Schools in the Sabiny sub-region are championing a cultural behavioral change to eradicate the female genital mutilation (FGM) practice.

FGM is the painful removal of the external female genitalia for non-therapeutic reasons and the practice is aligned to the Sabiny culture in the remote mountainous districts of Kapchorwa, Kween, Bukwo, Nakapiripirit, Moroto and Amudat.

In 2009, parliament passed a law banning FGM but that has not wiped out the vice entirely. This current campaign was sparked off last year when 14-year-old Christine Chelamo was found helplessly swamped in a pool of blood behind one of the classroom blocks at Kortek Girls SS in Riwo sub-country, Bukwo district.

Chelamo, now a senior three student, had just undergone FMG, locally known as ‘wonsetap koruk,’ and sent to school the following day without medical attention.

Her desperate condition sent waves of panic in schools nearby and brought out more revelations from students who had gone through or were struggling to heal after the mutilation.

“We had to take affirmative action as a school,” says Ben Cheptoris, the director of studies at the school. “This girl [Chelamo] and many more were sent here without treatment.”

After three days of receiving treatment at Talepa health center, Chelamo was discharged only to be disowned by her parents for ‘bringing shame’ to the family.

“They [parents] told me to go back where I had been, claiming I had gone against the cultural rituals,” says Chelamo, who stays at the school premises with 13 other students, who ran away from their homes for fear of being mutilated.

Kortek SS has joined hands with nearby schools such as Mokoyoni SS and Brim SS to form students associations to fight the vice through anti-FGM-focused lessons held once every week.

“The problem is that elders are not relenting on this practice and that leaves the youth as the victims. The education sector also needs to quickly introduce sex education,” Cheptoris adds.

Health experts and personnel from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) visit the schools in the region every fortnight to assess the situation. Doctor Eric Dairo Akinyele, the officer in charge of UNFPA in Uganda, says: “There is simply no place for FGM as we strive to create a future where every girl is able to experience human rights and equality by 2030.”

He said this during the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child at Amanan’g playground in Bukwo district. On the same occasion, Stephen Saik, an English teacher at Amanan’g SS, said it is important the fight against FGM starts in schools to help create a new generation that would still hold the good side of the Sabiny culture in the highest regard and drop things like female circumcision.

Meanwhile, Esther Mbayo, the minister for the presidency, says government has already acquired land in Kortek sub- country to build a girls school for FGM victims and teenage mothers, who could be interested in resuming their education.

Part of the celebrations included an anti-FGM marathon in the area.

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Ministry of Education and Sports officials say the scheme of service for primary schools was misinterpreted by education stakeholders, writes YUDAYA NANGONZI.

On October 5, teachers in Kampala converged at Lugogo cricket oval to celebrate their annual fete. Themed Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status, the national celebrations attracted President Museveni as well as his wife Janet, the minister for education and sports.

Through their umbrella organisation Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu), teachers highlighted some of their challenges. Among other concerns, the policy of head teachers in primary schools upgrading to degree level caught the president’s eye.

James Tweheyo, the Unatu general secretary, said the current teaching situation is unstable, noting that the policy has forced several school heads to abandon their schools.

“Your Excellency, let me tell you this secret, head teachers and their deputies have disappeared from schools because they are busy pursuing degrees,” Tweheyo said. “And the support supervision is lacking in the schools because teachers are almost supervising themselves.”

Tweheyo’s statement prompted the president to summon Dr Jane Egau, the commissioner for teacher education in the ministry, to explain the policy.

“The issue of graduate head teachers is a structure that came from the ministry of public service and we shall talk with them [public service] to harmonize these issues,” Dr Egau said.

Not convinced, Museveni called Adah Muwanga, the ministry of public service acting permanent secretary, to give more details.
Muwanga said: “It is true the circular came from the ministry of public service. However, the education standards are set by the ministry of education.”

The two government officials left the president wondering who was telling the truth after they failed to explain who specifically initiated the policy.

“Well, to be a good primary head teacher, do you have to be a graduate? And if that was the case, why stampede people? It can be a technical good proposal but let also the political leaders look at it,” Museveni said.

POLICY MISINTERPRETED

In an interview last week, Hajji Badru Waggwa Lubega, the chairperson of the Education Service Commission (ESC), said the policy is part of the June 2013 Scheme of Service (SoS) for teaching personnel in primary schools, but has since been misinterpreted.

“I am surprised that some officials at Lugogo could not explain to the president that the scheme was disseminated by us,” he said. “We even engaged some of them during the drafting and implementation stage.”

Sarah Mabangi, the ESC principal policy analyst, said the SoS is a human resource tool which is aimed at introducing promotional ladders for teachers within the classroom. Before the scheme was implemented, there were only three levels of teacher, deputy and head teacher in a school.

“[But] we now have an education assistant who bears a certificate as the first entry level, then to senior education assistant, principal education assistant, deputy head teacher (with a diploma), and finally head teacher,” she said.

She explained that back then, it would take a Grade-III teacher with a certificate six years to be promoted and work for more three years to get the next promotion to be senior education assistant.

According to Mabangi, to become a deputy head teacher, a diploma holder needed at least 12 years in service and at least 15 years to become a head teacher.

“For us, we believe that in 15 years, somebody must have acquired a degree because some of them have already done. Honestly, you have an education assistant with a diploma, how can such a person be headed by a Grade-III teacher with only a certificate?” she wondered.

SCHEME OF SERVICE

An evaluation of the SoS conducted recently by the commission found that over 50 per cent of education assistants have already acquired diplomas. Already, even before some head teachers upgraded to degrees, their salaries were automatically increased, according to Mohammed Kaaya, a commissioner at ESC.

“We did this hoping that in three years, which expire in 2018, they would eventually acquire the qualifications and remain in those positions,” Kaaya said.

However, a July 1, 2014 circular by the ministry of public service indicates that those who will have failed to acquire the qualifications will be retired.

“But the circular is not cast in stone because if we receive any complaints on the timeframe, there is room for a review,” Kaaya said.

POLICY BENEFITS

According to Nicholas Gaboi, the ESC principal human resource officer, the benefits in the teacher’s scheme are immense. For instance, an education assistant (with a certificate), as the first entry level in primary schools, now earns Shs 533,000, up from Shs 377,000.

Gaboi says this amount is ideally higher for a primary teacher since other public servants in the same salary scale earn Shs 268,143. Deputy head teachers with diplomas earn Shs 599,322 while public servants in the same salary scale earn Shs 447,080.

Head teachers, whether they have acquired a degree or not, are currently in scale U4 and earn Shs 798,667. Yet other public servants in the same scale such as economists, administrators and human resource managers at degree level earn Shs 601,341.

