Living in an area short of basic health facilities would be an enriching experience if many such students were like Jesse Esabu Omayido. He scored 17 points in the recently-released A-level exams.
Yet he looks on his past with confidence.
“Around my local area, hospitals are very far. Service delivery in terms of medication was very difficult to receive. So, you [would] find people are just dying in a funny way,” Omayido says.
His father died barely a year after his birth. Yet Omayido’s passion to bring positive change to the community is the reason he wants to study Human Medicine at Makerere University.
“So, if I make it to my dream course and succeed, then at least I would like to start a clinic or a hospital, so that I reduce on the distance that people have to travel to seek medical attention,” he says.
At O-level in 2014, he scored aggregate 11, which was following the aggregate 9 in his Primary Leaving Examinations, four years earlier. For his A-levels he studied Mathematics (at subsidiary level), Biology, Chemistry and Physics at St Julian High School Gayaza. Although Omayido was among the best students in the science class, he admits success did not come easy.
Three days to the final exams, he fell sick and was unable to revise his books.
“I was admitted to the hospital; so, I thought I could not make it,” he says. “I was mostly worried about Biology because it was a bit disturbing.”
Although he was able to achieve this milestone, the future for him remains grim due to financial challenges. His mother, Anne Akello, a teacher at Gulama primary school in Najja sub-country, Buikwe district is worried because she has no money to pay for a programme like Human Medicine at the university.
“I can’t say that I’m prepared to foot the university bills. As I speak now, I don’t even know what I’m going to do with him. He was studying on bursary since senior one at St Julian,” Akello says.
“He wants to do medicine … we pray he gets the government scholarship,” she adds.
Desmus Mutanga, the head teacher at St Julian High School, said when Omayido completed his primary education with flying colours, they gave him a chance to further his education with a full bursary programme offered at the school.
“At St Julian, bursaries are offered to students who excel at all levels. We took him in since senior one and we have mentored him to be what he is,” Mutanga reminisces.
Mutanga say the examinations are not easy to pass. As long as students don’t develop the culture of hard work, they will not succeed.
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