Ugandans need skilling

By John C. Muyingo

Over the past weeks, there have been interesting and equally intriguing articles in the media about happenings in the education sector. 

The New Vision of March 5, for example, published an eye-catching front page article with a title, ‘51,000 to miss varsity.’ 

While the ministry appreciates the media coverage, we need to put some issues in perspective. I invite the media to join us in the new crusade to change the mind-set of Ugandans from the ‘degree syndrome’ that assumes the university is the only destination after senior six; to ‘skills acquisition’, a sure vehicle to personal and national growth. 

Under the ‘Skilling Uganda’ programme, the Government is encouraging all Ugandans to attain business/vocational skills as opposed to solely a certificate. The impetus of this programme is to churn out more job creators and to reduce job seekers.

Our education system has been criticised for being theoretical. That graduates lack skills beyond the notes taken in class. It is for this reason that the ministry is emphasising ‘skills acquisition’ as a solution.

There is a malaise in our society that places the award of a degree as a sole measure of success. But as leaders, at all levels, and the influential media, we need to help citizens embrace business, vocational and technical colleges as a choice and not as a last resort.

The reason we go to school is to have skills that qualify us to get employed. We do not primarily go to school to get a degree. There is a big difference and we need to show our people the shaded area of intersection. Therefore, if it is agreeable that the ultimate aim of education is to enable us get skills so as to eke a living and live a good life; we should choose where to get the said skills purposefully. 

Except for the few lucky ones, a degree holder without skills will hunt longer for a job than a certificate holder with business or technical skills. 

We need to end the several years graduates spend pacing the streets desperately looking for jobs.

You can imagine the sorrow that the suicide story of the 26-year-old Juliet Nalugya enlisted. The media reported that youthful Nalugya jumped from the 14th floor of Workers’ House and took her life for failing to get a job since graduation in accountancy in 2007.

Statistics show that universities and colleges pass-out 400,000 graduates annually but the formal employment sector can only take on 113,000. The rest of the jobs are in the hands of the private sector who mostly need a highly skilled labour force. The only way to get around this conundrum is to have skills that can enable a graduate open up a workshop or start up an enterprise the day after graduation. Imagine how ugly it is to see an artist or even an artiste looking for a job? These are people equipped with skills that give an immediate launch-pad.

The point I am making is that success in life does not only come to degree holders. At all graduations of public universities, you notice that graduands arrive in their parents’ cars while for the vocational schools like Kisubi Technical and Nsamizi Institute for Social Development, the graduates most often than not cruise in their personal vehicles. 

This brings me back to the New Vision story that announced how 51,296 candidates who sat for the Senior Six examinations last year had missed out on university admission. The story inadvertently sends a message that it is doom and gloom for these students in their thousands.

Students who don’t harvest enough marks for their dream courses at the university need to be helped to realise that there is a best alternative in business, technical and vocational training. A bright light needs to be shone for the parents too, to embrace business, technical and vocational education. They need assistance to realise vocational skills are a real solution for their children’s employment needs and to banish from their minds the view that such institutes are the last resort and for ‘failures’.

There are several vocational institutions across the country ready to take students on. In fact there are few applications to public technical and vocational collages with scholarships fully paid for by the Government. This is scary! These vocation institutions teach and impart skills in entrepreneurship, commerce, nursing, mechanical engineering, electronics, electrical engineering, plumbing, carpentry, pottery, brick laying and concrete practice, knitting, agriculture and music dance and drama.

With the booming construction industry, this is a gold mine. This is where money oozes from. Consequently, the Government is going to heavily invest in imparting the skills needed on the job market. This will be through both the formal school system and through the non-formal using apprentice. 

The ministry is also removing the constriction there has been for practical teaching. Students have, in the past, been studying many subjects and the load was not only huge but stressful for both the learners and the teachers. Students would wear gloomy faces as they strode at their campuses and sigh with relief at the end of term or academic year. We want to replace that with clenched fists of victory! And I will explain: 

Take the example of agriculture: The subject is termed as principles and practices of agriculture. But it is not uncommon to find a school where agriculture is taught without a school garden and students cannot even lay a nursery bed for tomatoes. The explanation to this is the pressure to complete the syllabus emphasised principles of agriculture at the expense of the practices. 

Therefore, the ministry resolved to reduce the number of subjects studied at A-Level from four principals to three. This will reduce the load for teachers and relieve students of pressure. Thus, teachers will give practical aspects of the subjects more time and students will once again enjoy learning. 

I appeal to schools to embrace this new model of learning: Students of entrepreneurship and commerce must be able to use the school canteen to learn about purchases, sales, stock-taking, profit margin, saving and banking in a more tangible way than the imaginary-theoretical way it has been. 

Poultry and piggery, where it is not religiously offensive, should be kept at schools, not for the fun of it, but at commercial level and with the intention of skills acquisition. Young farmers and young achievers’ clubs could be started to boost the students’ interest. As the population grows and urbanisation spreads, agriculture has become lucrative. 

Under the non-formal training, students on long vacation or job-searching youth are encouraged to seek skills through apprenticeship. The students or youth get attachment to carpentaries, salons, motor garages, construction firms, bakeries and other chosen enterprise to acquire skills. 

The ministry’s directorate of industrial training will allocate centres to measure progress of the apprentices and ascertain who merits a certificate. The Government has put aside over sh2b to support this programme. 

This non-formal training, which is community-based, will, no doubt, be a relief to parents who today sell off their land to pay tuition and thereafter organise glamorous graduation parties for their jobless sons and daughters. Instead, the youth will acquire skills, work, support families and save family property.

Lastly, while passing with flying colours is ideal, I contend that not all successful people excelled in their studies. The most enduring success stories are of modest people who acquired business and practical skills and pursued their life’s ambition to succeed. 

These people’s profiles need to be highlighted and amplified.

Property magnet Prof. Gordon Wavamunno began as a special hire driver in Mbarara, Boney Katatumba started off at a washing bay in Wandegeya; industrialist Dr James Mulwana was once a lorry driver while tycoons Godfrey Kirumira and David Katumwa began in Owino Market as vendors.

I know, to many youth, this is viewed as a long route to wealth accumulation, but it is the most durable.

The writer is the Minister for Higher Education