“With those figures, are we not helping the teaching personnel? Even an education officer at the district who supervises the head teacher earns a lesser fee of Shs 601, 341,” Gaboi said.

The salary scales are expected to be integrated into the single-spine salary structure for all civil servants.

MINISTRY SPEAKS

Tonny Mukasa-Lusambu, the assistant commissioner for primary education, also disputed complaints by Tweheyo that head teachers have neglected their schools and concentrated on studies.

Mukasa-Lusambu said the ministry is currently conducting a survey on teacher absenteeism and, so far, it has reduced tremendously.

“In the reports so far, I have not heard anywhere that head teachers have abandoned their schools. That is false information,” Mukasa- Lusambu said, adding that Unatu officials ought to be informed on certain things before communicating them to the public.

According to the education service commission, head teachers and their deputies are supposed to study in the evening, weekends, during holidays or even engage in long-distance learning.

“We briefed them [head teachers and deputies] on the scheme and they know what to do,” Mukasa-Lusambu said. “The issue of better welfare for teachers was raised by Unatu people since 2011. We are trying to address their concerns through the scheme of service and I don’t know why they are making noise over it.”

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The Irish embassy has launched the Africa code week in Uganda, a digital literacy initiative.

The one-week initiative will be held at Makerere University with the aim of fostering digital literacy and equipping young people with job-relevant skills.

The pilot initiative, which rolled off on Friday, will benefit more than 250 students from both primary and secondary schools with computer facilities.

“This is to enable the young Ugandans attain experience and become comfortable with information technology,” Donal Cronin, the Irish ambassador to Uganda, told The Observer.

With support from SAP, an Irish-based technology company, the initiative will be spearheaded locally by four partners which include Makerere University, Women in Technology Uganda, Resilient Africa and HiveCOLAB.

Participants will be tasked with creating modern software, building video games and developing smartphone apps.

Education minister Janet Museveni has called for universities and tertiary institutions to ensure that they provide quality and relevant higher education that leads to the employability of graduates.

Speaking at the closure of the sixth annual Uganda Vice Chancellors’ Forum (VCF) conference in Bugolobi last Friday, Museveni said this can be achieved only if universities follow guidelines set by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). NCHE is a statutory body that regulates and guides the establishment and management of all institutions of higher learning.

“I have learnt, for instance, that one of the private universities was closed by the NCHE due to its failure to adhere to the minimum standards,” Janet Museveni said, without naming the university.

Her concern raised some murmurs in the conference room, to which the minister only smiled and said: “Now, you trust that I come from the ministry of education and I have to talk about these things. I hope that we consider discipline. How can we allow universities then to multiply mediocrity while they talk of employability?”

The minister said universities must be at ease to welcome external quality assurance processes to ensure quality of the curriculum, its delivery, evaluation, output and, eventually, outcome.

“This is when the students we train will be employable at national, regional and international levels,” Museveni said.

This year’s conference was run under the theme: Training of university students for national, regional and international employability. Prof Paul Edward Mugambi, the VCF executive director, said the forum was constituted in 1996 in order to have a united voice and share lessons on mutual concerns of higher education.

Currently, there are nine public universities and 38 private universities. In an interview with The Observer on the sidelines, Dr Alex Kagume, the NCHE deputy executive director, disclosed that the university in question is privately-owned Fairland University, based in Walukuba Masese zone in Jinja.

In March 2013, NCHE revoked its license after the council discovered that it lacked the requisite components to be recognised as a fully-fledged university.

“Well, they don’t have anything that requires a university to exist. They have no staff, infrastructure and accredited programmes,” Dr Kagume said.

“First and foremost, we had refused to give them a license but they went to court and got it through a court order. But, still they did not put in place anything that would allow them to be a university.”

Asked why the university is still operating yet it had been closed by the NCHE, Kagume said: “They [Fairland University] went to court and gave them an interim order to stop us from implementing our duties until the matter is settled in court.”

He added that a hearing date for the matter is yet to be communicated but degrees awarded from the institution remain null and void.

Meanwhile, the minister also announced that the ministry is yet to convene a stakeholders’ consultative workshop to review the various proposals to amend the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001.

Kagume said the amendment of the Act will, among others, enable NCHE to enforce compliance at institutions of higher learning.

The hope to calm unending strikes by lecturers and students at Kabale University is not yet visible, despite the intervention of the education ministry.

The university has been embroiled in strikes by lecturers for more than two months, majorly over salary arrears. Three weeks ago, students joined the strike due to lack of lectures since the new semester started.

On October 18, Janet Museveni, the education minister, convened a crisis meeting with the university management, which presented to her the problems the institution is facing.

A subsequent statement indicated that there were solutions agreed on to end the crisis.

“The meeting agreed to call upon staff, students and all other stakeholders to support  the efforts being put by government  and the leadership of the university to arrive as a lasting solution,” reads part of the two-page release.

However, sources claim the university management skipped vital challenges that are fueling the impasse. These include alleged false accountability, cliques within council members and illegal demotions, among others.

Government took over the university last year and turned it into a public institution.

“Last year, the university received Shs 5.1bn but the expenditure is not clear though much of it is supposed to pay lecturers. The management claim most of this money went to construction, which is disputable,” an insider source told The Observer on October 15.

This same source further alleges that in February, government released Shs 1.1bn to pay salary arrears then but only Shs 400m was used, leading to further accumulations.

However, when contacted on October 21, Vice Chancellor Prof Joy Kwesiga said though documents indicate that the said Shs 1.1bn was wired to the university code 127, up to now it has never landed on it.

“The exact unpaid salary arrears are six months, not eight as alleged. Three of the six can only be paid after an external audit. However, the Shs 1.1bn is being processed and immediately we receive it, staffers will be cleared. As I talk now, the university council has convened to guide us on the next move because lecturers and students are still on strike,” said Kwesiga.

Manzi Tumubweinee, the university council chairman, on request by government conducted a validation exercise that saw some old university staff given an option of resigning or joining the university afresh.

“The staff that cannot be placed in the new establishment may be retained by the university under the private programs if they are required,” advised Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire, the ministry of public service permanent secretary.

Concurring with this advice, Mwesigwa Rukutana, the deputy attorney general, added that excess staff should be appointed to other vacant positions requiring the same qualifications.

Kyambogo University acting vice chancellor Prof Eli Katunguka-Rwakishaya is seeking government support to increase its staffing levels.

Katunguka says that in 2006, the university academic staff totaled 621 to cater for about 8,000 students but not all positions were filled by government.

