Concern raised over increasing number of students from Nothern Kenya blindly pursuing college courses

By: Abdirahman Khalif

NAIROBI— Abdinasir Abdiwahab and Feisal Nunow are students from Wajir and Mandera counties respectively. Abdinasir attended Wajir High School and his friend Feisal went to Sheikh Ali Secondary School in Mandera.
Abdinasir, a Joint Admission Board (JAB) student, said he always wanted to be a doctor but missed the chance after JAB selectively offered him a business course at a campus in Eldoret, while Feisal left school with no career choice in mind.

The board of Wajir High School. (Courtesy).

These young men represent a collective scenario in the former North Eastern province: student leaving school without a single idea on which career to take up at college, those with career choice but could not find a good college to attend to due to unstructured career guidance system and a similarly uncoordinated students-professionals relationship.That state of matter has shattered a lot of dreams.

Abdinasir who wanted to be a doctor but missed the chance due to JAB slot lottery said he blames the government for sidelining student from the region by offering them less competitive courses at the expense of their high grades.

“It cannot be by accident that we all got admitted to less competitive courses while our colleagues from other regions pursue courses in medicine and engineering,” he argued.

Take, for instance, the case of Feisal who left school without any career choice. He says it was not his fault that he could not make up his mind on which course to pursue in college. He instead blames teachers and the professionals from the region for not nurturing his career choice.

“In my four years at high school, the only professional I came in contact with was a teacher. Member from other professional groups only remained in the books, or as fairy tale told by our parents as motivation.

“At Form Two, I decided that I would be a lawyer, but I was actually scared of my dreams because I have never seen a lawyer. Are they harsh? Mean? How do they dress? What subject should I put more effort in order to become one? Those were the questions I wanted answered for me. Since they were not forthcoming, I abandoned my dream. Had I frequently met a lawyer I would have been one today,” he regretfully recounted.

He wondered why teachers never invited professionals to talk to the students on career choices.

“At least that would have motivated us,” he adds.

During an educational consultative conference held at Wajir Hilton Palace mid this year, the experts who attended the meeting did not recommend periodic career outing for students as well as a plartform to have student-professional interaction. The conference was sponsored by the county government of Wajir.

“What a student does after Form Four examinations determines his/her future,” says Ahmed Ismail, a former teacher at Garissa High School and now a businessman with chains of electronic shops in Nairobi. He is wary that more young dreams could be shattered if no immediate action is taken to arrest the situation.

“Unfortunately, we see young people lose focus of what they want to pursue after high school because of poor career guidance contributed to both by the parents and schools teachers,” he adds.

According to Ahmed, a number of high school graduates may have a career, but are not sure which course to sign up for and the college to attend. “That’s why they end up doing a completely different course altogether at college,” he argues.
He continues: “That’s why you will see journalist who cannot write or speak in public. It just shows you how that particular student ended up doing journalism; he was pushed to it by a friend or was due to family pressure,”
Makori Johnstone, a lecturer at Nairobi University added a new twist to the argument. He believes some colleges offer substandard training that slowly kills the passion of the student to further pursue that particular course.
“Some of these colleges thrive on the gullibility of applicants from far-flung areas like Wajir. We must move from empty rhetoric and crack the whip,” he offers.
“How often do professionals from the region visit local schools to offer career advice and guidance?” asks Enticus Mola, a poet and community manager who freed his native Kitale from the shackles of poor career guidance. “You see, we cannot just leave everything to the teachers. We must play our part in nurturing these young dreams. Professionals from the region must have an association or a club-like organization that is charged with career issues if the region has to see a significant change in the education sector,” he observed.