WHEN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM EFFS YOU UP

It is very sad how our educational system works these days.'Sad' is not the right word in this context, i think its best to say frustrating. So it is frustrating how our education system works these days;It is frustrating how rotten it is;It is frustrating how corrupt the system is! Some people spend their whole time in school struggling to study to make good grades. these people barely have a social life because they want to stay on top of their class and keep their grades up. On the other hand, some people just breeze through school. Get all the A's without having to study or attend a single lecture or tutorial just because they know someone at the top!or they are sleeping with someone at the top!In the end these people who burnt the midnight candle cant even get jobs after school even with all their good grades. What then is the point of being studious? What reward does one even get after being the best they can be in school?

I am upset today!Very upset! All through my schooling years, I have managed to stay on top of my class(by the Grace of God). Never had any  favors handed to me because i knew someone or because my father is a 'somebody' in society. I worked my butt off to graduate with a 1st class and it wasn't that easy because i did a combined major(Political Science and French).Just as everyone who hopes to be a lawyer in this country someday,I sat for the law school entrance exam and i really hoped to make it through. Even before i sat for the exam, people kept telling me that the system is rigged and if i do not know anybody to help me through, i should just forget it. I didn't think it was that serious and i thought i could make it through based on merit. Well, I guess i was wrong and they were right after all. When the pass list came out today,my name was not on it. My first thought was that maybe, i didn't do well after all.But i couldn't shrug of the feeling that something wasn't right and my name deserved to be on that list. I mean,   i wrote my heart out during the exam and unless of course they tell me my paper wasn't good enough based on content of the essay(which i really doubt),then i don't know what criteria they used in grading the papers. I am really at sea here. Not to brag but the content of my essay was good,my grammar was on point. My punctuation's were in check, i dotted my "i's " and crossed my "t's", but I digress.

I went through the entire list again and  saw the names of people i knew who had made it through. At first i was jealous that they made it and i didn't. But then i realised that some of these people i knew could barely string words together to make a meaningful sentence in English- in writing or speech. I also saw the name of one guy who had been bragging about how he had connections in high places. i mean, i studied with this guy for entry into an MA program and he could barely tell the difference between 'is' and 'was'-and he was chosen over me? As i stood there looking at the list with tears streaming down my eyes, i thought to myself, why cant they be fair?why does the system have to be rigged? why do they have to cause so much pain to people who are genuinely smart and deserve to do the programme? Why do they have to let in some half wits who barely know what they are about in and overlook the smart ones? Some of the smartest people i know never made it to the university /law school simply because they didn't know anyone.Even my dad who finally became a lawyer after many years didn't make it in the first time he applied. Why oh why? why is the system so effed up? If the selection process was clear and transparent then just maybe i wouldn't be ranting about this. I mean, why is it that our half baked educational system always give priority to you based on who you know and not what you know? Even  countries that have better educational systems and policies do not do that. I was accepted to study in one of the best universities in France,Sciences PO, and i got in not because i knew anybody but because of my academic record . However, i cant go because one of  my lecturers didn't send in my academic reference thereby preventing me from getting a scholarship. 

I resent the system, i want there to be a change.Even as i type this with tears still streaming down my eyes and anger in my heart, i am hopeful that someday it would get better. Someday, i wouldn't have to know anyone to get into a graduate programme in a Ghanaian university or get a job.I am sure things would look up for me.After the storm comes a rainbow and there will definitely be a rainbow in my sky.

Thank you for rejecting me University of Ghana law faculty.You didn't break me, you only made me stronger and confirmed what people have been saying about you .

And like a wise man once said to me- "tough times makes tough people". I will be tough! and I will make it with God on my side.

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