Today, Kyambogo has more than 20,000 students but operates with only 349 teaching staff.

“We don’t have enough staff. Apart from me, the whole university has only one male professor in the faculty of Science,” he said. “We still want many more people, especially at senior level to do the mentorship and guidance at the university.”

According to the university academic staff profile, there are only 16 associate professors, 37 senior lecturers, 203 lecturers and 92 assistance lecturers.

Of the 349 filled positions, there are more males than females at 230 and 119 respectively. For instance, the institution has one associate professor in the faculty of Education, one assistant lecturer in the faculty of Engineering but no female fulltime professor.

Katunguka said the university can perform its purpose better with enhanced staff instead of relying on mostly-part-time staff.

“I know the country does not have enough professors and associate professors but it cannot stop government from outsourcing these people in order to improve the quality of our graduates,” he said. 

Dr Alex Kagume, the deputy executive director of the National Council for Higher Education, told The Observer that universities have continued to work against its set minimum standards.

“In our quality assurance framework, the ratio of a lecturer to students offering science programmes must be one to nine or 15 and humanities is one lecturer to 15 or 22 students,” Dr Kagume said. “Many universities are not doing this and they should check themselves.”

Katunguka cited Makerere University, which continues to enhance its staff despite funding challenges.

According to the 2015 Makerere University self-assessment report, the university has about 37,064 students with 78 professors, 135 associate professors, 181 senior lecturers, 417 lecturers and 563 assistant lectures.

nangonzi@observer.ug

Roy Ssembogga should be a medical doctor today, after he completed his five-year programme at Makerere, early this year in January. As BAKER BATTE LULE found, Ssembogga still has to pass a course he failed in his second year, but is enjoying time as guild president.

Trouble started when Ssembogga was chosen by a youth organization to represent Uganda at a conference in Norway. Little did he know that this trip would later be a turning point in his life!

It gave him the opportunity to fly out of Uganda for the first time, as well as a chance to appreciate what he now sees as bad university policies. Ssembogga also missed an examination, which resulted in the retake that is still keeping him at the university, a year after his former classmates graduated.

“I was held up by a policy of ‘stay put;’ you fail a paper, you don’t progress. It is unacceptable in any university but in Mulago it was being implemented,” he says.

“This inspired me to join leadership because something was wrong and someone had to do something about it.”

Unlike other retakes in other course units, this particular one was from a progressive course. One is unable to study another course in compensation in another semester or academic year, until they pass this particular session. Among other things, he hopes to address this problem.

ACADEMIC POLITICIAN

Roy Ssembogga was born 25 years ago on December 12, 1990 to Ponsiano Kibirige and Ruth Nakyejwe in Entebbe. He says his parents divorced when he was in P4 but they took turns looking after their four children.

Ssembogga started his education at Kiwafu Muslim primary school in Entebbe, before continuing to Our Lady of Africa SS Namilyango for O-level and A-level. A brush with the law saw him expelled from Namilyango during his senior five, leading him to a short stint at Naalya SS Namugongo.

“But later [Our Lady] invited me back because I was a bright student … [they felt] I was supposed to get 25 points for the school,” Ssembogga said. He didn’t disappoint and passed well enough to gain admission to the bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Makerere.

At Makerere, Ssembogga was elected chairman Nkrumah hall, then chairman of the University Electoral Commission and sports minister in Medical School among others.

“I have been a leader all through school. I derived my inspiration from James Wodya, my teacher at Our Lady of Africa, who used to tell me that, ‘you can be an academician as well as a leader.”

Ssembogga says he has taken cue and been able to balance academics and administrative responsibilities. While he is looking forward to starting his medical career after concluding his studies, he cannot rule out a stint in national politics.

“Only God can tell what will happen, but for now I’m going with the flow,” he said. 

ACRIMONIOUS POLL PROCESS

The political process that brought Ssembogga to the fore was mired in problems, right from the start. However, on March 11, 2016, when the polls were held, it was clear that there were two major candidates, Ssembogga and Basil Mwotta from the college of Education and External Studies. 

When the electoral commission chair, Roy Ndaula, called the results, Mwotta had narrowly defeated Ssembogga. However, there was a problem with the results in the college of Education, Mwotta’s home turf.

Mwotta had returned more ballots than the registered voters. Ssembogga’s team reasoned that if the allotted 13 ballot booklets had been used (each booklet had 50 ballot papers), the electoral result should have reflected 650.

Instead, Mwotta alone got 753 votes against Ssembogga’s 32, leaving a sprinkling of 16 votes for remaining candidates taking the total tally to 801.

“Nobody could explain where the other 151 came from. We petitioned the electoral commission, telling them that before they declare the results, they first look into the matter but with the help of the police, they disagreed with us,” Ssembogga said.

“We wrote to the university [Electoral Commission] tribunal and a verdict was reached that indeed there was rigging … it called for fresh elections at the [College] of Education but my colleague opted to go to court, reasoning that the ruling of the tribunal was unfair.”

In the High court, Justice Stephen Musota concurred with the tribunal and ordered for fresh elections, also awarding Ssembogga Shs 35m in costs. In the dramatic subsequent polls, Ssembogga edged Mwotta by substantially becoming the 82nd Makerere University guild president.

RECONCILIATION

While he started his term quite late, he has only four months to go, Ssembogga has pledged to reconcile with Mwotta at all costs. He has indicated that he is prepared to plead with his lawyers to have the Shs 35m costs withdrawn.

“The same way I went to the tribunal to seek justice is the same way my colleague went to court for justice. I will discuss with my lawyers to see that they don’t file for those costs,”

While Mwotta is yet to accept the offer, Ssembogga has already asked his opponent to consider a position in his guild cabinet.
Of his remaining tenure, Ssembogga says he will realize his dream of a better Makerere.

“I have a strong conviction that you don’t need a lot of time to impact on people’s lives.  I don’t need four months to look for missing marks, stop sexual harassment, and improve on security,” he said. “Throughout my leadership, I have been delivering,”

He has also called on Makerere students to shun electoral malpractice, saying what plays out at the university will finally reflect poorly onto the national scene.

“Makerere should be a model but if we start indulging in such behaviour, it is absurd. If people can stuff ballots and do all sorts of vote rigging, it means that when they join the national scene, they will do similar or worse things,” Ssembogga said.

He has an interesting take on the numerous strikes that have come to define Makerere lately.

“The people who are tainting the university’s name are not the students, but the perpetrators of bad policies.”

He thinks unless the administration reconsiders its stance, things will not change.

“There is no single time that a Makerere student rises up without good reason … what normally starts as boardroom negotiation turns out to be civil disobedience on the streets, because we usually give them [administration] time but they only listen when violent strikes are inevitable.”

