Second Class & Pass Degree Scholarships
by Mtende Cosam Kanyika,
I am one of the people who graduated with a mere pass degree at my undergraduate university level . By this, I mean a degree less than lower second class. However, you will be surprised to learn that I am actually a distinction material at any tertiary level of education and under normal circumstances whichever class I belong to I am respected for my intellectual capabilities in that class. From the foregoing you can deduce that something was abnormal in my circumstances that made me graduate with a pass degree and not a better degree. The answer is yes. During most of my years at the university (of Malawi) from 1998 to 2002 , I was suffering from recurrent Osteomylitis i.e a bone disease that makes the bone to gradually and partially decompose. It causes immense pain. I eventually got healed in 2002 after I had graduated and picked up a job because then I could afford to pay for better medical attention. In university, I often used to be out of school for over 5 weeks towards the end of the semesters because of the illness. It seemed to be triggered by even the healthiest amount of stress that is related to the approach of examination time. So often I would force myself to go back to the university and sit for the examinations that I had not prepared for but I almost invariably used to score over 50 %. Many of my friends tell me that it was a mark of a genius that I managed to successfully complete my degree programmme considering the turmoil I was in. Evidence of my high intellectual capabilities were usually shown during those times when the disease used to lessen its grip on me when I used to pass with distinctions like in the whole of my first year when my average grade was a distinction and in third year my average grade of the first semester when I had started to major in Computer Science and to minor in Demography was also a distinction. Before university, in secondary school I was top of the class all the four years of my secondary education. I was also a key member of the four man team from Chitipa Secondary School that won the National Secondary School Quiz Competition in 1996 in Malawi. The quiz comprised questions on Mathematics, English, Science, Mixed Bag (General Knowledge),Geography and History. By this time, reader, you may be wondering what I am driving at in this passage. Well, the issue is that most of the Masters scholarships have a condition that makes most of us intelligent people who got poor quality degrees because of factors other than intellectual capacity ineligible. Why? Because they specify that applicants should have upper second class degree or better ? I would suggest that there should be an increase in the number of scholarships that accommodate poor quality degree holders during applications but subject them to extra assessment methods. Good quality degree holders should be exempted from such extra assessments. Thereafter, poor quality degree holders who have done very well in extra assessments should be considered equally together with good quality degree holders. The summary of the reason why I am making such a suggestion is that in our part of the world here there are a lot of poverty and poor standard of living factors that cause a significant number of highly intelligent university and other tertiary level students to come off with degrees lower that lower second class but whose woes continue because they can not access masters degree education since both government and other sponsors choose to select people with good quality degrees. Click here to read or post comments. |