Many of those who study or have studied know that student life is not easy at all. When girls do not have the necessary funding for their study projects, it becomes very difficult to envisage pursuing it. Rent, bills, transportation, food, and a whole lot of expenses that becomes very difficult to assume when you don’t have sufficient and regular income. This article highlights major reasons for student prostitution to shed light on the flaws of an educational system that advocates “equal opportunities”.
The financial situation of students.
You have to understand that in sixty years, not only has the number of students increased, but the student community has also diversified. Today we find all the profiles of students, from various social, economic, or ethnic origins. The research carried out on the financial conditions of students carried out by the National Observatory of Student Life, as well as developed by the Observatory for Training and Professional Integration, made it possible to show the great variability in the living conditions of students. The age, social, and economic environment of the family appear to be the most discriminating factors. The “decohabitation”, that is to say, the fact of having to leave the family home to study elsewhere involves significant costs which become difficult to assume alone. Thus, the financing of studies is based on resources from public aid (scholarship, social aid, study allowance), direct family aid (cash) or indirect (food, car loan), and income from paid work.
Parents “too rich” to receive a scholarship.
When the student comes from very modest family background, he generally benefits from a grant based on social criteria. On the other hand, when both parents work and their resources are just above the scale, the chances of obtaining a scholarship are less important than if they do not exercise any professional activity. The situation of students from the middle categories is particularly eloquent since their family seems too “wealthy” to be able to benefit from sufficient public aid but not enough for them to be able to cover all the costs generated by the studies. Thus, 80% of foreign students exercise a paid activity, whether during the academic year (50%) or only during the holidays. More than half of practice it regularly (55%). Unfortunately, the jobs occupied by students are poorly paid. Moving away from home reinforces the feeling that having a paid job is hardly compatible with studies. It is also the primary source of academic failure at university, especially in the first cycle. In addition, there are no official figures, an investigation by the South Student Union reveals that 40,000 students, mainly female, from all social backgrounds are prostituted. The purpose is to pay their rent, finance their studies, and get pocket money. Again, this article is not intended to judge student prostitution at all.
Prostitution as a last resort
The situation of students has deteriorated in recent years. They work harder to make money. Reconciling studies and work becomes an obstacle course. Some students are forced to stop studying. We all have people around us who, in a very precarious situation, had to sell their bodies or even drugs. Of course, it is not a question of legitimizing these practices but of clarifying them rather than remaining focused on prejudices.My mother doesn’t know. Still, in one evening I can earn what I earned in a month with my old part-time job. I’m so excited to get out of this situation.”
This friend of ours is a student by day and an escort girl by night. An escort girl is a girl who accompanies a man for an entire evening for a fee. Benefits may also be accompanied by sexual favors.
Studies are expensive. For wallets … but also for the mental and physical balance of these students who, day after day, manage, juggle between emergencies and priorities. Under the weight of financial, family, and social pressures, they find themselves having to make “choices” that are not.
Sarah, for example, for 250 euros an hour, accompanies clients to business dinners, sometimes in their spare time.There is no pleasure. To follow a specialized pathway from high school, I had to find accommodation, buy food for myself … An escort-girl friend gave me the idea to cash in on my charms. The money pays the rent for my studio in Frankfurt. On lucky days, I’m called “just for a massage.” When there is a relationship, they are gentlemen who are a little older or with a slightly difficult physique. They see a pretty girl and it’s going very fast.”
Educational inequalities in education for equal opportunities.
Faced with certain situations of poverty, prostitution presents itself as a last resort, a hidden, fast, well-paid activity that brings in money easily, like Jenny, a former student at a school: “ She earned thousands in Months . What I wouldn’t have gotten from working at McDonald’s. I’m not saying it is easy money, but I was proud to have won it without stealing from anyone”
These situations are very revealing. On the one hand, we are in a system of exploitation of these precarious and vulnerable situations. On the other hand, it highlights the fact that despite our education system based on equal opportunities, there are great educational inequalities. Working and studying is the very mark of the educational inequalities deplored by certain sociologists for a long time.
