The attainment of quality education requires a commitment, determination, patience, and hard work
By Ustaz Abraham Mabior Rioc, Juba, South Sudan
September 3, 2016 (SSB) — Education today is viewed as an effective tool for human resource orientation, economic development, and social advancement. It is very instrumental in changing the lifestyles and living standards of people who struggle for it. Nevertheless, it is not easy to score a better education for a better lifestyle when an individual is not committed, determined as well as being patient enough in the whole process of acquiring it.
In order to accomplish academic success, the individuals or the learners should set guiding principles which comprise of commitment, determination, patience, and hard work since they are the core pillars of academic success. These guiding principles are the ways and the means for academic and social life achievements in this modern world of advance technology.
Without taking into account these principles, the possibility of dropping out from the school is possible and this could create a failure in one’s life. By adhering to the principles of academic success, it is very easy for an individual to attain both short-term and long-term goals in the academic and social settings as far as improving one’s living conditions are concerned.
Although resources are equally important in the process of acquiring a better education, an individual can still succeed in the face of the scarcity of those resources. Many people believe that without resources one cannot learn and therefore, cannot succeed in life. Absolutely, this is not true. There are many successful people who climbed up or still climbing up on the ladder of success without resources for their education because they believe that determination, commitment, patience, and hard work are the core values of successful living.
In this context, the typical examples are the late Dr. John Garang De Mabior and the current president of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni among others who had no enough resources by then to finance their education but they had at their hearts full commitment, determination, patience, and hard work. Through their struggle in the academic and social fields, they finished their education successfully and became national, regional, and international figures.
Many aspiring students and other professionals who want to be successful in their academic and social fields should have access to read the early education stories of these great leaders of the past and the modern times.
For instance, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, left his hometown called Wanglei without resources and travelled all the way from Bor to Tonj in search of a better education for a better lifestyle. In Tonj, Dr. John Garang did not waste his time, but immediately joined Tonj Primary school, then proceeded to Busseri Intermediate School in Wau, again to Rumbek Secondary School in Rumbek and Kenya respectively before he finally travelled to Tanzania where he got a scholarship to study in USA.
John Garang did not have resources in those places but he had set for himself the four guiding principles of commitment, determination, patience, and hard work to drive him to the attainment of his academic dreams. He had a driving force in him to struggle for the realization of a better education so that he would be able to turn Sudan around, and of course, he did it.
He had accomplished his mission here on earth and there is no doubt in his education and the legacy he had left behind to his people, the south Sudanese. He had proved to the whole world that to get better education for a better life, you must be a determined and committed personality.
On the same vein, I want to write something briefly about president of Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni concerning the challenges he faced during his studies before he managed to score both the academic and political goals. In his autobiographical book, sowing the Mustard Seed (1997), Museveni outlined many challenges he had come across during his early school days before he eventually became a head of state, regional, and international figure. He wrote that:
In Primary One, and also in Primary Two, we would normally sit down on the floor because there were no school benches for those classes. I had one problem of continually losing my pens which would fall through the perforated cloth bag an aunt had given to me to carry my exercise books and pens. Whenever I lost my pen because of multi-holed bag, the teacher would beat me, and send me out of the class or give me zeros in subjects where I had used pencil instead of pen and ink. It was very easy to detect the source of my problems in Primary Two: a bag which had been eaten by cockroaches and was thus full of holes (Yoweri K. Museveni, 1997, p.10-11).
There is no uncertainty that these two typical examples of great personalities had realized their academic goals without resources but the determination, commitment, patience, and hard work had guaranteed their climb up to the top of Mount Everest. Nevertheless, they had overcome those challenges with high hopes and expectations that one day they would be great people, and of course they are today.
In these examples of the great leaders of this modern era, one would definitely believe that education is a long journey with multiple obstacles after obstacles fixed on the bumpy and widening road. However, their successes in the academic and political angles are attributed to their commitment, determination, patience, and handwork to education.
There are other personalities in South Sudan and the world over who had gone or are still going through these hardships despite lack of resources for their education, but with principles in place, their successes are certain. All of the things mentioned above have strong correlation in the attainment of academic and social successes.
