The big debate: Should gov't scrap some A'level subjects?

EDUCATION    DEVELOPMENT

The government has started a review of the secondary school curriculum. Some 'foreign' content (for instance topics in European and North American Geography, like the Canadian prairies) is to be scrapped. What do you think? What other content do you feel is irrelevant? #BigDebate #VisionUpdates
 
How will the government compensate for the years I lost studying that nonsense? I wish everything studied in A level should focus on practicing what one wants to be, for instance, instead of choosing HEL/D, PCB, HEG, etc as a combination, let someone start studying law as a course, or medicine, culinary, Business, journalism, etc, then university should strictly be for perfectionism. I still cry for my wasted time, I don't even see how the Devonshire white paper is helping me in the culinary work I'm doing now. Agriculture, for example, it's a direct subject, just upgrade it to a course at A level and go to university just to seal whatever you've been wrapping.

Babise Cornelius: Most topics in geography in the syllabus are for comparative purposes. What the Canadians are doing with large scale farming using machines is what we should learn to do and is the gist of the topic "Canadian Prairies". We need to encourage our teachers to help the learners see it that way. That is too extensive farming versus intensive farming.

Dr-Kul Narson: Let them review some theories especially those in economics and the issues of saying "living other factors constant " where it applies should be scrapped off... In mathematics, let them review the issues of looking for" X ". Imagine up to now I don't know why I was looking for x and I have never applied it anywhere after my studies. Gov't #weyayu.

Luiz Daniel: There are very many things which are supposed to be in the museum for the purpose of keeping history and not to be in our curriculum!! People are busy inventing aeroplane which is solar-powered Ugandans are still busy wasting time on Canadian prairies, Napoleon and so on!!

Nyesiga Israel: Most of the topics taught in geography paper two are irrelevant eg fishing in Norway, Peru, Ecuador, etc. By the way, paper one and three are fine

Tony Zaza: You guys wasted our time studying things that are not helping us in anything.

I like and love sciences, trust me history, geography, commerce, Agriculture are among the subjects that wasted my precious time. I should have been left to concentrate on physics, chemistry, Biology, mathematics from the very start of my secondary studies. I'm so pissed.

El-bashir Coxar: I hear British Colombia sijui Gulf of Mexico, I don't know if I should even say good for nothing, they are bad and really don't develop a student's mind

Alex Nabasa Ssemanda: I have started to love this skilling Uganda, they are very relevant to what Uganda needs upon this unemployment song

Ambrose Okello: Been long overdue! Appears like we were being trained to be tour guides or something with those North American and European things !!

Johnson Arinaitwe: Let's do much of Uganda and East Africa success stories and partly Africa looking at applicability in real life

Ssenyonjo Musolooza Henry: But in A level geography, we don't have the Canadian prairies. It's in the O level

Brave Brown: Do we really need to study continental drift at A'level? Let those who will take Geology at the university study them from there. Someone is going to study Theology but busy studying rocks at A'level

Nasiyo Scovia: The past cannot lead us to the future it's only the present which can led us to the future so to me I think history should be replaced with some practical hand skills because at the moment Uganda is still a developing country which needs skills in engineering courses, plumbing, welding and so much more.
 
Mbale Fauza: Kasese has a lot of things we can learn from than America e.g mubuku irrigation, Hima cement, Queen Elizabeth, Rwenzori mountains, hot springs are there, all types of lakes are there, rivers, why America?

Salome Imalingat: Sometimes I wonder why I studied history, the geography of western countries and yet at the campus I did a course not related to what I learnt in those subjects and to make matters worse the job I'm doing is totally not related to my course. It's better to teach subjects that give practical skills like entrepreneurship, agriculture, etc and scrap others like Europeans history and the likes

Fidel Okiror: Let's see agriculture made compulsory and let it be more of practical in nature.

Let's exhaust the Ugandan history because you find a student rapping for you Napoleon but can not chronologically tell you about past Ugandan presidents.

Kamugasa Robert Mark: For physics content, there is nothing really to review.

Newton's laws, Kepler's laws are universal.

Kabali Edward: They even delayed. We do not need any of their geography in our curriculum at O'level especially. We want students to understand geography of Africa better. May be in A' level they can relate a few for comparative reasons

Doreen Amiso: All these make me cry for my wasted time studying irrelevant things. I pray my children will find it lighter and practical.

Stephen Bukenya: It is already overdue! You find someone very busy teaching Canada yet he has never even crossed from Uganda into Kenya!! And you find someone who studied #irrigation_farming_in_California very busy complaining about drought near River Nile in Jinja!

After geography, they should turn to History! Topics like #Mirambo , #Seyid_Said , #Metternich, etc. are all scrap and bogus!

Amiir Ahmed Abdi: I have been with Ugandans for quite some time at different occasions like being friend with them, workmate, and also classmate. Their education is system is really good and their curriculum has a quality with most of the school subjects. But I have seen one problem, they are really down or I can say zero when it comes to geography and history.

U can see a sinior six student that doesn't know any history of Africa leave alone the other continents!

So I think from primary one to senior six students are taught only the history of Uganda.

