© Victor Ochieng’
People are born without choice, but live this life by choice. Destiny is a matter of choice, not chance. No wonder, high school scholars should make wise choice of subjects in Form Two. In Form Four, they should also make informed choices of college courses. Career choices must be done with care and caution.
To begin with, a career is defined as a job or profession that will enable the teen to prosper and make progress in future. It is also a way of turning dreams into reality. Dreams are seedlings of reality. Career encompasses education, training, tutelage, work experience, and involvement in community service. In the whole scheme of things, a career becomes a lifestyle and source of income.
By and large, through hot pursuit of meaningful careers, people discover and develop themselves. They pursue their purposes and maximise their potential. It is through careers that people meet the high demand for skilled labour, they solve perplexing problems, and make personal contributions in the society. People who reach the acme of their careers manage to earn a decent living. They find legit ways to create wealth. This entices fulfilment and contentment; the best way to enhance wealth of mental health.
High school scholars should tread with caution, so that they don’t get trapped in career pitfalls, myths and misconceptions like believing that some careers flow in the blood, talent is more important than career. Or believing that formal employment is a curse. They should never choose a career without proper reading and research. It is also bad to be money-minded. Yes, one needs money in future, but careers must be seen as a way of rendering service to the society.
In the distant past, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President sagely said, “the best way to predict your future, is to create it.” No wonder, the onus is on schools in helping every learner to have good mental picture of the actual future. It is in schools where students dream, dare and do. It is in schools where they believe, behave, and become. As they focus on choices, courses and colleges.
In most schools, students select subjects at Form Two level. Subjects are categorised into 5 Groups. While selecting subjects, students should remain sane, sound and sober. It is unwise to select subjects based on whims of peer pressure. It is wrong to be influenced by the myths on sex and gender.
Students should not heed to discouragements from kith and kin. It is wrong to rely on the academic history of the family. A subject should not be chosen simply because it looks easy, it has a lot of fun, trips, or because it is taught by a teacher who is funny and friendly.
The following factors should inform serious subject selection: academic potential, dream career, school selection policy, KCSE requirements and advice from career counsellors.
When choosing careers, students must consider factors like knowledge, values, passion, personality, ability and marketability, availability of resources, academic performance and aptitude. These factors are not independent per se, but inter-dependent. In the whole scheme of things, the grade students garner in KCSE determine the programmes they will be poised to pursue at tertiary level – university and college.
We have four category of grades which eventually determine whether a student can eventually pursue a certificate, diploma, or degree course in college and university. We have top grades (A, A- B+), middle grades (B, B-, C+, C) low grades (C-, D+, C) and lowest grades (D-, E). Students who yearn to pursue alpha courses like Medicine should know that the stakes are sky-high. There is a cut-throat competition for such professions. Therefore, the cut-off points in various universities are elusive. That calls for students to prop up their academic performance.
How do they arrive at the cluster points for a given course? Every candidate sits for a minimum of 7 subjects in KCSE. Even if a student sits for 9 subjects, they will only pick the two languages – English and Kiswahili.
Then Mathematics or Physics, two Sciences, a humanity like CRE or History and a technical like Computer, Agriculture, French, et cetera. So, the total points a student can scoop after scoring As in all the gradable subjects in 84.
Then, to arrive at the cluster or subjects are most relevant to the course, KUCCPS picks only four subjects. For instance, if it is a Bachelor of Science course, they would pick two relevant sciences, Math or Physics and either English or Kiswahili.
If it is Art-based course, they would pick a language, a humanity, technical and Math or any Science. So, if for example, a student scores the following grades and wants to apply for Medicine at the University of Nairobi, this is how it would go: English B+, Kiswahili A, Math A-, Chemistry A-, Biology B+, Physics A, Business Studies A, CRE A. Mean Grade = A- (78 Points).
For this candidate to apply for Medicine, s/he needs a cluster of Kiswahili, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. English will not be used to arrive at the cluster because s/he did better in Kiswahili. Similarly Mathematics will not be used because this student did better in Physics.
On cut off points, the Demand and Supply Principle plays a pivotal role. If there are more students applying for a certain course than the available slots, the cut off points is raised and some students who qualify are left out. In some cases, the principle of the first one to apply gets it wins. In this scenario, those who applied for a course as the first choice and met the requirements are admitted while those who applied as the second or third choice, even with a high grade, are left out to wait for revision.
The writer rolls out Career Talks and Training Programmes in Schools. He guides Form Twos on Selection of Subjects, and Form Fours on Choice of College Courses. vochieng.90@gmail.com.
