Academic Achievements: Passport to Success in Life?

Louis Egbe Mbua

A controversial discussion is brewing in Cameroon’s most popular yahoo group, camnetwork, as to whether it is right of a child to walk straight into a vocation at 16 or to follow the conventional path to Further and Higher education ;attaining University degrees. In one corner of the argument are the extremists on both sides who take an antipodal stand against their respective foes: believing that one or the other is a complete idiot for not attaining a degree while the vocationally inclined claim those with degrees in “worthless” subjects such as History and possibly literature are the total fools. And there are those, on the other corner, who stand in the middle believing that both parties are right in one way or the other (how they arrive at their conclusions nobody knows.) The writer believes that this kind of arguments are misleading and of little relevance. However, to allow some light into the darkness of “who is who” in the world, it is of consequence that one puts forward an opinion as to clarify points of interest on this particular.

There is the fundamental birthright at play here because every human being is born free. While one’s ancestors, parents, relatives and siblings have a say as to how we turn out to be in the future; and possibly what one may become in life, this fundamental law of choice remains. It is a child’s right to go on to Further and Higher Education if they feel this will enhance their chances of the future success (career) in life. The trouble here is that as a teenager, future achievements are not a priority in life: the most important aspect being to live and let’s live.

While some are sensible enough as to work hard (or apply their talent wisely) and excel with flying colours in either the academics or sports or music, it would still be early to apply the full laws of choice in this instance. The following is that a significant majority of young people follow the advice or foot steps of their family: chances are that one goes into higher education when an uncle or a parent or sibling or close relative has been to University. Furthermore, the teenagers usually, wittingly or unwittingly, follow the professions of one of their university educated parents. Consequently, if there is a medical doctor in the family, there would be at least three more in the next generation. This means that although we are free to exercise the power of choice, we are also influenced by those closest to us. Given, what about children who have no such advantage?

There lies the crux of the argument: as the disadvantaged child has no role model, they would have to start exercising their power of choice very early in life to get ahead. Although the child may have excellent upbringing and sound home guidance, the child is already disadvantaged by their inaccessibility to knowledge relating to the vocations and professions in life. On the other hand, this disadvantage may serve to bring out the strength of the child who may decide to act on the power of choice to enter into an occupation that fully fits their talents hoping to work their way to the top. This scenario is commonly seen in the areas of music, the art, and sport.

Generally, they usually reach the top of their respective professions at a young age. The problem with this socially-induced arrangement is that one’s lifetime achievement is totally dependent upon one’s unending performance; and that one has to be of youth, almost certainly be of good looks; and always physically fit. This is also a disadvantage as using one’s mind as in the academia to earn a living is not as dependent on youth and physical prowess as the early developer who choose the vocation rather than obtaining a degree.

Furthermore, a Higher Education beneficiary will continue utilising their knowledge gained at University until the end of their lives while the vocation can be short-lived, generally-speaking due to an unforeseen misfortune. In addition, there is no reason why a child may not attain Higher education while following his dreams in sport. To add to the disadvantage is the factor of luck. While one would never obtain a university degree by pure luck, the vocation post-16 years old is riddled with danger. Consequently one’s achievements would hang on the unpredictability of chance and luck.

While the University graduate has these advantages, it is true to say that there are certain areas in life and profession where a university degree may be a redundant qualification as a passport to greatness. Such areas include: leadership including Presidents, parenthood, and entrepreneurial fleur, show business, music composition, Poetry, languages, artistic design and Astro-physics. This requires but extremely high intelligence: which can never be taught in a University. Nobody teaches naturally High Intelligence because it cannot be taught although Artificial Intelligence can be taught.