Government should increase funding to higher institutions of learning
The three-day National Council for Higher Education 10th Exhibition held at Lugogo March attracted reputable universities and other tertiary institutions of higher education.
We should commend the NCHE for the excellent arrangement. Our parents and other stakeholders witnessed for themselves what our youth and their mentors do in the world of academics and how new ideas can be developed and operationalised into tangible products.
Interesting to note was how institutions are grappling with their meager resources to display bankable projects, which can effectively be used to increase the productivity of the country’s economy. Notable were projects in the field of agriculture exhibited by students offering Bsc. Biosystems Engineering from Gulu University. The two projects were an animal-powered seed furrow opener and planter, and manual water hand-pump for irrigation purposes.
These are all viable projects that can be promoted to benefit not only local farmers, but also the entire households. The manual water hand-pump is an improvement of the drip irrigation system that President Museveni promoted in his demonstration farm in Luweero. It is also worth commending government for the approval of this Gulu University to lay emphasis on agriculture. The vast piece of land in Acholi sub-region confirms the assertion that Uganda is and can be a food basket for Africa.
Now that our young men and women in this great institution have come out with innovative ideas, government support should be increased so that they are able to roll out their knowledge through outreach programmes and demonstrations to farmers to increase agricultural productivity.
In Ndejje University, the Faculty of Environment and Agricultural Sciences, exhibited projects related to renewal energy and soil conservation. These are all projects attracting concerns world over due to global warming. Better techniques and approaches for protecting the environment and food production were ably displayed by these research students. Such knowledge and skills is worth taking down to the community through outreach programmes.
Uganda is an agricultural country where 80 per cent of the population derives their livelihood. Sadly, the majority of our farmers practice subsistence farming, heavily relying on human muscle power leading to low productivity.
The country is endowed with abundant human resource, occasionally being transformed through human capacity development programmes in these higher educational institutions. However, these institutions are facing financial challenges.
The government has earmarked a number of areas of projects in its development plans, but it requires concerted effort, commitment and determination to implement and support to achieve the intended goals. These institutions could provide the right avenue through which money for development should be channelled.
When such institutions are financially and adequately supported, they will be able to develop outreach programmes, open centres and demonstration sites to roll out their innovations to the population. Increased funding should also be used to provide incentives to the students to enable them develop more appropriate technology necessary for increased agricultural production.
Interestingly, the appropriate technology will support the recently launched Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy, thereby saving the hard-earned foreign currency for other priority areas of development. This is the empowerment required to enable the entire population to become productive, which will ultimately raise the country’s GDP.
Other reputable government higher educational institutions of learning that are doing commendable innovative projects in the area of hands-on skills training did not manage to participate most likely due to inadequate financial support.
One of them is the only government ICT College based in Nakawa. This institution is mandated to bridge the digital gap in providing hands-on skills-based ICT training. As government promotes Operation Wealth Creation campaign, emphasis should be put on the effective and efficient utilisation of the funding dispatched to the institutions for the benefit of the youth.
It might be true that such institutions might not necessarily have financial problems, but management problems, which is a chronic disease in many government institutions. After all, if others attempted and participated despite their meager resources as mentioned above, why did they not show up? Nonetheless, government should provide an effective monitoring system and institute punitive measures on managers as it continues to support institutions of higher learning in the country.
All in all, government as a key stakeholder, should be committed to supporting especially the higher education sector in order to build the human resource capacity that will propel the economy through innovative projects. In this way, the country realise sustainable development.
Equally important to support is the NCHE so that a decentralisation framework can be developed, enabling the Council to alternate the exhibition so that it takes place also in districts other than in Kampala. Such approach may also be regarded in economic terms as the distribution of income and resources in the economy.
