Late coming irks Minister Muyingo

May 06, 2018

The minister was irked the more, when after about an hour of waiting for people to come, none was able to fully sing the three stanzas of the Uganda National Anthem

PIC Muyingo greeting Angella Nakafeero, the gender technical advisor at the education ministry. This was during the national dissemination workshop of the gender in education policy at Imperial Royale Hotel on Friday. Photo by Mary Kansiime

EDUCATION

The state minister for higher education, John Chrysostom Muyingo was furious when he arrived at a function to find empty seats and handful of people, a third of whom were journalists.

The minister was irked the more, when after about an hour of waiting for people to come, none was able to fully sing the three stanzas of the Uganda National Anthem.

Muyingo expressed his disappointment while opening the half day national dissemination workshop of the revised gender in education policy, which was organised by the education ministry, at Imperial Royale Hotel on Friday.

The policy seeks to enhance equal access and participation for girls and women, boys and men in the education sector, as well as promote the provision of relevant knowledge and skills equally to male and females.

“We need to think about how we use time. Our misuse of this scarce resource costs us. If you see people who are supposed to be here at 9:00am coming late, it gets me worried about the seriousness we attach to this,” he added.

Giving an example of developed countries where he has attended workshops, Muyingo said people in those countries walk very fast and with seriousness.

“I have attended similar workshops in countries that are developed; there nine o’clock means nine o’clock. You see everybody walking seriously and fast. But in Uganda, it is as if we are simply passing time,” he said.

He said that the country is losing a lot of time because of such acts adding that even when the meeting started, many people did not know how to sing the national anthem. Unlike other gatherings were both the national and regional anthems are sang, at this workshop only one stanza of the national anthem was sung.

“First of all we started late and even after that, I noted very few participants participated in singing the national anthem. I sympathise with the master of ceremony, who upon realising that none could sing the anthem correctly, decided to cut it short,” he said.

The meeting was attended by legislators, educationists, activists on the right of the girl child and officials from education the ministry.

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