The Uganda Vice Chancellors' Forum says two years is a short time for students to decide their career paths, leading to the high levels of unemployment, writes YUDAYA NANGONZI.

As thousands of graduates comb streets in search of jobs with little success, university leaders have placed the blame squarely on A-level training.

They argue that it is so early for A-level students to determine their career paths based on their performance at O-level. United under their Uganda Vice Chancellors’ Forum (VCF), university dons said employees continue to blame them for lack of practical training, transferable skills and value-based content.

The VCF raised the concern while discussing this year’s conference theme: Training University Students for National, Regional and International Employability at Silver Springs hotel in Bugolobi.

Prof Charles Kwesiga, the executive director of Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), contended that students make premature career path choices at this level.

“One of the educational reforms needed is examining the efficacy and relevance of A-level training. One discernible flaw is that 18-year-olds are making decisions that impact their careers based on one-off O-level exams,” he said.

He added that the three or four course combinations at A-level exclude students from the wider spectrum of career options at the university. His views were backed by David Bakibinga, a professor of Commercial law at Makerere University.

“In my case, I did my O-level at 16 years at King’s College Budo and it would be too early for someone to make up their mind at that time,” he said.

He told The Observer that he understands government wants to do away with A-level and have a holistic education covering both sciences and art subjects. From there, Bakibinga believes, a student will decide whether they want to specialise in arts or sciences. Kwesiga said countries like Kenya have done away with A-level education.

EARLY SPECIALISATION

Back in 2003, Prof AB Kasozi, the then executive director of National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), questioned the early specialization of students at A-level.

In his proposal to the ministry of education, Kasozi said students need both arts and science subjects as they plan to join the university in order to address unemployment and imbalance of graduates.

He proposed that a student takes three science subjects and also pick one arts subject and vice versa for arts combinations, but specialise while at the university. However, his proposal was not considered by the ministry as Alfred Kyaka, the assistant commissioner secondary department, explained.

“We did not buy the proposal at that time because the pressures to move away from our current curriculum that has been around for the last 50 years. It was a darling for everyone and we could not change it,” he noted.

Kyaka added the current curriculum is good because it eliminates many people and a few manage to survive through. He, however, agreed that the curriculum is also too much examination-driven with limited provision for hands-on skills needed by employers.

Uneb chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol, also the vice chancellor of Busitema University, said A-level would be relevant if students were guided right from O-level about their career ambitions.

“Certainly, students drop many essential subjects at O-level yet they would have helped them pursue certain courses at the university,” she said.

IS A-LEVEL RELEVANT?

As university dons continue to question the relevance of A-level, Kyaka said concern should not be on the number of years in school, but the skills they get from the education system.

He said the revised lower secondary curriculum that is set to be piloted in 2018 will focus on the three Hs; the Head, Heart and Hands.

“We are now focusing on the much-desired skills called generic skills that employers are looking for in a graduate,” he said, adding that the assessment of learners will also be changed.

He explained that the current curriculum emphasizes a lot of reading material and exams yet the two-and-half-hour exam assessment is very short.

“This business of studying for 12 terms, and being told you have failed, must stop. We are looking at other forms of assessment like continuous assessment and project assessment, among others. By 2018, we shall be able to produce relevant graduates for the job market,” Kyaka said.

On forcing students into certain combinations at A-level, Kyaka said the ministry is also facing some resistance from head teachers of ‘good’ schools because they aim at passing exams.

HEAD TEACHERS SPEAK

Gerald Muguluma, the head teacher, Namilyango College, said once they admit students at A-level, they are given two weeks to determine whether they will handle a particular combination.

“If one decides to change from Arts to Sciences after this period, the career guidance office is there to guide them,” he said. “We talk to our students right from senior one on their career choices and by the time a student gets to A-level, they know what combinations to offer.”

For students joining Namilyango College at A-level, they are also issued minimum requirements for each combination. Muguluma said, for instance, that a student who intends to offer mathematics at A-level must have a distinction one.

For Gordon Katimbo, the head teacher at Hilton High School in Mukono, students are given combinations at A-level based on one’s ability and performance at O-level.

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More than 400 schools in Luweero district are not inspected every school term due to lack of funds.

The area inspector of schools, Hajji Uthman Kamoga, revealed that the district receives between Shs 8m and Shs 9m for inspection.

“We need at least Shs 28m every term to inspect 709 schools in the district. These include 227 government-aided primary schools, 360 private primary schools and 17 government secondary schools. The others include 45 private but government-aided [institutions] and 60 private secondary schools but not aided,” he said.

Kamoga explained that the meager funds meant that they were unable to reach 484 schools, as they only inspect 225, as they are only 14 inspectors in the district, yet more than 50 are needed.

Each inspector is allocated Shs 40,000 a day to supervise a given school. The school inspectorate department is charged with ensuring strict monitoring to check the quality of education on issues of performance, sanitation, teacher and learner absenteeism.

Kamoga said they [inspectors] require funds for external inspection; they have decided to strategize for better results through internal inspection, carried out by school head teachers, their deputies and directors of studies. Kamoga said they had introduced forms to be filled and signed on a daily basis by the school heads, as part of the monitoring.

Luweero district education officer Florence Bbosa Sekitooleko said the department was planning to spend Shs 100m over the next financial year, to resolve the lack of transport.

The US Fulbright Scholar programme, which offers grants for teaching, study and research in America, recently marked 70 years of existence.

Speaking at the celebrations at Makerere University last week, the US ambassador to Uganda, Deborah Malac, referred to the scholarship as more than an academic experience that has nurtured an array of renowned world leaders.

“More than 399 Ugandans have attended the Fulbright programme and have come back to serve the country in various areas such as law, education and science, among others,” Malac said.

Established in 1946, the programme operates in 155 countries and is administered in the US by the department of state and the department of education.

Former presidential candidate, Dr Olara Otunnu, is a Fulbright alumnus and referred to his experience in the US as an unforgettable one.

“It is a society whose values I cherish and admire. It is an open society with a common sense of belonging and destiny,” said Otunnu. However, he expressed doubts about the extent to which the Ugandan contingent had propagated those values in the land.

However, the Makerere University chancellor, Dr Ezra Suruma, appreciated the programme’s continued support to the institution and called for more scholarships, citing the need for more skilled hands.

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Oyam-based Iceme Girls SS will next year start partnering its students with national role models through a new apprenticeship programme, as a way of ending the school dropout rate.

The school head teacher, Sister Claire Kemigisa, told a gathering at Mosa Court hotel in Kampala last week, that the move would also improve their employability after school.

