It is the wish of every Senior 3 and Primary 6 leaver to be admitted to their school of choice.

However, as the selection exercise for Senior One and Senior Four closed over the weekend, many learners were disappointed because they were not admitted to schools of their first choice. A total of 157,033 students sat for 2014 Primary Leaving Examinations while 86461 sat for O’ levels, last year.

Nonetheless, those who didn’t make it to the admission list of the preferred school should not look at it as a blow to their education dreams. There is life beyond failure to enroll in your first choice school.

You can enroll in any other school and still pursue your dream career and make it in life. Some of the best professionals we have today studied from little known schools but were able to make it.

The urge for parents to take their children to the so called ‘good traditional schools’ should not blind them from the fact that these schools can only take on a small number out of the hundreds of thousands who sit national exams every year.

Parents should also appreciate that a learner can make it in any secondary school and get good grades to proceed to university. We should move away from the stereotypes that your child can only succeed if they attend the traditional good schools.

At the end of the day, it comes down to individual discipline and focus. If a child is not disciplined and focused, regardless of the school they attend, they will still be failures in life.

Parents should play their role in grooming hard working and focused children while education authorities work on ensuring that all registered schools have minimum requirements to enable learners realise their educational goals.