SIR— I am writing to commend the article “The Tower crumbles” by Oscar Bamuhigire which ran in the June 27 Sunday Vision about cheating in examinations at Makerere University. The article highlighted the fact that the vice is rampant to an unbelievable degree.
In my view, even the university authorities share the blame. For example, in most arts and economics courses, examining is based on cram work. You find students cramming notes so as to impress their examiners who happen to be their lecturers.
At the end of that semester, a third year student asked me whether Latin America was among the Asian Tigers. I was shocked because in our days, primary three geography lessons included the six continents Latin America. Then during our discussion, when l asked my colleagues whether they remembered the Industrial Revolution we used to study in Primary Seven, they answered with a big no.
Later, I learnt that it is only traditional schools that teach students to understand. Most commercialised schools teach students to pass exams and they forget almost all they have been ordered to cram after doing exams. Unfortunately, some Makerere University lecturers also encourage this. Otherwise in addition to courseworks, students’ perticipation in class should be given priority.
However, Makerere has not all decayed as the article implied. It is still producing good doctors, lawyers, name it. The decline is continental, when the state in Africa decayed in the post-independence era. Makerere could not be an exception. However, with the current liberalisation including private programmes, God willing, it will reclaim its past glory if the money is put to proper use especially paying lecturers a sound salary.

Muhammad Luwangula
Kampala