She explained that the students would also be engaged with entrepreneurs, as an effective tool to promote a sense of entrepreneurship.

“Even [when] they go to a factory [for a school tour], they only do observations and recording for exams,” she said.

According to Kemigisa, many students join the labour market without the required entrepreneurial skill-set needed to ‘join the  informal sector jobs’. The move comes as the school is working with Africa Education Trust (AET) to publish a new book to offer career guidance and entrepreneurial skills to learners at a youthful stage.

“Everything is ready. The ministry is still going through and we are hopefully waiting its final signoff,” said Lesley Waller, a senior programme coordinator at AET.

According to the 2014 population census report, the youth aged between 18 and 30 years constitute 64 per cent of those lacking employment.

“We are thinking of taking these students to places like [car] garages so they can be inspired. Exposure is important; when you are exposed, you have a broader perspective,” she said.

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The supreme mufti, Sheikh Siliman Kasule Ndirangwa, has asked pupils preparing for this year’s Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) to continue revising even after he has prayed for them.

Sheikh Ndirangwa who was holding special (Duwa) prayers for learners at Kibuli mosque, said prayers alone were not sufficient to ensure they pass their exams.

He added that God blesses those that work hard in class, those that pray and are respectful to their teachers and parents.

“We thank God and your teachers for taking  care of you for the last seven years, and now time has come for you to prove your worth,"  he said. “We are holding these prayers for you who are here and for all the P7 candidates across the country; there is still time for you to revise and do better.”

The supreme mufti also cautioned the pupils against living their lives irresponsibly by failing to help their parents with domestic chores.

“After exams, you are going to have holidays for about three months, please be helpful to your parents and this can be done when you choose the right people you associate with. Our sisters you should understand that you are very fragile and these exams are just the beginning; so, you should take good care of yourselves,” Ndirangwa said.

“Doing exams to a child is very important and a child passing exams is also important and if you don’t pass well, the society will despise you and that’s why as the Muslim leaders and community, we are praying for you today; just follow instructions and everything will be fine,” Ndirangwa added.

Yakubu Luwalira Lubowa, the secretary general of the Kibuli Supreme Council, said that praying for candidates is a new initiative by the Kibuli Muslim community and such prayers will become an annual event.

Some of the schools attending the Duwa prayers include Bilal Islamic Bwaise, Gyagenda Educational Centre, Busega Primary, Makerere Kofs Primary, Kasuzi Junior Kikajjo, Kabowa Hidaya Islamic, Police Children’s Primary, and Kibuli Demonstration Primary.

justuslyattu08@gmail.com

This is rapidly becoming the year when several people are trying all manner of innovations to drive the technology and environmental front.

These include efforts to move away from traditional things that have always driven education like paper, chalk, blackboards and pens which are fiercely being replaced.

Fast forward to the Vodafone Powertab, a tablet computer that seeks to avail both sciences and arts subjects of different levels to the user. For those in the elementary classes, it is equipped with applications to help learners solve problems in multiplication addition, subtraction and division. Other things like mathematical methods are presented in form of videos that are quite interactive.

Those in the secondary school will find ‘complex’ subjects like chemistry, biology and others like English and Swahili grammar, easy to appreciate. But the tablet is not about just study, there are games like Sudoku, Words, chess and Vocab, among others that are both entertaining as well as educating.

However, it is the periodic table in chemistry that had me wishing I had it years ago when I was battling with the subject in secondary school. Presented in a breath-taking multicolored table, one is able to appreciate the various properties of elements like potassium, calcium and hydrogen.

Besides being an educational tool, Vodafone powertab, is fully functional, and can work like any other phone, with access to the internet, as well as usual fancy apps like WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat and all other social media applications. Developed as the Colmei Tab CR-726, it also comes with two-way cameras, FM radio, 8GB internal memory as well as 1GB RAM.

However, the education part of the tablet is the most vulnerable part of it, especially in a time and era where updates of applications are the order of the day – educational material like the videos or games can easily be deleted or even lost in case of a malware attack.

But the tablet is still one to recommend for students and probably young professionals juggling school and work. We shared it with a group of primary school pupils for a week, and they were sad to see it return to Vodafone.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

. Dual SIM
. 4G LTE internet connection
. Fits your hands with 5MP rear camera and flash light
. Available from Vodafone outlets for Shs 280,000

kaggwandre@gmail.com

The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has joined the MTN Uganda foundation to support plans to digitize secondary school learning materials.

According to a statement, the initiative is being driven through the Skilling for the Future project, conceptualized and developed by the NCDC as a tool to support effective teaching in schools.

“The project will develop an interactive digital curriculum for schools that will be piloted in 2017 and rolled out in January 2018, with the new curriculum for lower secondary schools from senior one to senior four,” reads the statement.

Recently, the prototype of this digital solution was demonstrated to the Education and Sports minister Janet Museveni at State House in Nakasero, in which MTN foundation handed over a cheque worth Shs 312m to support the project.

MTN Uganda chief executive officer Wim Vanhelleputte affirmed MTN’s commitment to supporting education as a key focus area of the MTN foundation.

“There is no doubt that investing in education is the most assured way of guaranteeing a brighter future for our children and our country…,” Vanhelleputte said. “The world has gone digital and it’s only logical that our education system embraces this new reality.”

In addition to developing the online curriculum, NCDC will also equip teachers with the skills for developing and customizing digital education materials. This, they hope, will improve on interactive learning.

Museveni commended MTN for its continued support and investment in education specifically its efforts in digitizing Uganda’s socio-economic activities from education, trade to social interactions within communities.

“We have stated in the past that promotion of e-learning and computer literacy is a key priority area for the ministry and, indeed, the country as a whole. We are working to enhance learning outcomes and contribute to innovations in industrial developments by embracing the digital age,” Museveni said.

nangonzi@observer.ug

When one thinks about innovative boot camps, the idea is usually of scientists devising new ways of resolving old problems.

However, the 2016 Innovating Justice Boot camp changed that notion, when it was held at the Makerere University Resilient Africa Network offices in Kololo recently.

The camp attracted six promising justice innovators drawn from over 400 applications. The innovators, mostly law students or recent graduates, were there to pitch their alternative ideas of addressing local community problems in the most affordable manner.

The winners would earn part of 160,000 euros (about Shs 605.4m) in funding, among other benefits. The Innovating Justice Boot camp is a regional event organized by Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), a not-for-profit institution based at The Hague in the Netherlands. This year, the HiiL partnered with RAN to host the Kampala event.

