The outcry of youth unemployment, is it not just Ugandan!

By Johnson Akampa Tanbull

Well, the outcry of youth unemployment leaves the old unemployed in the cold and unattended to and my question is, how did we get here?

Aren't we an agricultural country as Uganda that largely survives on the products of the farm and equally blessed with beautiful climate and soils?

Was our education system a set up for failure or it is too old to cater for the new era challenges? Much of the school teaching has a tendency to wean the children away from rural life which is a registered disaster.  Others take agriculture as a punishment for undisciplined students. 

The contents of the readers have almost wholly to do with scenes and incidents remote from the farm, while the arithmetic questions deal mainly with matters affecting buying and selling which is relevant to the farmer, much of the prescribed courses of study have only a remote bearing upon a farm life.

Yet more than two thirds of today's employed people above 39 years of age were educated on incomes from farming that their parents were or are still engaged in…

When lives of the so called "successful" (powerful) people are mentioned, the feature of their career that most appeals to the country boy/girl, is that these people live in cities, and the plain inference that they would not otherwise have won distinction.

As a consequence is part of this tendency of the schools to instruct away from the farm education that could otherwise be the a remedy for youth unemployment.  In the end, girls and boys gain their admissions in different schools with the purpose of forever severing the tie that binds them to the farm life.

As it turns out, the farm was and remains the most steady employer and sustainer of life globally, but even more so on the African continent Particularly Uganda.

And I hope the new curriculum will bridge some of these gaps, students should be more involved in practical skills, agricultural knowledge so that we have Uganda more of a food basket as well encourage more self-organized learning environments so young people are able to think and do outside the box for themselves and do what they are passionate about. 

This will enable the creation of ambassadors of young people who will be more of the focus on being part of the solution to their challenges.

More will get started than waiting for Government to launch programmes for them and they stage manage what they are doing, they will foster cohesion on their own and believe in themselves that the world owns them nothing but they instead own the world.

Currently Youth Advocacy Foundation Uganda-YAFU and partners, we have established regional youth contact committees to monitor how Government programs are being run especially those targeting youth, as well we have established a hot line for queries to do with the Youth livelihood program in case they detect misappropriation or graft in this fund so that they are able to stand out and amplify their voices and demand for accountability from their leaders and keep their heads high, not to be used and lose their youthful value at same time we are engaging District leadership like RDCs, LC5, DPCs, CDOs, Ministry of Gender, labour and social Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Office of President and other leaders on how best youth can holistically be constructively and productively engaged on a peer to peer approach even during the  general elections because development does or should not stop. Hopefully  they get to see the importance of working in groups, utilizing the locally available resources to fight poverty, improve on household income and create jobs in their communities rather than lament.

Politicking and lamenting without action will not take youth and Uganda anywhere, therefore,our appeal to fellow young people especially now that we are in a period general elections, do not be overexcited and accept to be used and lose that youthful value, plan ahead and know that where is an opportunity there is a challenge, life itself is an opportunity!!!

Go cast your vote when that right time comes because we have the numbers to determine the Uganda we want, do vote for issues not handouts from politicians!!

Let us keep peace and not be perpetrators of violence and during and after elections the task is to embrace the farm life and acquaint yourselves with the benefits that come with understanding the seasons.

Let us not forget that elections are not here to stay but development has to continue. As for the government, resuscitate vocational training so that the boys and girls be instructed in questions relating directly to farm life.

Agriculture is the foundation upon which national prosperity rests. We must do everything to get to the basics.

Because it's been a long time since we lived with this mistake, is not enough reason to stay in it.

Some of the reasons we see more and more unemployed youth is lack of cooperation, patience, focus and some taking themselves to be special species in that all they prefer is to lament about their challenges then being the solution, others waiting for Parents and guardians to do everything for them, others waiting for handouts and as youth we must also woke up our eyes, we must not be blind of opportunities as early as possible and off course not forgetting that where there are opportunities there are challenges.

Everybody has a challenge but we cannot see the challenge unless we are there.

Youth, whereas we have a right, we have duties to perform and obligations to fulfill, let us not ask what the current or the new Ugandan Government has done for us but rather start by appreciating that contributing a brick is a contribution to building of this nation.

The writer is a youth advocate, consultant on youth engagement