Why don’t you have the required O-level passes?
THE danger in looking too long into the past is that we run the risk of living there. The public exam results came and went, yet some among us are still staring at their result slips and wondering what went wrong. Our advice to you is simple — Man — you gotta get up and go! Those results are now part of history. Leave them in the annals of history — move into the future. Cutting to the chase This week we will cut to the chase. A lot of time and truth is squandered in politeness. This week the social gloves are off and we will cut straight to the point. Why don’t you have the required O-levels? Why are you seated there moaning and wondering why others are doing so well and you are being left behind by the tide of time? You do not have the required O-levels and therefore you cannot proceed with a particular course of study or enter a profession. You might be hindered from progressing because you do not have O-level Maths, Science or English. Our world is very competitive and for anyone to succeed they need a paper qualification.
If you do not have the adequate O-levels you will find that the door is often closed in your face. I will give you a few real life experiences.
In my church, there is a very prominent lady. She is leadership material. She is in the choir, she leads collections, she organises other women for various functions and activities in the church. However, last Christmas, we were invited to participate in a regional conference. We unanimously voted for her to travel to South Africa and represent our church. After church, she came to me nicodemously and confided that she could not accept the nomination. Her reason? She did not have O-level English and she did not feel she was the right person to stand in front of international delegates. She then proposed that I should go in her stead because I was a teacher and I spoke “good English”! She felt inferior and inadequate because she did not have O-level English! She missed an opportunity to travel, see the world, represent her church and get closer to her Maker!
I will give you yet another example. My older brother’s friend, Bro Shau, had a very good job in the industries. He was an exemplary employee. He was punctual, honest, reliable, hardworking, innovative and ambitious. An opportunity for promotion arose in his organisation. Bro Shau was ecstatic. We were all sure that he would get the new post. To us going to the interview was a mere formality. This job came with school fees for his children, annual holiday, representation allowance, you name it. When Bro Shau came back from the interview, he was crest fallen. When asked why he looked under the weather, he would not open up. It was years later that we learnt that Bro Shau had missed this golden opportunity because he did not have Maths and Accounts at O-level. He had five Os but he did not have these particular subjects. He had missed an opportunity because he had been sitting on his laurels and singing glory songs to past achievements. The world changed around him and he did not notice. Fortunately for Bro Shau, he went back to school and supplemented his O-levels. He missed that opportunity but he got a subsequent one and he has not stopped studying.
These two anecdotes have lessons for you. If you do not have the required O-level passes you do feel inadequate. When people crack jokes about uneducated people you feel that they are talking about you and you break a sweat. When laziness and dullness are mentioned in conversation you think they are referring to you and you look at the toe of your foot or straight into the eye of the speaker to see if they are throwing a jibe at you. As one of Africa’s most celebrated authors, Achebe says, “An old woman squirms when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb”.
Stop all this self-pity and unspoken accusations. Do some introspection. Why don’t you have the required O-levels? Are you dull? Or it is a question of attitude? One of the most prominent and enduring philosophers, Aristotle posited that there is nothing called dullness. Learners fail because; the knowledge that they are trying to consume is wrongly packaged. He goes on to say that if any concept is packaged to the cognitive level of the learner then the learner will prevail. In other words, any concept or subject can be taught to anyone provided the teacher has broken it down to the age of the learner. Therefore, teachers should be alert to, and sensitive to learners’ age and aptitude.
Our teachers at Trust Academy are trained to identify learning difficulties and potentials in their students. It is not everyone who stands in front of a group of students who is a teacher. There are a lot of people who are in schools and other dubious locations who are not teachers at all. Do not be fooled. Our teachers are sensitive and trained to identify the learning difficulties and needs of their learners. Do not experiment with your life or future. Go to the tried and tested.
For those who did well in their O-levels and would like to proceed to A-level, Trust Academy is the place to be. We are touting ourselves as the only place to be because we understand learners. When you come to Trust Academy for Lower 6th place we take our time to listen. Combinations are decided by the passes on the slip, the learners’ aptitude and vision and the environment out there.
It is our duty to assist learners in choosing subject combinations which will guarantee that they achieve their dreams. Subject combinations are not imposed from above. We use common sense, experience, persuasion and a scientific analysis of the socioeconomic and political environment we live in. As a learner you might have your own dreams and plans. However, we are saying there is no need to re-invent the wheel. The road you want to travel is a well-worn route. So we won’t let you fall into the pitfalls that we fell into because we had no one to guide us. Drink deep from our well of experience and expertise. Parents, we are also saying seize this opportunity to accompany your child to Trust Academy when they come looking for places. Come over so that we can sit down and plan your child’s future together. Let us make a collective decision to help your child put the best foot forward.
You do not drown by falling into the water, but by staying in it. If you did not do well, there is hope yet. Get out of the water, wring your clothes, and move on. The time for self-pity came and went. Man — you gotta get up and go!