The innovators made their pitches to a panel that included Prof Sylvia Tamale of Makerere University School of Law; Maureen Nahwera, programme manager Rule of Law with SIDA, Davis Baasha, regional director and senior advisor at BiD Network; and Sophie Racin, component manager, Rights, Justice and Peace.

The innovator pitches include BYTELEX by Raymond Asiimwe, who sought to provide practical legal solutions and advisory services to startups, technology companies and investors for their spur lasting growth and continuity.

Next in the queue was EFAJ-P by Fred Muzira, who sought to empower families to Access Justice Project, which promotes human rights by increasing access to information on land and property rights.

Muzira was followed by Lawyers 4 Farmers, presented by Helen Mukasa on behalf of five other female lawyers, who are promoting farmer entrepreneurship to address the legal knowledge needs of farmers.

Then there was Mobile Legal Aid (presented by Wubeshet Woldemariam Tefra of Ethiopia) for  survivors of SGBV in Uganda. Others were Puliida by Moses Mugisha, who provides legal solutions for agribusiness and climate change in Wakiso and Mpigi; and finally J2P, presented by Rancy Bukenya, who work towards resolving unattended traffic offenses, unrecorded crimes, unaccounted fines and payments by traffic offenders by the police.

The jury later ruled that Puliida-Legal solutions for agribusiness and climate change justice had emerged the best innovator team and qualified to go to The Hague for the Justice Entrepreneurship School, taking place between November 26 and December 2, 2016.

There, they will receive an investment of up to 20 000 euros equity-free. There, they will be joined by finalists from five other boot camps, held in Tunis, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Kyiv in Ukraine. At The Hague, the innovators will receive expert advice to improve their product and be ready for a six-month validation course.

Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire of the Commercial division of the High court was keynote speaker at the event, and challenged lawyers to reconsider their roles in the 21st century, especially in the age of ICT; the future of the courts and legal practice, and how the judiciary is innovating by providing information and enhancing transparency through judiciary portal, ULII website, social media, procedural changes and the institutional changes.

In his remarks, Ran’s Chief of Party, Prof William Bazeyo, thanked the HiiL Innovating Justice Team for choosing to hold the boot camp here, noting that the innovation space was available for such initiatives.

A chance visit to Bishop's primary school in Mukono has changed the lives of learners there and at Uganda Christian University. SHARON MUWANGUZI has been studying an initiative by the UCU students that now seeks to help those with learning disabilities.

Herbert Mukuru, a final-year journalism student at the Uganda Christian University (UCU), visited Bishop’s primary school Mukono, in June. The casual visit left Mukuru heartbroken, as the school was struggling to teach, due to scant resources. 

Bishop’s primary school Mukono, now a government-aided institution, was started by the Church of Uganda in Nsuube Kawuga, in 1910. Today, the school has 688 pupils and is staffed by 27 teachers, only four of whom teach sign language. It also features 12 classrooms for all the students.

The school operates a special-needs programme, for its residential pupils, who are the majority there. The special-needs education programme has facilities for 78 learners.

They include those who are hard of hearing (37); those who are autistic or mentally-handicapped (28), living with Downs’ syndrome (2), cerebral palsy (5) and three others with unspecified learning difficulties.

The school depends on government grants, and a minimal tuition from the pupils, being under the Universal Primary Education programme. The school’s director of Studies, Stephen Opolot, admitted that they face severe challenges especially in fulfilling its mandate under the special-needs programme.

The school lacks regular water supply, while the classroom block housing the mentally-challenged is poorly-ventilated. In the dormitories, the mattresses are in tatters, and the school has no dining hall, leaving pupils eating their meals on the grass.

UPENDO WA MUKONO

Concerned about the situation, Mukuru, started an initiative called “Upendo wa Mukono” aimed at improving the livelihoods of the disadvantaged. Under the Upendo vision, a society where all vulnerable people are empowered to achieve their purpose in future, Mukuru lacked established sponsors for the charitable drive.

So, he asked his fellow UCU students to fundraise for clothes, toilet paper, soap and many other items to support the school. Mukuru’s drive saw him meeting students in Sabiiti, University and Nsibambi halls, as well as hostels like Vienna girls hostel, Alpha and Omega, Tupendane and others.

He enlisted a team that includes Faith Pacutho, a lecturer at UCU, and fellow students David Lukiiza, Trevor Alinda, Rena Ingabire and Shadia Mahawa. Their task involved lobbying the local community and soliciting money from the students.

The climax of the operation was a charity football match, on July 1, 2016 between third-year mass communication students and staff at UCU and the pupils of Bishop’s PS. The match had Mukuru as referee and he let the primary school learners win the game by two goals to one.

“It was for a charitable cause, we wanted the children to be so happy after winning the match,” he said.
“The match brought us closer to these children; even in the poor state of the school, they still continue smiling.”

As the game was going on, the students, who did not play, were giving the pupils motivating talks.

STEP BY STEP

The charity drive was able to make some changes at the primary school. The students were able to donate some food, clothing and mattresses to the learners. However, Mukuru is optimistic that the drive will yield even more.

“Funding is the major challenge that the charity drive is facing, convincing students and people that the money is for the challenged and disadvantaged pupils, and not my business,” he says.

“I’m optimistic that in time, Upendo wa Mukono is going to become an NGO that will improve the livelihoods of the vulnerable people to achieve their purposeful future.”

But Mukuru has his own challenges, with sustaining the charity institution.

“The challenge I’m facing is that the project is happening during my final semester and it is becoming difficult to juggle the charity drive and the fixed classes and assignments schedules.”

However, others are optimistic. Many of the pupils, students and staff at UCU are optimistic, arguing that some good has come of it, with students able to help in whatever way possible.

muwanguzisharon0@gmail.com

Over the last three years, Abdu Sewaali, a boda boda rider based in Wandegeya, has been betting some of his money on European football.

One would think that after losing for several weeks, he would give up and concentrate on passenger transport. But as MOSES TALEMWA found, there have been some joys and lessons to learn.

When he first set out as a motorcycle taxi rider (boda boda) in 2012, Sewaali had dropped out of school in senior two, for lack of funds to continue his education. He had never touched a mobile phone or a computer, but he had somehow learned to ride, using his cousin’s bicycle.

With some savings from his grandmother’s coffee plantation in Luweero, he arrived in Kampala to start work as a rider. He first bought a secondhand bicycle, which he used to ride between Mulago roundabout and Garden City.

“Those days were hard… we worked so hard and made very little money,” he recalls. “But with time, I learned how to ride a motorcycle from my friends, whenever they would take a break.”

It was during one such break that Sewaali was introduced to soccer betting by the boda boda owner.

