A word to students whose KCSE results were not so good

I wish someone had told me that "failing" KCSE was not a death sentence. With the glorification of those that pass KCSE, one would think that passing exams is the only ticket to success in life. Granted, it is one of the many possible routes to success. However, it is not the only one or the most superior of the others, despite conventional wisdom alluding to that.

What do we look for in life? A good life. Survival, sustenance, security, comfort, recognition and actualization; the sense of fulfilling a higher divine purpose. My experience is that you do not get all these by only having passed KCSE.

Our educational system conditions our minds that we only need good grades, go through the hops of institutions, graduate, get a good job and a good life automatically falls into place. This does not always turn out to be true. To add to that, only a small percentage of those who start the first institutional hop in baby class make it to the graduate stage. Further only a smaller percentage get to the good life part.

I fault our educational system for training and conditioning students for employment rather than majoring on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial minds, if anything, make good employees. Learning in our system, coupled by competitive ranking, reduces the education experience to a rote. It fails to a large extent to foster creative, inventive, ingenious and analytical minds.

Nevertheless, it is notable that there is a significant proportion that fall off our education system that still enjoy a good life. What can those who fail KCSE learn from this group?

The starting point is to get it out of your mind that you are a failure. The greatest fail would be to limit yourself and your potential for success in life by allowing the negative emotions of the moment to sink and engrave in your mind that you cannot excel in anything; that you have failed in life. The sooner you are out of this negative moment, the faster you will be on your way to success.

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