These pillars of education can make south Sudanese youth in general to be potential successful leaders and wealthy people if the youth take them seriously. The writer really believes that success is what you get after a hard work but not just a one day achievement. Many of my products (learners/trainees) to whom I had trained somewhere and sometimes back here in South Sudan always wonder when they find me working on foot from home to the university because I guess that they look at me with different understanding perspectives of how things are really taking dimensional realities for a one time boss walking tirelessly on foot while the products are driving cars of different types.
However, when I come across them I always pretend to be enjoying life and I encourage them that everything is alright but with hope and expectation that one day after the completion of my studies I will be okay. So, struggling for academic achievement is not an excuse that one should use to blame the government of having done nothing to alleviate poverty and suffering of people but a means of accomplishing successes to another level of one’s life.
In this modern era, the best things you get today are the best things others will get tomorrow, if patience, determination, commitment, and hard work are well balanced in the course of the academic struggle.
Moreover, there are many good things that are attached to education once you finally attain the required qualifications required for a well-paid job. For example, good education can make you a better person in the society as well as improving your life and the lives of others who are dependent on you as well. With good education, you will get employed and money will not be a problem which can make you enjoy your life by buying a luxurious car, build a good house, and marry a beautiful wife among other social benefits that come with education.
With that education you have attained, you can stay in a secure and healthy environment as well as having access to better health facilities in the country and around the globe whenever you or your family member fall sick. And above all, no one will bother to utter unkind words or excuses to you but instead will lament on you that this person deserves it. You will earn a high respect from your friends, relatives as well as from your generation.
Although, today the case is different, many youth have neglected or are still neglecting their education in preference of free things, which are coined within the context of crooked means or sometimes associated with criminal activities. In fact, these free things have no values in the society and they do not last longer as they carry some curses from other people who are entitled to get them despite their struggle in the academic and social lives.
There are many instances to these free things and it is very hard for a mere person to understand how they make their way out into them. For example, when a child becomes very dull in the school, what comes to his or her mind is to leave the school and resort to using tricks or unfair means to get rich quickly yet at the expense of others.
As a matter of fact, the wealth acquired by unfair means disappears like the way you get it. But when you commit yourself to education despite the hardships and suffering involve, you can still get educated and therefore, securing better life in a long run.
In contrast, there are a lot of outcry among the youth of today due to lack of employment opportunities despite the academic qualifications they attained so far. This is a great challenge and is viewed as a common phenomenon around the globe due to a number of reasons such as corruption, nepotism, segregation, or daunting economy, just to mention a few.
In the case of South Sudan, the recurring conflicts and interethnic violence and tensions have not allow the government to operationalize the available job opportunities for the south Sudanese graduates to test their fruits of academic struggles. Nonetheless, as I have pointed out above that commitment and patience pays you in a long run, one can still get access to those opportunities in the course of time.
These challenges are everywhere with everybody and one needs to be patient as he or she waits for right opportunities because God might be preparing the better ones for them in a long run. This is a hard and critical time in which one should pull the trousers up and tighten the belt properly so that no one should see your hole of weaknesses that will be used against you once your life gains resilience in the nearest future.
It is our role as youth across different tribes to bring peace to our beloved country since the future of this great nation belongs to all of us.
For sure and surely, the next president, Vice-President, Speaker, and the whole cabinets of both the national and state governments of the Republic of South Sudan will be from the suffering youth of today if they hold on to education seriously. There is no way where we can continue spoiling our bright future by taking arms against ourselves because peace of this nation is our collective responsibility despite the hardships involve.
Let us put down guns and take up pens and books to fight against illiteracy that has engulfed our beloved South Sudan. The pillars of success are internationally recognized and they are very effective and therefore, we the youth of today must embrace them as we strive to build a prosperous and united Republic of South Sudan.
Lastly, to remind you of your academic struggles, I want to quote one of the ancient philosophers called Aristotle in which he said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruits are sweet.” This implies that education is a long journey with endless million miles but with determination, patience, commitment, and hard work, success in the academic and social fields is always certain.
The writer is a student of Master’ Degree in Education at the University of Juba and can be reached via mabiorrioc@gmail.com
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