Substandard education produces slaves NRM needs

Author: Alan Tacca. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Covid-19 has weakened the economy, compounding the unemployment problem.    

We, Ugandans, have a curious disease. Ugandans will watch you blundering; they may even cheer you on; and when you are almost completely ruined, they will say: ‘Eh, you man, or woman; forass (by which they mean ‘for us’), we thought you were awake.’

After a housemaid is dismissed, the maids in the neighbourhood will say: ‘But Madam neighbour also; you mean you did not know your maid had long fingers? She used to bring a dress today; tomorrow a blouse; even knickers. And we said, ah, forass we have no money. We knew they were stolen things. Maybe she was selling to the market women.’

President Museveni’s office functionaries: ‘Ah, forass, we are just there. What do you do? After all, the man says he has a vision and is now also Tibuhaburwa. Can you change him? Double-cabins have no fuel; no what. Big people are stealing money. We just go to the office and you do what you can; get your little monthly and go home.’

So, I was intrigued when I heard a radio newsreader reporting that a high-ranking official in the ministry of Education had made a special appeal to some of our foreign friends who spoon-feed us.

The appeal was for help to resuscitate the education sector, which has been devastated by Covid-19 lockdowns and a scandalous shortage of vaccines.

I said, ‘uh; after all the plunder and wastage, we were now appealing for help?’
Never mind the name of the official. In this world of fake news, the report may be one of those story-stories that require triple-checking before you fly too far with it.

However, whether the story was authentic or false, I wondered whether the Education ministry, too, could fall victim to the disease that afflicts Ugandans; the mischief of watching you fall until you really fall.

Then again, would the ministry seriously seek, or only pretend to look for help?
You see, forass, before the alleged appeal for spoon-feeding, we thought that the government had studied the general social-economic condition that had developed over the 36 years of NRM power; and that, lying low on the ground, the same government had closely monitored the effects of the Covid-19 measures on the school-going young citizens and on the broad society; and that the government had deliberately and advisedly turned the distortions imposed by Covid-19 on the education sector into a strategic advantage.

Forass, we thought the NRM government had realised (and privately acknowledged), that it did not have the capacity, or perhaps even the will, to steer Uganda’s economy to high enough productivity to create decent jobs for all the graduates churned out by the education system before Covid-19.

A sluggish economy and nepotism left many university degree-holders and vocational college graduates unemployed.
Covid-19 has weakened the economy further, compounding the unemployment problem.
But quality advanced education naturally raises young people’s expectations in life.

So, forass, looking at the phenomenal confusion in the education sector, we thought that since Uganda had descendants of the ruling resistance warriors and other well-connected children, who attend international schools, receive private tuition and access the internet and other educational tools; these children would fill the few decent jobs available.

Strategic neglect would ensure that the other children got sub-standard education or dropped out, thanks to Covid-19, simplifying the task of selecting the suitable.

The poorly educated would have lower expectations, gratefully taking up menial jobs in Uganda, in the Middle East and elsewhere in a world that will always need slaves.

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
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