I’ve not done very well on blogging during my time in Uganda, so here comes a little flurry as I prepare to return to UK in a couple of days.
At the moment I’m in Ntinda, one of the Kampala suburbs, and whilst here I had a wonderful visit to the Acholi community that I’ve been linked with through CRED and LII for many years.
There are a few different projects that we’ve helped to set up over the years, and a main focus on this recent visit was meeting with the older young people that we are sponsoring through mainstream education. In all we are supporting 21 students, who between them span from Primary 2 through to 2nd year at university.
There are a growing group who are at secondary school now, and I had been asked to meet up with them and chat about options for post secondary. In Uganda, they take ‘candidate’ exams at end of S4 (equivalent of GCSEs) and at end of S6 (equivalent of A levels). After that they might go to university, or vocational college. However, vocational college is also an option sooner than end of S6 – they could essentially go anytime from end of P7, although age wise they ought to be 16yrs or above, and obviously their secondary performance would impact which level of vocational course they could go on.
But when I met with the secondary students, my main message was that the most important thing was that they followed the course that felt most right for them. Not doing something that others were telling them to do, not living out a parent’s unfulfilled dream, but thinking about their own preferences and dreams, and taking a course that would help realise that dream.
I suggested that university isn’t right for all, and that vocational courses can result in a higher chance of getting a job. And I impressed on the youngsters that there was no expectation by the sponsors that university had to be the route that was followed.
Yes, they can try for university if they have a strong reason for doing so, and if their academic performance indicates that they will cope. But no pressure that they must go down that route.
It was interesting to see the responses of the individuals there. For some, this was clearly a new way of thinking – to consider a vocational course as a positive choice rather than a second best is not the standard way over here. Still university is what many families aspire to, even though financially it is such a huge burden. And the concept that it isn’t an automatic route to a job was another bit of eye-opening news.
And for some of them, they clearly still yearn to do university – which is fine, if they’ve got a strong, well-reasoned rationale for that choice. I just don’t want them to choose that route if it will actually just make their life even harder than it already is, with no great gain at the end.
For some of the others, the thought that they could stop school before S6, and switch to something more practical was definitely a great relief. One of the students came up to me after to talk this through more. They are really struggling with school, and the thought of 4 more years of it was just feeling too much. So to hear that it would be OK to switch to doing something practical at a vocational college, and come out with a certificate to show their skill, that message totally hit the sweet spot for some. Indeed one youngster was nearly in tears as the realisation dawned that they didn’t have to go back to school in Feb, but instead could start getting a qualification in the thing that they loved doing most – tinkering with bikes and cars.
It was a really good conversation with all of the young people, and such a privilege to be playing a role in helping them explore what might be the next steps for each of them. They come from such tough backgrounds, so much of life is stacked against them – but their resilience and determination really shone through in this meeting, and I pray that they all are able to recognise and fulfil their potential.
