Professor awed by primary leavers

Professor Kaahwa receives a token of appreciation for his work from Prof. Mondo Kagonyera during an award ceremony in July in honour of lecturers who retired officially. Most of them are now working on contract basis at the university. PHOTOS BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

What you need to know:

One of the oldest professors at Makerere University has spent over 42 years at the institution. He shared about his career over the years.

Despite his students being on holiday, at that time, he was busy at his desk, researching, I later found out. This is nothing new for one of Makerere University’s oldest professors. For the last 42 years, Professor Yusto Kaahwa has built his career in the Physics department of the university having begun in 1970 as a teaching assistant, progressing to become a senior lecturer and then attaining professorship in 1996.

Inspired into the teaching profession by his teachers whom he describes as “good examples in terms of conduct especially participation in society,” Prof Kaahwa, who now lectures on contractual basis, attributes his persistence in a profession not considered lucrative by many, to faith in God and passion for teaching.

“In the 50s and 60s, primary leavers (teachers then) were able to live in society, we gained not only academic, but survival skills from their personal behaviour and conduct that was encouraged and supervised by missionaries since most of these schools were missionary schools. They played a key role in making role models for us and this made me admire being a teacher,” says Kaahwa, who was born in Hoima District in 1945.

Over the years, he has learnt people’s priorities have changed and that today, people are more money driven than in the past where it was about service delivery. He however says his integrity and values have not been compromised because of his Christian faith.

A lame system
Drawing comparisons between the graduates of the past and current ones, the academician castigates the current education system, saying it’s more about cram work to pass exams rather than being investigative.

“The current method of teaching right from schools is of a teacher telling the learner what to do and emphasis has been put on passing exams which explains the many pamphlets on the market. The investigative approach is less emphasized. Learners are not given an opportunity to think about issues and get solutions,” he says. He believes this is contributing to the scenario of having more job seekers than job creators.

Speaking about the future of Uganda’s education, the professor stresses that producing many graduates who are told what to do and not thinkers and the growth in population, which has increased pressure on the education social services, are some of the issues to be addressed.
He suggests that the country should have more training institutions, increasing resources, check the curriculum to train students who are thinkers, and innovativeness.

According to the physics professor, there will be a bright future in the sciences if the bias against science disciplines as being hard which he says is the world over, is dealt with right from nursery school. “There is nothing hard in life, and there is nothing easy in life, physics is as hard as history is or its as simple as history is and every subject is enjoyable,” he says.

The father of six, however, partly blames this trend on science teachers citing the teaching methods as a probably cause. “Sometimes we have not presented the science in the way that the learner will appreciate, grasp principals and enjoy the subject. The methods used could be scaring away the students instead of making them appreciate and enjoy the subjects,” he said.

Lack of science laboratory equipment continues to be the overriding challenge for science teachers even at the university. The increasing number of students in comparison to the available equipment and the fact that the university cannot measure up to the new developments by upgrading its equipment remain a challenge.

The professor’s joy of his hard work over the years at Makerere University is meeting his former students in gainful employment. Some of his former students are part of the teaching staff at the university. Outside lecturing, he does not engage in any commercial business though he says he engages in family activities.