Paying School Fees through Wastes: Experiences and Health-related Challenges of an Eco Scholar

Abstract: This case study explores the experiences of an Eco Scholar as he pays his school fees from the sales of recyclables under the Eco Scholarship of a university. This special non-academic scholarship of a university in Central Visayas, Philippines covers the tuition fees and allowances of the scholar and gives hope to an aspiring student to finish the program. A systematic, comprehensive and ecological solid waste management program ensures the protection of public health and the environment and the proper segregation, collection, transport, storage, treatment and disposal of solid waste through the formulation and adoption of best environmental practices. It addresses waste management problems and alleviates poverty.

As the scholar segregates bio-degradable and non-biodegradable wastes in the Materials Recovery Facility, the student reminisces his experiences as a child from a poor broken family, his financial constraints in college, waste segregation at a young age and the joys of his present work. The scholar also shares the health-related challenges encountered and how other students viewed his work in the university.

The narratives of this case reveal the personality of the scholar, the qualities that an Eco scholar should possess, and the difficulties he encountered while at work. The scholar shares the values he learned from solid waste management, his day-to-day struggle to make ends meet, and his dreams and aspirations for the family.

Keywords: School Fees; Poverty; Eco Scholarship; Solid Waste Management; Health-related challenges; Materials Recovery Facility; Central Visayas, Philippines

This study was published in the International Journal of Social Sciences and Educational Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2016.