Poor salaries: Will Arts teachers serve diligently?

Students attend class at Kabarole Primary School last year. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Do we not know the consequences of the apparent deviation? 

The move to increase science teachers’ emoluments while temporarily keeping those of their counterparts; Arts teachers, as is, has become unavoidably emotive.

The President, to the chagrin of many, reasoned [paraphrased] that science teachers, compared to Arts teachers, are hardly replaceable!

Suffice it to posit from the foregoing that with sincerity, prudence, selflessness, and understanding, in negotiations thereof, this matter can be effectively settled in a manner mutually beneficial to all contenders.

I hasten to add that it is not only [if it may] about science teachers, but also about all noble professions: teachers; medical and/or health workers; engineers; soldiers; lawyers; priests and theologians; and all suchlike who invested comparatively more time—for some, years, of specialised training, whose duties not many, if at all, can dare perform.

For instance, anyone—except little children and lunatics, inept people become politicians—of course their caliber and performance show, but no one — except masqueraders  - suddenly become a teacher; judge; doctor; engineer; soldier; priest etc. These require more intelligence, resilience, time and monetary investment, unaffordable to all. 

Some people have advised the President to relinquish power to scientists like [rtd] Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, if he thinks Arts are insignificant.

Regrettably, Uganda continually endures recurrent strikes and emotional outbursts. The attitude of pushing disgruntled teachers back to class lest they lose their jobs is detrimental! Does the government sincerely think such teachers will serve diligently? Perhaps the President has not been adequately advised on teachers [Sciences versus Arts] as about medical and health workers.

I wish to persuade him to prudently and strategically reconsider some of the positions held through his acclaimed technical advisers. I am afraid some of them mis-advise him for their selfish strivings!

May our President know that most Arts teachers come from poor backgrounds, and went to rural schools where teaching of science was thwarted by, inter-alia, limited science equipment. Accordingly, any preferential salary payments to their disfavor, is perpetuating their plight. But also, if Arts be their divine gifting, why victimise them for it?

There is symbiosis between Arts and Sciences; and national transformation that we seem oblivious about: no country can thrive on Sciences alone; do not undervalue humanities! Any deviation thereof, will, no doubt, be counterproductive!

Over-emphasizing sciences against arts breeds and exalts humanism over divine truths.
Mr Johnny Enlow, an American Pastor, who, preached at Uganda’s 21st National Prayer Breakfast in 2019, observed in “The Seven Mountain Prophecy”, regarding education that: “…Most American educational institutions, for example, were meant to serve as places of training and admonition in the fear of God. Their instruction was given in the context of a worldview that put God in the center of life as the One around whom we all must orbit… Humanism is an ethical philosophy that prioritizes universal human qualities and intellect. It is empowered by rationalism…The Siamese twin of humanism is atheism...”

Do we not know the consequences of the apparent deviation? Fellow Ugandans, have you accessed a documentary—or other literature that profile(s) the West’s wicked depopulation agenda targeting mainly Africa through inoculation [vaccination] apartheid? After “failing” with HIV, came Covid-19! If our scientists will save us against such, they have my vote!

Renowned mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, Sir Isaac Newton noted, “God created everything by number, weight and measure… I have fundamental belief in the Bible as The Word of God, written by those inspired. I study the bible daily”.

As did James Clerk Maxwell, another physicist and mathematician: “…Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter itself out of nothing. We have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when we have admitted that because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent it must have been created.” If acclaimed scientists reasoned thus, should we pretend otherwise, perish foolishly? All teachers equally matter!

Mr  Patrick Katagata J, Prospective MP ~Buhweju County, [email protected].