Completing secondary school is a major milestone for any student. It comes with excitement and a great deal of relief, particularly after the pressure to excel in academics and other co-curricular activities that characterise the final year of studies.
For school leavers, this is usually the first long break from school, lasting up to 10 months before they join university or college.
With the raging emotions of early adulthood and the potentially toxic mix of idleness and freedom, they find themselves in, the first few months after high school are a delicate phase in any teenager’s life.
To escape the boredom that soon sets in, they are often tempted to indulge in social ills such as drug abuse, alcoholism and even irresponsible sex.
Today, five young people who put their post-high school time to productive use recount how it shaped their social lives and careers.
Fareen, who completed high school in 2011, is a social worker.
“Facebook and WhatsApp were the in-thing when I finished high school, but my parents were determined to keep me from excessive use of social media and television at all costs,” Fareen says.
So they enrolled the then 19-year-old for French and German classes to keep her busy. “I felt violated,” she says, “I had just come from a strict school programme. More books meant I barely had time to rejuvenate.”
A few months later, she met a family friend involved in social work. “She was involved in HIV testing and counselling (HTC) sex workers in Nairobi. As we chatted, she told me how girls my age had got into sex work out of idleness and bad peer influence. I was scared but also inspired,” Fareen says.
“I informed her that I wished to work with her. She welcomed me, saying that my presence might inspire behaviour change in the young sex workers,” Fareen adds
Her family was supportive and paid for her training at the Liverpool VCT Training Institute in Nairobi. “After a month, I started working with her. For two months, we worked in Mlolongo, Machakos County, she says.
“I was paid Sh500 per day, which enabled me to take care of my personal needs, and I was also happy to contribute positively to society,” Fareen says.
“Sometimes I would handle married couples. Despite my qualifications, I was young and naïve. I was always nervous, especially while dealing with older people. However, the experience taught me to be firm when handling other problems.”
In 2012, Fareen joined the University of Nairobi (UoN)to study for a diploma in social work.“I was not eligible to join university through the regular programme because I had gone through the International General Certificate of Secondary Education,” she explains.
“After serving as an HTC service provider, I realised that social work would empower me to serve the community even better.”
She is happy to be working in the NGO world. Since June 2017, she has been volunteering with Girl Child Network Kenya.
“Some of my former schoolmates had kids while others procured abortions, which disrupted their education. Who knows, I would probably also have got myself into trouble,” she says.
Designer, communication and journalism student
Daniel, a third year communication and journalism student at Moi Univeristy, left Maranda High School in 2014.
“It was hugely refreshing to finally leave the mentally taxing activities of high school,” he adds.
As a high school student, Daniel had a fascination for advertisements, brochures and other promotional material.
“I was captivated by the intricacy and imaginativeness behind their design. I harboured a strong desire to learn how to design such material,” he recalls.
Consequently, taking a computer design course was an easy choice for him.
“I had the option of taking all the computer packages offered, but I was keen on Publisher and PowerPoint,” he says.
Daniel hoped to do design work as a pastime during his time at the university but never in his wildest dreams imagined it would influence his career.
“Design was addictive. Learning one concept excited the desire to learn and understand other concepts. I was hooked,” he says.
Months into his course, Daniel lost his earlier enthusiasm for microbiology, which he had applied to pursue at university.
“During the second revision of courses, I selected communication as my first choice. Through this course, I would hone my graphics and design skills,” he says
By the time he joined Moi University in 2015, Daniel had acquired design skills. After some time, he joined one of the university’s publications, The Legacy, hoping to put his skills to practical use.
“I design most of our publications. Most of my colleagues at the publication can edit text but few of them are acquainted with the design aspect of a newspaper, which is where my skills apply,” he says with pride.
“I am currently learning to use Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro apps for video production. My aim is to tell all my stories through audio-visual formats, which are what most people prefer today,” he says.
Daniel has since added Adobe Illustrator to his skills. And thanks to the skills he has acquired, he easily designed his own blog.
“I design posters and adverts for friends and student groups at the university for a fee, earning some pocket money in the process,” he says.
Taking a design course after high school has anchored him firmly on course to land a design job as soon as he leaves university in 2019.
“I am proud to be able to film a story and edit and present it in text or video format with ease. Hopefully, I will get a job with one of the major media houses after graduating,” he says.
