What fails pupils to take on their dream carriers?

Net Photo.

After braving the dusts in Bukomansimbi district, there we met a 15 year-old Namuwulya Josephine, former pupil of Bright Angel Primary School who had scored nine aggregates in her Primary Leaving Examinations.

Namuwulya was one of the 200 pupils who had passed in Division one in the entire Bukomansimbi district who make 12% of the pupils who sat their examinations in 2016.

Josephine whom we found doing her home cores jumped with vigor filling happiness as she was told by her former head teacher, Mr Adam Yiga, that she got a first grade. 

 “Am very pleased that I have passed well and am going to senior secondary,” Namuwulya said with a smile on her face after a speechless period.

Mr Yiga described Namuwulya as a determined girl who was also focused while at school and therefore she deserved the grade.

"If she remains focused as she has been her future is bright," Mr Yiga said and awarded Shs 20,000 to the candidate congratulating her.

The entire home was flocked by neighbours who were alerted by laughter and hallooing from the family members and I could not resist getting happy too.

After a period of happiness, we had to interview the girl on what made it possible for her to ‘excel’.

Of course as any other student she began by thanking her parents and teacher whom she said where of high importance during the struggle.

“My parents paid a lot of school fees since I was in nursery and the teachers have been on my neck every now and then,” she said.

“As primary is over, which road are taking?” my college Magembe Farish of NBS television asked her.

She replied quickly that she wants to join a good secondary school which her parents can afford and that was none other than St Victor Kitaasa, one of the best secondary school in the district.

  

 “From there, as I continue to excel, I will go to the university and pursue my first degree hopefully, civil engineering,” she added.

She further said that she wants to be a road engineer so that she fixes all the roads in the districts which are currently in a sorry state.

“All roads we have are pot holed because all engineer fear to come to our remote district and as I study I want to be a road engineer to work upon them,”

When asked, Mr George Kato father to Namuwulya said that he is willing to work hard to materialise her daughter’s dreams.

Earlier on that day we had interviewed a number of pupils and many had big dreams of becoming medical doctors, lawyers and engineers.

All had high hopes; you also had a dream carrier, but now look where you are? That was never among your career list but the truth is that you ended up there. What went wrong?

Ms Josephine Ndagire, an experienced teacher and Head teacher at Faith Junior School in Masaka attributes the failure to uptake the childhood carrier to a number of reasons some being personal and other influenced by the community, family, and most probably financial issues.

“As a teacher at the lower (primary) level of education, I always hear dream carriers of the youngsters but only  a few of these children achieve their early dreams,” Ms Ndagire notes adding that still there are some children who stick on their dreams and eventually take them on.

Ndagire says many parents fail their children to work on their dreams as they force them into other things. “Some parents, who failed to fulfill their dreams, try to get them fulfilled through their children not knowing that children have got theirs too and sometimes parent think they can choose the best for their kids.”

By and large, she says for many children, their class intelligence also betrays what they want to achieve citing an example of a child who would like to be a doctor but is very dull in science classes.

Mr Isaac Mutebi, who wanted to become a pilot but ended up as a mechanic, says that the financial ability of the family from which the child hails from is as a key factor.

“Taking me as an example, my father could not afford to pay for my universities tuition though I had passed with good grades at A-level,” Mutebi said.

Davis Buyonda, journalist, says for someone to achieve or not achieve your dream carrier it is all about your attitude.