The 2022 KCSE examination results have met mixed reactions from all and sundry. Somewhat, I do not want to belabour you with stories about ranking that several citizens have erroneously tried to do. Yet, the government abolished it in the recent past. I also do not want to write about schools that got genuine results or the ones that cheated on their way to the epic peak of performance. I leave that ambit to experts. As a sensitive scribe, I made a covenant with my conscience never to use my pen to court controversy or peddle propaganda. Mine is to remain objective — informative, insightful and inspirational.
Without good guidance, some succumb to jaws of defeat and despair. No wonder, I chose to pen this piece: to act as a source of hope and help to all Form Four Leavers. Perhaps, I may repair their despair. My drops of ink may make them think like visionary victors. I am concerned about most Form Four leavers because as a peripatetic teacher, I visited several secondary schools in 2022 — to roll out talks and training services.
Actually, every exam candidate desires to rise to the top. Think of a building with several floors. When you want to go up, you have three options: use the lift, elevator or staircase. Students who scored grade A and B in KCSE, the ‘system’ avails to them the gift of the lift. They become veritable academic giants who have kaleidoscope of possibilities and infinite spectra of opportunities. Due to stellar performance, they have chances to matriculate into Ivy League universities — to pursue coveted courses. They begin to win scholarship opportunities.
Conversely, students who get Cs climb to the top of the skyscrapers using elevators. They may not be lucky like those who scoop As and Bs, but with the right mindset, they can open their eyes — see and seize success.
Academically speaking, the journey to the top is sometimes tedious and tiresome for whom KNEC awards Ds and Es. It is not easy to ascend to the thirtieth floor of a big building using the spiraling staircase. My pen pensively remembers the sob story of one of my lecturers in the university; telling us how she started with a certificate course, then went for diploma, degree, masters, up to doctoral studies. She became a success story because, on her way to the top, she never lost hope, until she reached, and perched, touched the summit.
Again, I encourage Form Four leavers to read Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students and ‘B’ Students Work for the Government by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The putative author opens that heroic book with wise words of Albert Einstein: “Everybody is born a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, then it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The text is saying that children are not the same per se. ‘A’ students are academics. ‘B’ students become bureaucrats. While ‘C’ students are entrepreneurs: they carry the torch of capitalism, and create jobs. Interestingly, some of them end up employing ‘A’ and ‘B’ students.
Therefore, we should not write-off Form Four leavers who score mediocre grades in KCSE, for God has a plausible plan for every person. In Jeremiah 29:11, we read, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord: plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
In Job 14:7, “At least there is hope for a tree: If it be cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water; it will bud and put on shoots like a plant.”
In actual sense, all Form Four leavers should know that KCSE examination enhances transition from secondary to tertiary level of education. The grade garnered is not the final say. Instead, as the singer sang: Jehovah has the final say. He turns our lives around. He makes a way where there is no way. Again, in Isaiah 43:18-19, the best book admonishes us to forget about the former things. We should never dwell on the past. For God does new things. He makes a way in the wilderness, and provides water in the desert. Form Four leavers should let bygones to be bygones. None should give in to guilt and regret for missing KCSE targets.
Finally, KCSE is not the end of life. Form Four leavers should come to consciousness, and ask themselves the quality question: What next after KCSE? For those who scored grades As and Bs, they have an open door to pursue glamour-tinged careers in universities. On the other hand, those who scored Cs, Ds and Es have chances to pursue diploma, craft and artisan courses in Technical Vocational Colleges (TVCs). Life is a journey, not a destination. Talents, gifts, skills and character, also contribute to success.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer is an author and a public speaker.
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