Let them review those two subjects and give their children a beneficial and balanced history like from Uganda then East Africa then whole Africa then the rest of the world.

Badru Muwonge: Let agriculture become compulsory and history be scrapped from compulsory subjects because it's more of theory and Agriculture is more practical and also the backbone of our country. Where will a student apply history in case education fails?? But Agriculture is applicable and some of us have studied using money from Agriculture.

Ahimbisibwe Justine: It's been long overdue! Let them teach students hands-on programs like how to handle business, land laws, property rights, how to handle some life matters like money, marriage, friendship, and people. They should teach reality.

Kunihira Gloria: I hear Tennessee Valley, Switzerland maps, Canadian prairies, honestly why did we study that stuff in the first place, when those people don't know their own country. This is a good decision

Biryomunda Emma: They should start with Napoleon. The way we wrote 10 booklets of how he fought wars as if we're soldiers. Scrapping should have been done yesterday.

Annet Elizabeth: Anything that can be viewed on cable TV documentaries should be scrapped off the syllabus. In fact, some of the things we study in the school are aired repeatedly on cable TV channels like National Geographical, National History, and all those other American TV channels. Let the schools show those historical wars to students on TV over the weekend as entertainment and replace them on the syllabus with vocational training.

Davis Jordan: The gov't should introduce technical studies in all secondary schools for skills development and empowering individuals to compete favourably on both local and the international job markets.
 
Onya Stan: this is exactly what I have always wanted... finally there is some sense, but I wish they started with O level because students are struggling with so many subjects some of which they have no passion for, please if possible reduce these subjects to about six so that students can concentrate on what they can do best except for Mathematics and English which may remain compulsory

Micheal Innocent: Instead of European history, at least let's learn the history of Uganda and constitutional development in East Africa, and concentrate on Ugandan geography instead

Steven Odongo: Man I think O'level should be considered first ......imagine things like Eastern frontier in history, things like the Indian Ocean trade 😭 for what na ah ah!

Ssenkumba Tiago Ronald: They should focus on Africa and also teach the national constitution to children such that they can know more about themselves and their rights

Alale J Jordan: The whole A'level should be scraped off and replaced by vocational training for each student after S4! Such that each child in Uganda gets a skill! This will reduce unemployment in a country like Uganda

Nasa Tushabe: Canadian Prairies? On A-Level Geography? Are you kidding me? Anyway those Numbers were easy to pass. They should leave them there, after all, all we studied including log10, Vannier Caliper, and No Sooner are not helping us.

Wodero Titus: They are irrelevant because we are just poor to carry out practical research and fieldwork studies. If you may ask any of Ugandan student who has ever flown to New York or Canada to do research or fieldwork on Canadian prairies, the topics would be useful if we engaged most in research work rather than theory. Our government should invest much more in research, practical and fieldwork studies.

Mupaghasia Exevia: It's by this that I can now say they are growing up. And understanding that when you reach S6 and above, the padlock for the said Education is the key, was changed.

Samalie Nalwoga Mutetsi: They should scrap off paper two geographies.

It's so irrelevant to imagine studying forestry in British Columbia, tourism in Switzerland, fishing in Norway, industrialization in Germany and China

Maxtech Dave Josh: Where have they been all along...didn't they notice that it was irrelevant but instead wanted to feed their pot bellies and cause massive unemployment... The whole education system from primary up to university is somehow irrelevant. Consider the graduates who graduate every year from public and private universities in Uganda, more than 75% are unemployed and admissions are still going on....
 
Miiro George: Evolution theory and the big bang theories must be thrown to the waste paper baskets or the dustbins because God is the creator of the heavens and the earth.

Osbert Karakire: That's a very good wakeup to our Gov't. Not only in geography but also in history. More so some of the subjects which very are important to Ugandans are made optional E.g Agriculture. If possible, agriculture should be made compulsory instead of history and geography because as we talk now Ugandan economy relies on agriculture.

Geoffrey Thenge: Please just leave the Ugandan education alone. You are just worsening the education here, just wait a few years down the road. Ugandans just have to change the attitudes and lifestyles. The focus should be on family, child development and the teacher's welfare. Not forgetting early childhood education e.g what toys do children play with, what content do they read, learning to read and write early enough, giving them the opportunity to fall in love with sciences/ creativity.

The education just stimulates the brain but will not give you who you are to become. This is the problem but not the education system in Uganda.

Peter Marcus: Ok, if they are scrapping that, what are they replacing it with?
It's good they have realized that such subjects are irrelevant to Ugandans.
I propose they bring back Ugandan history because our children don't know the history of their own country.

Achuil Ak: I don't see the reason why Ugandan gov't forces students to studies world geography rather than Africa, I did geography in my A-level but paper one let me down. I prefer East African history to world history what did we need to know about the French Revolution

Akiiki Robert Tumusiime: Good idea. I studied Geography for nine years and taught it for seven years; I must say it's disturbing and confusing to teach some topics which are abstract and moreover foreign such as Canadian prairies, St Lawrence seaway, Tennessee valley authority, et al. This has been long overdue and should have happened as early as yesterday. However, those topics are meant for comparative purposes.