OPINION

By Ismail Isaac Lukwago Ntegana

In the recent past, the Government and development partners have tried to put in place mechanisms to improve the participation and completion of courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the country in order to produce the required man power that is required for us to tap into the opportunities before us but also face the challenges of today and those of tomorrow. We are all aware that a country’s development depends largely on her educational achievements which determine the human resource available to be utilized for developmental challenges.

Our learners should be able compete with other global citizens besides sharing in the global opportunities of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Machine Learning, Biotechnology, internet of things, Automation, Nanotechnology, Augmented reality among others.

Every effort to make the learning process engaging and effective should be encouraged, supported and appreciated.  They should however be sustainable and effective. The efforts should not be politicilized.  However, at the look of things, the government and other partners have largely concentrated on the “hardware” and not the “software’ that will achieve long term success in the sector.

I have always argued that salary increments alone cannot and will not improve teacher performance after all people get used the salary increment and will always ask for more! Money alone cannot improve performance of weaker or lazy employee.

Otherwise, what explains a better performance in examination results of private primary schools compared to government primary schools yet the former most often pay less and to most often less qualified teachers compared to those in government schools.

Will performance in Science improve because science teachers have been paid higher salaries, absolutely not! Are Science teachers teaching more than they did before, the answer is absolutely not! Those who were lazy and unbothered before the salaries were increased are still the same if not worse.

We need as a country to change the usual narrative about science education and education in general. We have all been forced to believe that STEM is only passed in Urban secondary schools and therefore those in rural schools have no chances of excelling or even choosing a science career. Others even believe that Sciences are more suitable for males than females.

We need as country to convince our learners that they can succeed wherever they as long as they choose to and are determined to achieve and undertake careers in STEM. I have visited the not so urban schools like Gombe Secondary School in Butambala or Ngora High School in Ngora, Arianga Secondary School in Yumbe and the performance in sciences in these schools is almost the same as that in Urban traditional schools of Wakiso, Kampala and Mukono. Unfortunately, many rural schools have not gotten the assistance urban traditional schools get from all sorts of partners.

Success is not localized but rather individualized. Our learners only need to dare to dream, work harder, practice patience, be ready to sacrifice anything for their dreams, be consistent, disciplined and above all be confident and believe in their schools.

We also need to fight all forms stereotypes. Many people still believe that STEM is more suitable for males than females yet the results out are not indicative of unfortunate belief.  We have all witnessed female students performing far better than their male counter parts in STEM. Our daughters need to be encouraged, motivated, facilitated and also get real role models in the STEM fields.

 I strongly believe that the girl at Arianga Secondary School in Yumbe has the same capacity as a student at Gayaza High School if she is helped by working on her belief system. Otherwise, the low self esteem among our rural learners has left many unable to achieve their full potential.

Therefore, even if you pay the teachers in rural schools without changing the mindset and attitude the learners there, no tangible achievements will be recorded. That little girl in Yumbe should believe and see the opportunities in STEM as her cohorts at Gayaza High School.

The equipment and other reagents required in School laboratories are still very expensive and many schools cannot afford them. Consequently, many learners are not privileged to practice nor do enough practicals during their study time. Many students only do practicals during the national examinations and this partly explains the poor performance.

There is also need to change the mindset, attitude and behaviour of our teachers. I have visited several government schools where the Head teachers will report that despite the fact that Science teachers have had a much improved salary, they still teach 2-3 days a week and spend more time undertaking private work while others have no taken on more responsibilities given the extra disposable income.  The teachers have not given their learners more time especially to for practice in what has been taught in class despite the emphasis in the new Lower Secondary School Curriculum.

There is an urgent need therefore to retool our teachers to equip them with the skills and knowledge to skill the learners in this contemporary world. We cannot talk about competency based education while those who are supposed to implement it lack the competency skills themselves. Do our teachers appreciate why they are teaching beyond the getting paid at the end of the month? Are our teachers recognitive of the challenges we are facing and how they can be part of the solution and not the problem. Are we sure our current teachers are able to impart, life, learning and literacy skills to our learners? I strongly doubt.

 I therefore believe that we need to retrain or retool our teachers in skills to enable them facilitate the learning process of learners that can face and appreciate the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Teachers are meant to facilitate, motivate, monitor and be role models to our learners and the question is, are our teachers ready for that challenge?

Otherwise salaries, infrastructure without the necessary investment in the required “software” may not translate into the required transformation that our education system urgently requires.

The writer is a teacher