Academicians revel Prof. Shenouda 50 years in service

From time immemorial, teaching has been a noble profession, from the days of Socrates to the time of Paul of the Bible. However, these days the only time teachers make the news is when they are either blamed for the poor standard of education in the country.

But behind the scenes, are some men and women who have sacrificed a lot to save and redeem the glory of the education system. One of the kinds, is Prof. Daowud Shenouda, who has held the chalk in the engineering class for the last 50 years.

Celebrating 50 years of teaching engineering in universities, Prof. Daowud Shenouda attributed his success to team work. "Success cannot be attained by an individual. Team work in education is a major key to success".

The event was held recently at the International University of East Africa (IUEA); which he joined recently.

Prof. Shenouda attributes his success to love and having passion for his work. "I believe in work that is why I have attained success in my career of teaching".

The important characteristics of a strong team are that the members work together, acknowledge and use each other's strengths and talents, and allow and encourage individuality.

He notes that if a team is focused on its goals, then everyone has a single language and a single focus, which allows the goals to be accomplished and hence good performance. "This gives students necessary team work skills that will help them improve on their grades, hence boosting their performance."

Like any other philosopher or architecture, Professor Dawoud Shenouda has ensnared a number of students to productive and skillful learning. In the number of schools he has taught in Africa He is seen as an icon of wisdom for his drive to inspire and empower the youth in career guidance.

Most leaders see him as the main pillar in terms of academic excellence. He has been invited to lecture in schools and communities on career guidance in Africa. He also offers counseling and career guidance in so many schools.

 He adds that a University's success is not judged by the number of students present but the number of publications produced.

Shenouda urges parents to invest in education instead of purchasing luxurious materials that will perish in a short period of time.

"Education is important because it is the best investment in life instead of building a house which will collapse. Education is also something valuable, without it life cannot move," Shenouda said.

The International University of East Africa's academic registrar said that the professor has inculcated in both the students and staff of the faculty of engineering, "A great sense of duty and time management."

"He added that Prof. Shenouda has made adherence to deadlines and schedules common practice in his faculty."

"In the faculty, teaching and examinations time table are prepared on time, lecturing starts on time, examinations are set and marked on time. He personally supervises all the activities throughout the semester from 8:00am to 5:00pm each week," he stated.

He also described the professor as a hardworking person who handles all the twisted and complicated cases of irregularities and discipline with unsurpassed success.

He also noted that he is an active member of the University Senate, who helped work working with a team to develop short courses in the university.

He finally described him as, "A mentor, educator and researcher who has boosted the development of the University."

The Egyptian ambassador to Uganda, Ahmed Abdel Aziz Mostafa commended Prof. Shenouda for improving the standard of the institution, saying he has promoted courses needed to meet the challenges of the day-to-day dynamic of the job market.

"Prof. Shenouda is like an ambassador of Egypt in terms of academics in Africa," he said. Mostafa also described Prof. Shenouda 50 years of service in teaching engineering as an achievement of success in his life. 
 
The guild president of the University, Ismael Abuka described the professor as a principled and straightforward person, kind and understanding. "He above all treats all students like his grandchildren."

Abuka added that Prof. Shenouda gives immediate solutions for all situations that cut across.

Lusaf Lule, the head of engineering students, described the professor as a mentor and contributor to the development of human knowledge.           

 Who is Professor Daowud (profile?)

The professor grew up in Egypt where he completed not only his primary and secondary education studies but also his bachelors' and master's degree. For his PhD studies, he relocated to the Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute.

He holds an honors bachelors and master's degree in telecommunication both obtained from Cairo University in 1965 and 1969 respectively. He obtained his PhD degree in computer engineering in 1973.

On completing his bachelor at 22, he was employed as a project executive engineering with the Egyptian Railway Organisation. From 1976 to 1981, he taught at the University of Lagos, Nigeria as a senior lecturer.

In 1990 and 1992, he was a UNDP (ICAO) computer expert based at the East African School of Aviation in Nairobi Kenya.

Between 1992 and 1994, he was the head of electrical engineering department in Botswana University where he served until 2002 before being transferred to the University of Kwa Zulu, Natal in South Africa as a director of computer engineering programme.

From the University of Zulu, he was appointed the dean of the faculty of applied science at the National University of Rwanda in 2009. In 2011, he joined Victoria University, Uganda as the dean of the faculty of engineering.   

He joined International University of East Africa in April 2013 where he has been a dean of the faculty of engineering for a period of one year and acting Vice chancellor.

What can we do, to improve country's higher education?

Dr. Muhammad Kiggundu (Academic staff head, Makerere University).

Kiggundu stresses that the main challenge is our education system is using the system left by the colonialists in 1962.

He explains that the old system left by the colonial government is not serving the country's interests.

Kiggundu calls upon the government to review our education system after every 10 years, by redirecting it to suit the national development goals.

Casim Umba Tolo (Mbarara University of Science and Technology Lecturer)

Tolo says that lack of funding for research by the government has hindered the education system because research helps students to run constructive work in the society.

He also attributes it to a question of human resources. He observed that their always continuous gaps in capacity building.

"Highly qualified workers always flee the country for juicy opportunities and Uganda is left grabbling with lack of human resources because of poor payment," he says

He urges government to create a policy to ensure that adequate resources are allocated to higher education. "The exercise of allocation of resources for UPE, USE should be to a smaller extent compared to higher education because this is where students are trained in different capacities for betterment of their life.

Bishop Cypriano (Head teacher, Victor Okello)

Okello says that the education system is irrelevant because few students are for sciences as opposed to arts. He adds that their few teachers handle science subjects and there are no laboratories for most schools in Uganda.