an important skill they will use for the rest of their lives as they are growing into caring, compassionate adults. Whether through one-time projects like collecting canned goods for the local homeless or ongoing programs like biweekly visits to a nursing home and a children’s cancer center, high school adolescents are given plenty of opportunities to enhance their ability to understand other people’s feelings and predicaments. Not only would they come to realize how lucky they are but they would also start putting themselves in another person’s shoes. Through their commitment to unpaid community service, they are more likely to identify with people’s misfortune and succor the needy.
In addition, community volunteering should be made part of school programs as it plays a critical role in developing students’ new skills and gaining work experience. The hands-on experience, whether it is basic or trivial, might provide building blocks for future success. For instance, if a high school volunteer is assigned a task of reimbursement at a local charity, he or she needs to plan and prioritize work lest this extra work affect his or her schoolwork. Then, after managing and sorting the receipts of donors, this student has to learn how to use Google spreadsheets to keep track of inventory and donations. These work-related skills that cannot be acquired from school books are, in fact, the very foundation for a job in management, accounting, or running a small business. Given that gratuitous community service offers a space where students can gain new skills, open their eyes to something different, and give back to their community, I consider it feasible to fuse volunteering into high school programs.
Last but not least, integration of volunteering into school education can brighten up high school students’ curriculum vitae. It is generally acknowledged that volunteer experience can set an applicant apart from his or her competitors in the process of applying to a prestigious university as this experience shows the volunteer is willing to make contributions to his or her community without asking for monetary compensation. What is more, these altruistic qualities are usually what admission officers look for. For example, the University of Cambridge receives tens of thousands of applications from worldwide straight-A students every year, yet it filters out those academically outstanding applicants with little or no volunteer experience. Since student volunteering might affect college applications, I insist that it become an integral part of high school curriculum
To recapitulate, the idea of incorporating voluntary service into part of schooling is completely viable in that it enhances students’ well-being. Not merely does compulsory community service cultivate/nurture students’ empathy but it also helps them procure occupation-related skills and increase competitiveness. Owing to the aforementioned three benefits, it is worth motivating students to engage in unpaid community service at school.