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.