“Every day around 11am, he would take a break and go to the betting house, and usually bet between Shs 2,000 and Shs 3,000. Sometimes, he won, other times he lost, but he never gave up,” Sewaali explains.

During this time, Sewaali noticed that his friend usually hedged his bets, according to some tables that had numbers. “He would sit down for like 30 minutes studying the tables and choose particular numbers to go with some games,” Sewaali explains.

With time, Sewaali was hooked and the two friends have not looked back since.

30 PER CENT LUCK

To many, gamblers are idle minds with little to hope except to ruin their fortunes. However, their habits have been substantial fodder for a study by Dr David Sumpter, based at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

In his study, Soccermatics: Using mathematics to understand football, presented to the mathematics community at Makerere University last week, Dr Sumpter has developed mathematical models to explain, among others, why some gamblers are successful.

“Yes there is a mathematical method to it all. Two thirds is down to chance, but one third is down to skill and if you can predict it, then you will succeed,” he says. “Mathematics allows us to predict with some precision.”

He explains that his study has enabled him to be able to determine what parameters football managers are looking for to succeed in their respective leagues; and how gamblers hedge their bets to ensure an income.

Dr Sumpter spent most of last year in London studying the English Premier league  as well as the Spanish La Liga for these patterns and concludes that the game has evolved to such a level that most successful football managers are employing mathematical models to succeed.

“If you look at Pep Guardiola [of Manchester City] … he is a consummate mathematician, deploying footballers in triangular formats to create spaces, within which they can score incredible goals,” Dr Sumpter says. “Barcelona is the most mathematically-beautiful team ever ... creating a network of triangles all over the pitch, allowing players to move into spaces and create opportunities.”

He explains that gamblers like Sewaali are relying on mathematical tables devised based on the teams’ previous technical abilities, including passing networks, player skill sets and so many other facets of the game.

METHOD TO GAMBLING

While Sewaali and Dr Sumpter have not met, I was able to note a particular method to their work. Sewaali is usually reluctant to bet on strong teams playing each other. Instead, he prefers games where a strong team faces a weaker one.

“There you know that there is a sure win … in a worst case scenario one can get a draw or a loss,” Sewaali explains. “That way you can be able to win some money.”

Listening to Dr Sumpter, one finds that he is using a different language to explain the same thing.

“I try to find statistical inconsistencies in the odds set out for each team and one is able to consistently predict the result … I invested £400 last season and made an extra £100 before I stopped the experiment,” he revealed. However, he warns that this kind of prediction can best be done after amassing a large set of data on the previous performances of the teams in question.

Looking to Sewaali, one notices that he has been able to develop particular skills. Apart from his experiences with particular teams and following sports news regularly, Sewaali has learned how to use a computer to look at various websites that publish soccer odds, ahead of games.

“They allow us to use the computers free of charge at the betting houses,” he reveals. “And they are always connected to the internet.”

Recently, he also acquired a smart-phone from his winnings, and has had it connected to the internet, to allow him to check out on betting odds, among other things.

SOCCER IS MATHEMATICS

Considering, how many members of the public are averse to mathematics, the news from Dr Sumpter should scare them about the future of football.

“Many of the new managers in the English Premiership are not merely relying on chance to succeed, deploying more mathematical models to win games,” he says.

“If you see what managers like Guardiola, Jose Mourinho [Manchester United], Arsene Wenger [Arsenal] and Jurgen Klopp [Liverpool] are doing, you see a consistent effort at looking for mathematical patterns in games.”

Yet, when I asked Sewaali whether he was aware that he was deploying his mathematical mind to make soccer predictions each week, he was puzzled at how studying betting charts was related to his previously-dreaded subject.

“I can see that there are numbers and we are following some patterns, but I didn’t realize there was any mathematics in the whole thing,” he said. “Mathematics was my worst subject in school.”

A week after the probe committee on Makerere University started work, it has become clear that the institution could reopen at the end of February 2017, at the earliest.

CHRISTOPHER TUSIIME has been sounding out hostel owners about what they are preparing for 2017. Most hostel owners we met are urging students to come for the reopening of the university prepared to pay afresh for the restart of the semester. This despite the fact that most students were forced to leave before the end of the semester.

On November 1, 2016, President Museveni ordered for the indefinite closure of Makerere University over lecturers’ and students’ strikes that had lasted for days.

The next morning, all students residing in halls of residence were given up to 9am to vacate them.  Police also ordered those in the private hostels affiliated to the university to leave immediately. Some hostels complied while others ignored the call. However, fearing for their lives, many left the hostels anyway, far ahead of the December 17 date, when the university was originally scheduled to close for a Christmas break.

Now a survey has found that the students will have to pay fresh residential fees when they return. Consider JB Girls’ hostel in Wandegeya. Here, Ephraim Ayikobua, the custodian, was unequivocal, that students’ contract with the hostel is still valid.

“Clearly, we agreed with students that they will be here from August 22 up to December 17. So, the closure of their university cannot end this agreement,” Ayikobua said. “For us, if the students come after that date, we are charging them afresh.”

He argued that the hostel did not chase any students as they also host those from other institutions. However, he indicated that students, who opted to leave, could have been motivated by the extra charges levied following the university closure.

“How can you let students keep around, use water and electricity for all the weeks the university will be closed and you don’t charge them extra money? How shall we now pay for those bills?”

However, he may be in for a fight with some of the returning students. Phiona Beero, a student residing in JB Girls’ hostel, insists she won’t pay extra when she returns.

“We were never told about those contract things and me I left the hostel the day the university was closed ... I’m not going to pay any other money for this semester even if it resumes next year because I had fully cleared the rent,” Beero vowed.

However, we found Ayikobua’s policy in force at Aryan hostel in Kikoni, where the manager, Suzan Akol, explained that the returning students will be asked to come with a parent or guardian for a special meeting with the hostel’s management before they can be allowed back in.

“This meeting is intended to remind students that we had signed a contract with them to stay at the hostel from August to December 17,” she said.

“Even after the university closed, we never asked them to leave. Some even come here at times and go to their rooms. So, if they come after December, we shall actually meet them and tell them to pay more money to cater for the additional time they will be here.”

These rules are also being implemented by Nana hostel and its new ladies-only hostel. According to a notice there, students will pay a new fee after December 17.

FEW EXCEPTIONS

If all this seems overwhelming, there are some exceptions. For instance, at Olympia hostel in Kikoni, the custodian, who insisted on only being referred to as Ruben said, students were only asked to pay Shs 30,000 for the rest of the month, and for returning students to have their leases extended to the end of the semester in March.

