Majority of learners exiting secondary school in Kenya are either in their late teens or the early 20s.
This is a critical stage in life because the decisions made at this time have the biggest impact on one’s life for a long time. It is a time when one needs to differentiate between adolescent fantasies and the realities of life. Among the choices to be made at this time involve picking a career path.
Motivational speakers usually talk to these young people in a bid to inspire them to do well. However, the majority of these speakers’ topics are utopian. They would rather talk of the possibilities of getting an A in Maths than explaining how to use a mean grade of D constructively.
The continuous reliance on these people who only believe in As has been ineffective especially when it comes to learners who score average and below-average grades. The Kenyan society has been conditioned to believe that for one to be successful, they must have attended university. This explains the craze for university entry points and which could be blamed for the spate of exam cheating that we are still grappling with despite the government’s efforts to stamp out the vice.
Some parents have turned their children into ‘professional students’ who have to spend almost a decade in high school moving from one institution to the next until they make the cut. If such parents and learners could be informed of the many opportunities that are available at diploma, certificate and even artisan level, the clamour for university would go down.
There are hundreds of vocational training opportunities that are still in demand in the job market. The government has done a good job by revamping the once vibrant TVETS and by also setting up new ones.
Bomet
