Monday, August 30, 2010

UGANDA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM KEEPS US BEHIND!

Mr. Jesse Yesiga, the protagonist of Nick Twinamatsiko's novel, Jesse's Jewel studied Civil Engineering at university. He however had to study Structural engineering afresh courtesy of his employer when he was given a job, and he realized that university had not taught him anything useful as regards structural engineering! This same Jesse Yesiga, loved Literature so much besides his love for Mathematics! He actually attempted to offer PCM/L at A’ level and was refused on the basis that he could not combine an Arts subject like Literature with Science subjects! This same Jesse Yesiga however went on to read all sorts of literary works so much that he says when in the library he found himself reading more of Shakespeare than his Engineering notes and that is besides his immense love for mathematics!

This autobiographical novel is written by a civil engineer that a reviewer and literary critic Dennis Muhumuza has described as the civil engineer who builds words and sentences. Nick owns a publishing firm, has published two novels (Jesse's Jewel and my best, Chwezi Code) and an anthology of poems. Before you think that he digressed from Engineering, I should add that Nick is a lecturer of Civil Engineering and owns Kisaana Consults, a Kampala based structural engineering and construction management firm! Nick last studied Literature as a subject in his O'level but you should read his novels for you to understand that our Ugandan education badly needs reform judging from the quality of these novels coming from a man not trained to be a writer up to university level.

My opinion is that our education system should be remodeled to focus on developing students' talents' than mechanically instructing them to be what they are genetically not meant to be. I know a story of another man who was a hit in the media until he joined the European Union as a communications expert. This man had offered science subjects as we know them at secondary level up to A’ level. He was offered government sponsorship to study Veterinary medicine! He turned the offer down because he had set his target at human medicine! That is when he joined the faculty of social sciences! From there, he joined the media, literally working in all genres of the media including Television, print media, radio etc. Watching him on TV reading news, or listening to him moderating a talk show or merely reading his story in the print media made you believe that he had studied mass communication from the best journalism schools. Yet he had not even done Mass communication at university, neither had he offered an Arts combination at A’ level! He had been engrossed in studying enzymes and other biology related stuff for his secondary life, yet this he would throw to the gutter when he decided to follow his talent! Similar examples abound! I know another who actually studied veterinary medicine but has since found his feet fitting properly in the media. I should also add that Mr. Francis Bwengye was a public health official before studying law, and he is to date named among the top lawyers in town. There are also examples of those who have offered courses as law, medicine, engineering and have since never done anything worth writing home about in those fields, simply because their feet are misplaced!

I just want to emphasize that those who identify what they are born to be and their talents have without doubt excelled at their crafts and professions! Those who attempt to be mechanically made into something they are born not to be, struggle all through their professional life and can never reach the level of efficiency that those with talent are known for, even when the latter have no university or formal training in the areas where their talents lie! Now, one wonders, if everyone's talents are identified and developed, how far would Uganda be?