Teachers tasked with embracing practical methods

EDUCATION

WAKISO- Teachers have been advised to embrace practical teaching methods to avoid producing half-baked learners who cannot sustain themselves after school completion.

The Assistant Commissioner for Private Schools George Mutekanga, said teachers are giving children more of theoretical work, leaving them with no skills to start their own jobs.

Mutekanga made the remarks on Saturday while addressing students during the Curriculum fair at Trinity College Nabbingo in Wakiso district.

"If teachers equip students with practical skills, it helps them to understand better what they have been taught in class. They eventually put it into practical work," said Mutekanga adding that the practical skills make the students think- out of the box, to come up with their own innovation to create jobs.

He advised parents to desist from forcing children to take on professions that they do not want.

The commissioner explained that with such a force, they would not deliver well because it will not be from their interest.

"We as a ministry are looking at having quality education in all forms. Today, I am very happy that the curriculum fair was able to bring up 20 departments that exhibited various concepts," Mutekanga said.

He observed that there was self-confidence from the students better than that found in business today.

"Uganda is an agricultural country and a food basket, if the students are given the practical and basic skills like making varieties of animal feed, they would support the parents with income generation during the holidays," said Mutekanga.

During the event, students exhibited a microscope they innovated in the laboratory, a safety automated device that monitors security around the house.

They also displayed a device that protects the environment by collecting all the paper and recycle it without burning paper, which pollutes the environment.

Hope Nyakoba, a student said that the curriculum fair helps them to come up with their own ideas. She said after being taught about the danger of polluting the environment in the school, they came up with the concept of collecting all the paper in the school.

The headmistress of Trinity College Nabbingo, Dorothy Matovu noted that it is the ministry of Education's mandate to see that students translate what has been taught in the classroom into reality.

"We feel that if the students acquire these skills when they are still in school, it helps them remember what they have been taught in class," Matovu said.