We are at a point in Uganda where the youth are told to wait for handouts from government in order to obtain means to sustain themselves.
There are more graduates than there are opportunities for employment
Statistics show that every year Uganda produces nearly 40000 graduates across the different universities and yet the job market can only accommodate 8000 of those. But let’s pose on the economy for a bit and talk about how we even got there…
The education system is designed to fail its products. From the time you step in school you are told to learn everything and question nothing.
The picture painted by our schools is that you study hard, or cram hard and get good grades and go out and seek formal employment.
Fionah Komusana: Winner of the 2016 Blog4Dev Contest
What they don’t teach us in school is that the world rewards practicability, ambition and passion. Three things you may have gone through school without hearing or having heard in passing between the career guidance sessions by people who have ultimately settled for formal employment.
So here is my idea on how to boost opportunities, let young people be allowed to follow their passions and pursue their dreams from the beginning because ultimately nothing is more rewarding than a person doing what they are good at and being encouraged to do it well.
The youth don’t need loans to venture into businesses that millions are already doing and failing at, thanks to a lack of passion and a very weak shilling, they need to be told that it’s okay not to be good at Mathematics but we shall support your art.
They need to be allowed to ask the tough questions like “why I am I learning titration yet I want to do journalism?”
The opportunities lie within every individual not in a classroom with underpaid teachers/lecturers or in a handout from a government that is trying to win an election.
So if you ask me, let’s give youth opportunities by giving our education system an overhaul, otherwise we shall revisit the question of how to boost opportunities for the youth every year because every year produces a fresh pile of disgruntled graduates.
And for those that have already been through the system it’s not too late to follow through on their dreams despite the odds because let’s face it there shall never be enough jobs in the world to accommodate everyone.
Our education system as it is now breeds entitlement. Somehow by the time you are done with school, you feel the world owes some sort of favor because you survived the process.
Nobody teaches us that we have the potential to bring something to the table, and the youth need to be grown into the culture of finding their passion and pursuing it to excellence.
The whole settling for less and enough to get by are what got our systems in shambles to begin with.
The best opportunity anyone can give the youth is to allow them to learn to follow their dreams because the competition is within the person to follow through.
This morning I was watching African Start Up on CNN and I discovered that from Kantanka Group the Ghanaian Motor Vehicle manufacturer, to fashion designers in Nigeria to app developers in South Africa the one thing all these budding entrepreneurs have in common, is a passion to succeed because they love what they are doing
Maybe they got that in school or picked it up along the way but I know that African youth need to be empowered to follow their dreams that is the best opportunity.
This blog is one of the winning entries of the 2016 #Blog4Dev contest. Other winning entries include:
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