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Today, in far away France, a young man, Donatus Dombebale Zogho graduated from one of the prestigious engineering schools of that country with a distinction for his masters thesis.
This masters degree will be his third in a space of 4 years of setting foot in France.
Donatus beginnings were humble. He started basic school in Ko, a town under Nandom in the Upper West Region of Ghana under the care of his grandmother and continued in Tamale to BECE level. He wrote and passed the entrance exams for St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, Wa, but was not picked for admission because it was said his pass mark fell below the higher cut off point for students coming from schools outside the Wa Diocese of the Catholic Church which owned the school. So, he ended up in Lassia Tuolo Senior High School, a lesser-known school for his SHS education.
In his final year at Lassia Tuolo SHS, he was on the radar of Ashesi University for admission reserved for students from underprivileged schools in Ghana, but it never materialized. He did pretty well for SHS and applied to the big-name universities in Ghana, but none would admit him. Thanks to a late admission program at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in the Bono Region, he got into a BSc Mechanical Engineering program.
Before the end of his fourth year at UENR, an institution in France in partnership with UNER spotted him and offered him a partial scholarship on condition that he passed French language proficiency test, and of course, if he could come up with the cash for his upkeep.
Donatus spoke no French at the time but in a space of six weeks or so, he aced his language proficiency test and was on his way to France.
In his first two years in France, he joggled two master’s programs successfully, plus snapping up certificates of proficiency in other fields. When he decided he would get into the field of Aerospace and Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, he had to make a choice between two competing high-profile schools, both run by Airbus. Today, he graduated tops in the course.
Donatus story is not one of personal achievement but one of shame and an indictment on our educational system – a system whose penchant for grades, degrees, classes, and certificate is so strong it blinds us all to the real purpose of education – the creation of opportunities that bring out the best from the unpolished gems of students whose grades reflect their real worth, given their circumstances of life, rather than what wealth, and even stealth afforded them.
The names of the schools our children attend have become so important that parents are willing to sell an arm and a leg to secure places for their children in particular schools. In the process, we make nonsense of the very standards we believe grades represent, as we belief buying or bribing our way to get a child with aggregate 30 into so-called first grade school is a sure guarantee they will go to a first-grade university, do a first-grade course, and become a first grade somebody in future. In the pursuit of phantoms, we kill the innate talents of the less-monied jewels or freely give away the gems of our society to other nations.
Donatus Zogho, congratulations for refusing to be what our system wanted you to be – another unemployed and probably unemployable graduate.
By Hyppolyt Pul
