THROUGH THE EYES OF A S.6 LEAVER…

By Innocent, 23 years Old

I wasn’t able to continue with further studies due to tuition problems. It has not been an easy life for me since my dreams of becoming an engineer are on halt now. I’ve thus had to look for out of the box employment options to financially support my dreams of achieving my dreams as my parents, both alcohol addicts, have not been able to fulfill their responsibilities.

I opted for casual labor; the jobs yielded no good results as it was a little pay issued for the hard labor provided. This went on until late 2019 when I secured a teaching job at a secondary school near home.  I saw this as an opportunity to continue chasing my dreams but I only worked for one month and then broke for holidays and by 2020, I had fully planned how to go about it with the expected savings from the school.

The news of COVID-19 towards the end of March and the subsequent 14 days lockdown affected by the Presidential order came into effect. I remained puzzled and challenged about how to take advantage of available opportunities to raise income and go on with studies in the long run. I thought of an online course, but had queries on how to facilitate it all since even a mere mobile data is an issue because the little money we have goes to food and rent. I then resorted my mind to waiting for schools to re-open.

Opportunities for a senior six leaver like me have been very limited and this season has made it worse; the work environment is not for us because we do not have professional skills.

I call upon the government to increase its efforts in cubbing the spread of COVID-19 and ensure an early development of a vaccine to let us free. Furthermore, more emphasis should be put on educating the youths on life livelihood skills which might be beneficial in such a period as liquid soap making and so on.