Kiti Brian

The fact that a girl committed suicide because she had got 19 points highlights the increasing irrelevance of AAA. For if AAB is such a small deal that one can commit suicide over it, then even AAA cannot be a big deal. 30 years ago, AAB was enough to make one a "state scholar," which meant one of the top ten candidates in the country. State scholars were entitled to a monthly stipend throughout the undergraduate course. Only about two or three candidates got AAA in the whole country at that time. Over the years, for reasons ranging from UNEB running out of original questions to ask (hence readers of pamphlets and New Vision books easily getting As) to advances in technology making it easier for kids to excel, AAAs have become commonplace, and it's probable that 1000 kids got the grade in the most recent examinations. The idea that those who got AAA were the smartest kids in the country was dubious back in the 1990s, and it's even more dubious now. To understand why it's dubious, you look at both the past of the kids and their future. Regarding the past, it was seldom the case that the kid that got AAA had got the best grades at earlier school levels. Someone could get 8 in PLE, then 12 in 8 in UCE, and then AAA in UACE. I have just been reading a story in one of our newspapers of a young man that has graduated at the top of the law class despite having joined the programme on private sponsorship and clearly having got average grades at all the lower school levels. If grades were a measure of intelligence, there would be consistency. The same kid would emerge on top or near the top at every level -- and yet this seldom happens. Regarding the future, you look at what the AAA kids go on to achieve later in life. Most of the time, they become ordinary professionals or entrepreneurs, indistinguishable from their peers who got much lower grades. You ask for the exceptional things they have ever done, and all they can say is that they got AAA! And so, achievements (academic or otherwise) obtained at any stage of life are often nothing more than a reflection of the set of circumstances that one was in at that stage of life, and the ambition that they had. That's why they can vary with stages. A few years ago, a journalist from one of the newspapers came to interview me for my life story. At least I thought it was my life story he was after until he asked me whether I had been in the same class with one of the biggest entrepreneurs in the country. I reluctantly answered in the affirmative. Reluctantly, because I don't like to name-drop, and also because I didn't want my former classmate to overshadow my story. When I shared a class with the entrepreneur, it's me that everybody called a genius. Even the headmaster thought so, hence the decision to transplant me from a lower class to sit PLE with this entrepreneur and others. In the end, I was the only one that got 4. The entrepreneur probably got 7 or 8, but, in UACE, he became a state scholar, which I didn't become. I only got BBA, which, fortunately, was enough to earn one admission to any course on govt sponsorship. When the journalist came to interview me, he brought up the entrepreneur's name as if sharing a class with him is one of the biggest things that have ever happened to me! But I see things differently. I set out to write aphoristic books (not to build a big business) and, by my yardsticks, I have achieved more in this lane than any living or dead Ugandan. And I am just starting. My former classmate chose the entrepreneural lane, and has risen to the very top, and is still rising. Some guy called Naval has said that the true test of intelligence is whether you get what you want out of life. It's not a perfect test since our levels of luck are never the same, but it's probably better than UNEB tests. What I admire about my former classmate (and what I think I have in common with him) is the drive to reach the very top in the endeavour that he has chosen.