It is again that time of the year when young men and women are rearing to go – to the university. You can now hear, yet again, of slang such as Campo, Chuo, and the like; fond pronouncements of the season.
Yes: our young scholars are at it, as has been the case for generations of learners in the past. They want to transit to a higher level; and what a coveted level! After all, who wouldn’t want to transit from high school, with its several contretemps and exigencies, to a stage where one actually becomes a master of their own time and space? The answer is none!
Expectations are high; just like those of a young couple looking forward to their marriage. And just like it is for such a couple, sometimes, if not many a time, they find they had set up a hurdle they could not scale over. Disappointment then follows, with the attendant implications.
I have had occasion to discuss different facets of this issue on this forum before. Today, I wish to say something about choice of courses at universities.
Those who are in the know can aver that there indeed was a time when the main thing one considered was getting a university admission letter. Everything else would fall into place after that. I am talking of a time when any course one undertook would guarantee one a job. Those who may be conversant with the issue recall a time when we were required to pick our employment letters from the dean of students even before we sat our last exam paper at Kenyatta University. It was a scenario akin to the historical golden age: that idea of schooling knowing that soon after, you would have a job bila waas. As it is said by those who get carried away easily, those were the days.
There were reasons for this almost surrealistic scenario. Education had rarity value. After all, there were very few universities then. To illustrate, let me take the case of early 80s. In a whole year, the total number of graduates produced would be in the region of three thousand. It was easy to absorb all of these very valuable human capital in the various needy areas, such as teaching. That made a university education a very valuable thing indeed.
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Can we say the same thing about today?
The answer is obvious. Let the many young people, who many years ago were unleashed upon the labour market in their thousands upon thousands, answer. Let the parents who sold their last family cock hazard a reaction. Let the CEOs of companies which once upon a time panted for essential labour, but whose waste paper baskets are now groaning under the weight of unacknowledged job application letters say something about this imponderable.
Literally, the chickens have come back to roost. Parents and guardians, some of who sold their land, and even homes, to enable their children to pursue a degree course, now have to bear the burden of having to cater for the day-to-day needs of those same children. They have to continue staying with them under the same roof they used when the youngsters were schooling. For all intents and purposes, the process of trying to open a way for their children was akin to digging a precipice of poverty for the family. Instead of solving a problem, it created a huge one in effect.
My professor of Education Philosophy used to aver that education was not essentially for jobs; that it had intrinsic value far removed from materialistic tittle tattle. Well, that was that time. That was the time when we knew very well that tumeangukia. We knew Prof. Njoroge was just trying to make us think beyond shallow materialism, as he called it. Of course, he made philosophers of a few of us, a very tiny minority, I should emphasize. After all, weren’t we young and impressionable? The majority, however, would only lend an acquiescent ear. We knew what we wanted: to clear with this thing (the course) quickly and step into the waiting shoes of the middle class, since the jobs were waiting: quod erat demonstrandum.
Thus the scenario as of present looks pathetic. Why, even medical trainees wait forever to be employed! This is notwithstanding the fact that it costs an arm and a leg (as they say) to train a doctor or clinician. I know an engineer who left KU long ago (almost ten years) and has been selling mtumba for much of this time. She is now struggling to go to Arabia to look for work.
Let it not be misunderstood that I am trying to kill anybody’s spirit, vis-à-vis the idea of going for a university course. If one feels it is necessary, or if one has a passion for it, it is their palaver, as they say. Go, go, go. But do it knowing that it is now no guarantee for a job. As you pay dearly for it (fees, upkeep, extortionate rent, them all), know that the returns are not guaranteed. No, they aren’t. That is why, as you fill that form placing you in a certain school, faculty, department, or whichever other fancy appellation they now apportion them, you need to ask yourself where that simple act will lead you.
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A simple guide, (and I say this as one who has spent much time guiding youngsters in career choices) is this: give yourself time. Ask those people teaching the courses what the prospects are. (The universities should give allowance for this, instead of scheduling orientation time for dances and bonding.) After they have trained you, what do they think you can do to sustain yourself? Which job can you undertake, and where are they to be found? Would you find them conducive, assuming you get them?
Of course, some teachers end up misleading youngsters. They want students in their departments, lest they become irrelevant. In fact, in some colleges, it is a policy to encourage students to settle – in any course. They want the numbers and the fees. I think that is inhuman and unprofessional. Students should be told the truth.
For the students, I adjure you: kuweni wapole. Msikuwe na pupa. Apart from talking to your teachers, talk to other people. Talk to senior students. Talk to professionals. Take your time. It is true that education per se has intrinsic value. Knowledge, in any form, is invaluable.
Get it, by any means. But strive also for the academic equivalent of realpolitik. Rationalise your decisions over the sort of education and life you need, and ensure that there is a definite interface between them. Failure to do this will lead to a certain amount of regret in future; an eventuality you can make do without.
By Charles O. Okoth
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