WHAT IS A GOOD COMBINATION IN TANZANIA?
PCB, PCM, EGM, HGE, ECA and HGL come top.

Advanced level students face dilemma on combination that lead to wide career opportunities in the current competitive labour market.

By NYASIGO EMMANUEL KORNEL

THE job market reveals that to be a marketable employee one should be better equipped to compete.

According to the Director of ED consultants, a PR company that also interviews employees for other organizations, employers today want well-rounded workers.

Sangoro Ogondiek said that a competitive employee should be computer literate, well experienced with good presentation, good communication skills and honest.

“You should not tie yourself to one area, apart from academic papers; you should be all round to back your papers. At time work may be misleading,” he said.

He said that information system and technology, accounting and finance, and procurement are the most selling courses today.

Ogondiek added that law, medicine and business administration are also competitive. “A well qualified person in CPA can fetch at least 1m/- a month,” he said.

He said that science students should specialize with PCB, PCM, and PGM along with sub mathematics to give them wider choices.

“Any arts combination can lead to success once it’s excellently done. All an artist needs is to be creative and committed,” Ogondiek said.

He added that the increasing social problems associated with development and globalization can easily employ all art students in different projects.

The question is knowing which A level subject combination is best. University of Dar es Salaam requires students to sit for matriculation examinations, to determine their A’ Level subject combination.

They believe, according to education research in the Faculty of Education, Makili Fredrick that basing in one’s combination on their O’ Level results may not be such a good thing.

So management of University of Dar es Salaam must be satisfied that a student can actually pass the subjects chosen.

To offer sciences at A’ Level at University of Dar es Salaam one must have scored a distinction in each of the required subjects.

“Someone taking PCB (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) must have only distinctions,” Said Makili. His research submitted for master degree also sensitizes students about the courses and job prospects from the subjects taken.

“I carry out research about University courses. With the help of the academic registrar, we will identify the most selling subjects,” Makili explained.

Makili said, people who come at the University on probability excel more than even cream students we yearn for during selections,”

He would like the Ministry of Education and Culture to introduce new subjects at A’ Level to match the current job market.

Makili says that a combination like CBA (Chemistry, Biology and Agriculture) is dying out but should be replaced with new ones.

According to him, the new combinations should mix arts and sciences. Makili believes the most appropriate subject combinations for the current job market include PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics), PCB (Physics, Chemistry and Bilogy), EGM (Economics, Geography and Mathematics), HGE (History, Geography and Economics), ECA (Economics, Commerce and Accounts), and HGL (History, Geography and Literature).

These provide student with more choices to make at the University. “Arts combinations are all about one’s excellence, you can easily prosper with arts,” he said.

Justine Omolo, a Tanzanian educational expert, currently doing research at Botswana University in sciences said, we admit students in Tanzania according to their performances but where the brains dictate that then she has to change the combination. This can be identified only in the first term of joining form five.

Omolo encourages students to do any combination they can do best as success follows personal initiative. “We need scientists and artists at the same time. We discourage students from carrying that mentality that some combinations are bad,” He said.

Omolo, However, said PCB, PCM, EGM, HGE, ECA and HGL are the most marketable combinations today. He said that PCB has over 51 related courses that one can offer at Universities around the world.


Such courses include Mechanics, Physical planning, Agro-business marketing, Radiography, pharmacy among others while EGM cuts across for arts and sciences.

EGM links with over 41 courses including Bachelor of Statistics, Commerce and development studies. He said at St. Pius Makoko Seminary where he studied, student’s desire priority when choosing a combination.

“Families normally attach their jobs to their children which is not bad but the students’ interest should be considered first,” Said Madata Benard, President of St. Augustine University and member of Education Africa Forum (NGO). “We ask them what they want to become when they grow, this helps us to guide them about which combination they should offer.”

Madata believes that good scores at O’ Level picks good scores at A’ Level though a combination dictated by O’ Level results may not be the best for the student.

He also said that every combination must blend arts and sciences.

“Student’s future can be ruined once parents and school management fail to identify a fitting combination for the child. Madata said that good performance only shows that a student may do well.

Maximillian Shadrack, once a career counselor believes that the country needs more scientists to attain development. Maximillian too believes that PCB, PCM, EGM, ECA and HEG are the most selling combinations.

“This is a competitive world, we consider some one’s performance because it’s the mirror of his intellectual capacity,” said Maregesi, the Headmaster of Stella Secondary school.

He said science students could pursue combinations like PCB, PCM, and EGM, which lead to a variety of courses at the University level. “Despite the fact that more students offer arts, it’s also true that they have more jobs on the market.

One need to be creative and focussed to achieve the best from arts,” Maregesi said.

BED(Science), PGD (Journalism), PGD(Theology and ATR)

(The Guardian newspaper Reporter, P.O Box 31042, Tel +255 222700735, Cell: 0745 551 455, email: emmakornel@yahoo.com)

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