“Here, we have international students, some from Korea and Japan. So, how can you tell such students that you go back to your home? We decided to allow them to remain behind. When the university opens, students will just come and sleep until the first semester ends,” Ruben says.

Olympia, known for its expensive rooms that range from Shs 900, 000 to Shs 1.4 million per semester (depending on the amenities on offer), is currently open with only 10 Makerere University students.

This also applies at Kefrenc hostel in Makerere East (just before the Ku Bbiri roundabout), where management is only preparing to welcome returning students.
According to Alex Ssekyanzi, the custodian; “We told them that those who were to remain had to pay only Shs 30,000 [for the three months] while those who couldn’t manage this little money were asked to leave immediately.”

Ssekyanzi says a few students accepted the offer at Kefrenc hostel. Saphrah Amumpaire, is one such students. She paid the Shs 30,000 and is comfortable keeping around Kefrenc hostel, out of hope the university could reopen tomorrow.

“I’m afraid of going home today [in Mbarara] and campus reopens the next day; it would be so inconveniencing and expensive for me,” says the third-year student of education.

Kann hostel, a stone’s throw away from Makerere University’s small gate, is following the same rules as Kefrenc. According to Abdullah Matovu, the custodian at Kann, only a handful stayed behind after the university closure.

“We asked students to leave so that when the semester resumes, they can be allowed to come back without paying more rent, but there are those who refused to leave,” Matovu explains. “Those ones are now paying for each unit of electricity that they use... but when the semester reopens, we won’t charge more rent.”

However, one of those who were made to leave against their will, Happy Ali, is not impressed.

“I had decided to remain behind because Wi-Fi was still on, and so, I was using free internet to communicate with my friends. But when I failed to get money for electricity, I forced myself to go home. Kann managent is so unfair,” he says.

TUITION FEES DILEMMA

But that won’t be the only thing causing a headache, when the university reopens. According to University Public Relations Officer Ritah Namisango, the University Council is expected to sit to discuss a harmonious way of collecting tuition fees balances, from those who had not yet completed payment.

“University council will sit and see how to enforce the new fees policy that requires students to clear tuition and functional fees before the twelfth week of every semester,” Namisango says.

It should be remembered that in July this year, Makerere University, in consultation with the prime minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the students’ body, parents and stakeholders, adopted a new fees policy.

According to the policy, all students are supposed to pay a commitment fee of Shs 200,000, within the first three weeks of every new semester. A student, who fails to abide by this policy, can expect a Shs 20,000 fine. The policy stipulates that all students should have cleared fees to zero balance by the twelfth week.

However, the closure came six days away from the 12-week deadline. Namisango says privately-sponsored students are best advised to clear their fees balances even before the university reopens, to avoid inconvenience.

The university council will also sit to consider the living-out allowances (LOA) for state-sponsored students, who live off campus. By policy, all government-sponsored, non-resident students in all public universities receive LOA to cater for their rent, especially when they can’t get space in university halls of residence. Students, who take their lunch at Makerere, are entitled to Shs 580,000 while those who opt for private meals get Shs 720, 000 per semester.

tusime.chris20@gmail.com

Over the last two years, Agnes Nakibuuka was the stereotypical parent of two teenagers (now aged 13 and 15), always fretting the holidays.

She worried what her two daughters got up to during the holidays, although she planned for three square meals a day and plenty of entertainment (in the form of television), in the hope that this would draw them away from the ill influence of some peer groups.

You don’t need to be a social scientist to know that a parent is virtually paralysed with fear – at the thought that their children have nothing constructive for weeks – zig-zaging around the house, watching television for hours on end. Most will tell you there is so much that can go wrong, even then.

But this holiday is different. Nakibuuka is spending time with her daughters in her shop. “My assistant asked to leave and instead of hiring someone else, I have brought my daughters in, on the advice of their father,” she says.

Nakibuuka is hoping that the girls will learn a lot more than what they receive from school – with regard to earning a living, and life in general. And two weeks into the holiday, Nakibuuka is beginning to see the benefits. As they spend more time together, they are beginning to appreciate the closeness.

“They get to tell me things that I didn’t know they had noticed … but also I get to understand that they are growing into adults,” she says.

Nakibuuka says she is now convinced that children learn as they go through life and wouldn’t change the holiday experience one bit. She believes the closeness will help her fashion her daughters into decent adults.

“The long school holidays are meant to give parents an opportunity to connect with their children and teach them what they have always missed in their early childhood.”

And so we hope more parents will learn from Nakibuuka’s experiences.

school@observer.ug

Imagine a computer literacy teacher or criminal justice system lecturer in any school or university abusing individuals in his class using foul language.

Words like, “You two fools.” Stupid! You are big for nothing. Who do you think you are? You are not important to me.  Look at them! I don’t entertain nonsense", which are all words fit to be applied during stone-age period.

Such abusive statements are common in our primary and secondary schools both in the rural and urban areas even when we are no longer in the 19th century.

If such language cannot be used on animals grazing on a farm or in a home, then any teacher or lecturer who uses it is ignorant of what the Education Vision 2030 requires of him or her.

Recently while taking a drink at Café Javas, the unexpected in Uganda’s service industry happened to me. I was asked whether I was alright with the service being offered to me. This was asked of me by the business owner himself, Omar Ahmed Mandela. He attended to me and several other clients.

I was awestruck by Omar’s humility and concern to his clients. I concluded that his act was not only a bonus but a plus in business. The Omar Mandela experience is what many of us want to hear and live for every time we are served in any business or school.

Similarly, Fr Dr Evarist Gabosya Ankwasiize, dean, faculty of Human and Social Sciences at Kisubi Brothers University in Uganda, is another Mandela.

On his routine supervision at university one morning, he kept asking students whether they were being served well, whether the lecturers kept time for their lectures and whether students found any challenges that they loved to share with him for improvement.

He explained to the bemused students that they were the reason the university existed. The two experiences are a manifestation of global citizenship education, which is not what we read in books but, rather, what we should practice on a daily basis.

With many senior six leavers entering our primary schools as teachers and other professionals joining secondary schools and universities as lecturers without pedagogical grounding, global citizenship education is the solution to complement the existing technical knowledge and concepts that those who lack pedagogy possess.

Global citizenship education will root out a few pockets of undisciplined instructors who blatantly abuse their students in dormitories and classrooms or lecture rooms. It will help teachers lacking in grounding to improve their skills base.

In the same respect, students as clients it acts an insurance package that protects them from bad teachers, foul language and discouraging statements from leaders, managers, administrators and workers. 

The writer is a member of the Education Sector Consultative Committee of the ministry of Education and Sports.