Opinion: Pick up Ds and Es, but prove your real worth

 

An analysis of the 2017 KCSE results shows 135,550 candidates scored grade D, 179,381 grade D- and 35,536 grade E.

More than half of the candidates cannot proceed to higher education or secure gainful employment. This means 57.27 per cent of the candidates flopped and are considered stupid or have hit a dead end.

But do these grades or marks really represent the true ability of these candidates?

What if a candidate, having topped his class for four years, fell sick three months to the exam? How about those that became pregnant and could no longer attend classes or revise routinely? Those bereaved just before examinations? 

This article is for those candidates who achieved low grades. After years of education misery, based on grades and marks, I am here to tell you that even if your grades and marks were low, you can still be great.

For years, society has placed a disgustingly large stigma on bad grades. The reality is that grades mainly reflect effort but may not represent intelligence.

Failing is a life experience. Not getting that A on an examination you spent all night studying for is an experience. Life experiences are a composite of all skills necessary to get along in the real world.

It is comprised of all those skills that are only learned through failure and obstacles of life, like how to hold a conversation, get away with a lie or entertain someone you really don’t like. It is all those skills that high-paying Fortune 500 companies value above all else.

In college, it’s all about grades. In the real world, it’s about talent, experience and personal drive. 

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm, Winston Churchill said. Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend it’s whole life believing that it is stupid, quipped Albert Einstein.

The greatest thinkers, leaders and entrepreneurs of our time have been the men and women who defy the rules and take risks.

They were the ones getting Cs or flunking out. However, their “failures’ were not a factor of intelligence, but an inability to be weighed down by grades and superficial markings. 

At the age of 16, Richard Branson founded The Student magazine. Despite taking to entrepreneurship at such a young age, Branson struggled in school, barely graduating, and opted to forgo college.

Instead, he began selling records out of the nearby church that served as headquarters for his magazine. That operation would blossom into what we now know as Virgin Records.

After graduating from high school, Steve Jobs enrolled at Reed College in 1972. Unable to afford tuition, Jobs dropped out after six months and enrolled in a number of trade courses, including a class on calligraphy. Soon thereafter, he founded Apple.

Jobs would later attribute much of his success to his unconventional life experience.

These are but two examples of men who achieved remarkable success without a college diploma. There are, of course, many more.

Now, why cry about grades and marks yet you have your talent laced with your natural intelligence?

It is time to pick up the Ds and ES and prove your worth.