Celestine, a Rwandan refugee, was born and raised in Kakuma Refugee Camp. She attended Uthiru Girls’ until 2013 before joining the University of Nairobi in 2014 for a degree in political science. She graduated in December last year.
Celestine always had a passion for children, so instead of staying at home after high school, she volunteered at a day-care centre in Nairobi.
“I was taking care of children in Early Childhood Education, which I really enjoyed,” she recalls.
The school soon noticed her passion and when a vacancy came up, Celestine was rewarded for her performance.
“Even without formal training, I was getting a salary, the first ever pay in my life,” she reminisces.
However, her say at the school was short-lived because she needed to get an alien identification card from Kakuma to enable her to apply to join university.
“I left Nairobi for Kakuma to process the application,” she says.
At the camp, she stumbled upon FilmAid, a non-profit humanitarian organisation that uses film to educate and entertain refugees around the world.
“They were filming at the camp. When they realised that I could speak English fluently, unlike my fellow Rwandans, they asked me to do voice-overs for them.”
Although Celestine did not wish to take up any roles that might keep her long at the camp, the organisation prevailed upon her to participate in their film.
“One role led to the other,” and she ended up doing voice overs for the company for two months.
Celestine later took up jobs with Safaricom, a photography and an events company. An eloquent speaker, Celestine also worked as a marketer for a start-up software development company.
“I would meet and persuade potential clients to invest in our organisation. And despite having no marketing skills, I was very good in public relations.”
“This served as a wakeup call to me; if I could help make millions for these companies, I could use my charm to run my own business,” she says.
That is how Rosela Collection, a fashion and design company, was born. Celestine has since graduated from university and is now running her business.
“It was both exciting and relieving for me to finish high school,” says Caroline, who left Machakos Girls High School in 2012.
But besides the excitement of completing high school, Caroline was anxious about what the immediate future held for her.
“I wasn’t sure how I would perform in the national exams, or what course I would study in college. With this anxiety, idleness was the last thing I wanted. I had to look for something to keep me occupied” she says.
At only 17 years and without an identity card, she could not find any meaningful job and without practical skills, she had to settle for a promotional job with a local detergents company.
“We would be stationed at various shopping outlets to interact with customers and market the company’s washing detergents. “It was from these interactions with customers that I learnt the art of business negotiations. My interpersonal skills were also refined and my confidence boosted,” she says.
Caroline’s stint at the company taught her to appreciate accountability and reliability, virtues she now holds close to her heart.
“It’s through practical experience that you gather tips on how to conduct yourself in an acceptable manner in your line of work,” she observes.
After this experience, Caroline studied computer packages at a city college.
“I wasn’t very keen on computer packages at first since everyone was studying them but my parents enrolled me for them anyway,” Caroline says.
But life at the university, she later discovered, demanded high levels of computer skills. “For assignments, research and storing work, you need computer literacy,” she says.
Caroline later joined community service in her coastal town of Mombasa, participating in regular clean-up activities with other youth.
“I met tens of youth who had a different outlook of life from mine, young people with great ambitions that inspired and challenged me,” she says.
“In a few months I would be joining university, where I would meet thousands of other new people, have new experiences, and a new life of greater diversity. These experiences opened me up,” she says.
“Once you have volunteered, there is a desire to keep doing it,” she says.
So after joining university, she would participate in community service whenever she was at home for the holidays.
“My participation in community service after high school taught me the importance of using my voice, time and resources to contribute to the welfare of society.
Kenya does not have a national programme for post-high school youth, so parents and guardians have to make private arrangements to keep their children grounded.
Lydiah Ngwiri, a youth counsellor and teacher at Kiambu High School, offers insights into the issue.
“Teenagers are usually overwhelmed by this sudden freedom of life after school because they don’t have exams to worry about anymore,” says Ms Ngwiri. “With most of them 18 years or approaching 18, they feel mature and entitled to all things adult.”
She observes that most of the bad practices youth engage in begin at high school, but often come to light only after students have left school.
“Teachers and parents are to blame to some extent. They often ask the students not to take alcohol or have sex until after high school. So why not start doing this once they are out of school?” she notes.
Ms Ngwiri says that schools should place emphasis on imparting life skills to students to create and develop good character in them.
“Strengthening guidance and counselling services in schools would tilt the scales for the better,” she argues, adding that parents should enrol their children in community or church activities.
“This way, we will raise a responsible and productive generation,” she says.
