A little failure doesn't hurt. Or at least that is what 28-year-old Amr Ismail thought when he started to fail courses in college. Now, graduating 11 years later has given him quite a different perspective. After 11 years of enrolment, Ismail had moved between three different universities, where he failed a total of almost 30 courses. “Over the years I failed for many different reasons,” Ismail explains. “Although I was a top achiever in high school, when I attended college I didn't have any clear goals. I chose a sophisticated university just for its prestige. And I wasn't completely dedicated to my studies, since I was busy starting a small business after high school.” As Ismail sees it now, the problem for Egyptian students is that society dictates when they should attend college and pushes them towards prestigious or fashionable universities and colleges, rather than allowing them the chance to explore life and discover where their real interests lie. Ismail adds, “I recovered from the recurrent interruptions, when I started planning each day well. I set up a strict schedule that allowed me to attend all my classes, sleep well and also restricted the time I spent on my business. Once there was order back in my life, everything began to flourish simultaneously!” Language barriers can be a major pitfall that hinders the progress of some college students, such as Mahy Salem. “After I gained my IGCSE degree I went to the School of Engineering, Cairo University,” Salem says. “Unfortunately it took me two years to complete my freshman year. I kept failing due to the difficulty of studying mathematics and geometry in Arabic, after having studied them in English for all my life.” Language was not the only problem, however. Another major challenge for Salem was the social change she had to confront. “It was a major mistake to attend a public university with a massive number of students, after I had been raised for 16 years in a small community where almost everyone was from the same social background,” she explains. “I was an outcast among my colleagues and it was really challenging to make friends. This was extremely demotivating, and accelerated my decision to transfer to one of the private English-speaking universities.” Salem is not alone. “One course was just my nightmare,” says Mohamed Omar, a graduate in mechanical engineering . Omar's downfall was dramatic. He excelled in all his courses, except for an advanced English course that he repeated eight times. “Each semester I failed that English course for different reasons. When I sought help from an advisor who helped me trace my problem back to its roots, she pointed out that I was just not dedicated enough. I believed that since I came out of English schools and spoke English fluently, that subject should be a natural exercise for me.” “Of course, it turned out to be something quite different: I had to learn the techniques of research writing, critical writing and many other specific practices. It was not just about basic grammar and vocabulary.” For Omar, the price of arrogance was staying in college for nine years. “My siblings and friends graduated, and I was still there, depressed, and waiting for a miracle to help me out. Yet real life was just inches away. All I needed was a little flexibility, to seek help and build up dedication in practice.” It's not always about failure, either. High school seniors face other obstacles when they pass their thanaweya amma or equivalent degree, yet their grade point average (GPA) is not high enough to attend the college of their dreams. Such moments in life resemble a crossroads. Omar Tarek, an American high school diploma student, remembers being stuck at a big junction where he had to decide either to go to a university that was not the one he wanted, or to take the risk of staying home for another year and taking more SAT examinations to increase his GPA in the hope of being accepted into Cairo School of Medicine for 2014. For social analyst Abeer Ehab, the problem is that Egyptian youth do not get enough opportunity to explore their real interests and talents, so their choices for their future are usually determined by trends, prestige or their family's income level, without any consideration for their particular skills and talent. This is especially true of the decision which college to attend, as few young people at that age have a clear idea of themselves, their needs and desires. “It's our personal growth and development that will decide whether our attempts are met with failure or success,” says Ehab. She adds that when they are 18, youth are usually still struggling with their teenage issues with their parents. “They want to explore life, but they are usually still very much under the influence of peer pressure, so it takes them more time than adults to work through the process of trial and error to find the right choices.” English teacher Ahmed Farouk takes a bleaker view. For Farouk, students who have not already learned the importance of commitment and who continue to engage in socially unacceptable behaviour are rarely able to learn from their mistakes, and will tend to stick to the wrong track no matter how many time they fail. Farouk warns in particular about drug abuse which often starts in teenage years. “Many young adults who abuse drugs never realise their mistakes or losses,” he laments. “They just keep on consuming their health, age, money until they have destroyed all their possible chances for a healthy life.”
