Tough decision awaits Form Six graduates

What you need to know:

Following the release of the results, the new college year for freshers is expected to begin in some few months to come. James Maro who completed Form Six this year is one among the students who have to make the toughest decision over the right course to choose.

Results of National Form Six Examinations are out. They were released in Zanzibar over the weekend by the National Examination Council (Necta) with a total of 70,552 which is about 96 per cent of students who sat for their exams passing the exams.

Following the release of the results, the new college year for freshers is expected to begin in some few months to come. James Maro who completed Form Six this year is one among the students who have to make the toughest decision over the right course to choose.

Having hopes of one day becoming a pilot, James who majored in Physics, Geography and Mathematics scored division two and with such results he is thinking of applying for other courses. Even before the release of the examination results, he and his friends followed the traditional college path that is visiting various universities campuses and websites.

“My friends and I have visited a number of campuses and tried to have our options open in a number of colleges and universities including Institute of Finance Management as am thinking of applying for a Bachelor degree in Computer Science or Accounts since I have a good background in mathematics,” says James.

James, who now has two months to select the college where he will spend the next three years, with his parents expected to foot the fees and other expenses in case he fails to get student loan, making a right career decision is still a challenge.

But experts says the selection process doesn’t need to be stressful for students or parents but rather it can even be an enjoyable experience only if both parents and students could effectively use the tips from college officials and counsellors to find the right college.

“One thing I would advise students is to never set a limit in their abilities as they need to believe that they could be and do anything they set their minds into,” says Lillian Madeje from Global shapers community which specialises in youth development.

“It’s a huge commitment to choose a course that would determine your future career and one may even begin to question whether they’re making the right decision or not. How active one can grow beyond what they learn while in college or university,” she says.

“Not everyone will have an opportunity to choose the course they want and if it happens that is not the case, then they need to understand that they can still make a huge impact in the future based on course they choose today because what matters is the attitude towards work. One needs to see what the economy of our country needs and learn to fit well,’” explains the human resource expert.

According to Isaack Legonda, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam College of Engineering and Technology (COET), students who wish to enrol in a course should have the interest to pursue that particular course.

He said anyone could pursue their dream course but for one to fit and excel he or she needs to ensure that they have interest.

“One needs to asks how interested and competent they are to join a course of their dream because without asking such question they would end up studying something that will be a burden during their college years and even in their future career,” advised the engineer.

Commenting about the application procedure where students can now apply directly to the universities like it used to be back in the years before the central application system was implemented, he said this would be more helpful since students would be able to get a course of their first choice, “the central admission system that was used had limit, some students were even allocated in colleges or universities that they had less interest in attending , this had led to a number of students who had to change the courses few weeks after admission. But now since they will choose the courses of their choice directly then most of them will fit in,” he says.

On his part, an assistant lecturer from department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at the University of Dar es Salaam,Faraja Kristomus said apart from having an interest in a course, one should enrol, students need to have the academic competence in the course of their interests.

“Some courses are very demanding hence one will need to be competent enough to enjoy the course and at the end of the day they pass well will good grades. Another thing for students to take into consideration when choosing for the course of their interests is to look for the general trend of the course in the job market. By having an observation on how certain types of jobs are demanding, then it will give a clear picture on what to do. There are jobs which have a lot of graduates in the market hence they are very competitive, this can prepare someone to know what awaits him or her once they complete their course,” explains the lecturer.

Explaining on the benefit universities and students will gain from the direct admission system, he said it will open the room for universities to fairly compete in getting the type of students they want, “universities will have a fair competition and apart from that ,it will give a room for students to apply in universities and colleges that they can afford both academically and financially.”

“Institutions will also have an opportunity to screen the type of students they think would meet the standards they require academically particularly in public universities because before there were some complains that Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) allocated some students who didn’t have enough criteria to join certain universities hence caused standards to drop,” he noted.

He went further saying the fact that several parents pay for their children school fees, having an option to choose the type of universities they can afford to take their children to could be of help.

“I understand that it’s important for children to have exposure and going to universities which are located in various regions but on the other hand, that cannot be the case because it can be very expensive for some parents to afford. However the case now is different since they can now make the right choice based on how much they can afford to spend on education of their children. Through the central admission system, students were allocated universities that were far and expensive for their parents to afford in case they fail to get the students loans,” says the lecturer.

Goodluck Macha an IT expert based in Dar es Salaam, says like many college students who went through a lot of decision making dilemma when it came to choosing the right course ha sthis to say.

“Just because you have scored high in your exams shouldn’t make you choose a course that is hard, you should avoid doing that just because you know you’ll get in. For example when someone decides to opt for a degree in medicine simply because she or he has gotten the right marks will quickly make them lose that call in the field especially if they are not passionate about helping people,” explains Godluck.