Pressure on ‘A’ students to join cream careers causes problems

By Benjamin Obegi

Every year when examination results are announced, Kenyans watch as the high scorers talk about their dream careers — dentistry, medicine, engineering and architecture.

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)  is solely taken to be a determinant of careers and therefore the future of thousands of students.

To many, scoring a straight ‘A’ guarantees one a path to a profession of choice. However, not all of these students are lucky after landing the good grades in KCSE and dream career choices.

Recently, the University of Nairobi Arts students welcomed a new student who told them he was comfortable studying economics and not medicine, his career of choice having scored a straight ‘A’ from a top national school. After a few classes in the medical class, he felt his calling was elsewhere.

The student was only joining a growing list of those who drop from pursuing courses which are considered the best and well-paying after training to enlist in the ‘low’ ones.

When Alfred Matara joined the University of Nairobi in 2000 to study Architecture, he became the envy of his former classmates. After three years of study, constant drinking led to poor grades in exams and he was advised to repeat the class. Instead he left the university.

He has not gone back to class since that day in 2004. He told The Standard from his rural village in Kisii, “I was not happy in the course that came as a result of my top grades. Even after telling my parents that I was comfortable with studying Education, they insisted that I study Architecture. My passion lay elsewhere, I’d not continue.”

For Levy Owiti, also an ‘A’ scorer, his passion did not lie in dentistry, a course his father wanted him to study, but in  commerce, which he is currently undertaking at a private university.

He says: “My dad had wanted me to be a dentist. After joining Moi University, I realised that was not my cut. I dropped and stayed home for a year before I convinced my father that I was happy in a different course. A good career is not equivalent to the high grades you may get in high school. The passion you bring to any training is what matters most.’’

According to Muchira Kago, a physics teacher at Alliance Girls’ High school, it is not necessarily obvious that someone who scores a straight ‘A’ will excel in the careers that only admit top students.

He says: “It is not correct that if a student scores these grades he or she will succeed in the top professions that society holds in high regard. What happens after these students join universities? We are not told how they fare but we have cases of students who drop from pharmacy, medicine, engineering and other such prestigious courses. Average students who go for lowly regarded courses do well and end up driving our economy for the better. The question is; what next after the top grades?0’’

Eunice Wambani, a career expert, says the problem lies in satisfaction.

She says: “Parents are still playing a role in choosing careers for their children. We may want our children to be doctors but do we think of where they find satisfaction? Even when they follow our advice, they do not bring passion to their courses. The `A’ students who could have become good professionals elsewhere easily drop out of class and waste away. Society is the problem.’’