Forget the grandiose title, this is another one about Uganda’s education system and its nay-sayers. Somehow I stumbled onto this, so my patriotic self gave his two-cents’ worth. That post reminded me of a debate that has been going on for a very long time, is Uganda’s education system relevant for today’s learner or better yet for Uganda’s needs, both current and future?
Similar debates, or is it criticisms? for they are mostly one-sided rants, have appeared or aired over the media and taxi conversations. There is one that I dread to hear most, the one about how in developed countries, unlike in Uganda, children’s gifts are identified very early in life, so the children are channeled [mark that word] into life-long careers. In effect, this kind, like pixelstories in the link mentioned earlier criticise the broadness of the curriculum, preferring, by implication, a more specialised education system. Now dear reader, the same school of thought goes on to say compartmentalisation of education is not good as this is seen later on when the ertswhile student is confronted with a real-life problem solving situation. This gives birth to a more flexible combination of subject choices at the Advanced level, such subject combinations like math, ganda literature, and maybe throw in some micro-biology would make a good pot-pourri, a more wholly formed schooled fellow is churned [or channeled!?] out.
Don’t even bother with those school-vs-education quotes, school has never been more relevant at any time than today. With the avalanche of knowledge that sorrounds the learner today, the traditional role of the school, teacher(s) in particular, that of scaffolding the learning process is so important, what with youtube, google, wikiuniversity, and the ubiquitous motor mouthed know-it-all sitted in a muzigo near you! This knowledge can only be organised in a school setting to bear fruit. Which brings me to that quote I am contemplating tatooing somewhere on my body, we go to school to learn how to learn..
The blogger in question, questions the relevancy of the study of Metternich’s follies, the relevancy of the Crimean war to an average matooke-eating, jigger-infested Ugandan lad or lassie. In my comment, I cite Bloom’s taxonomy of educational goals and objectives, and I have done so in a similar post, as a better yardstick of benchmarking the relevancy of Uganda’s education system. Is it not funny, that such a one, queries the relevance of studying Ruhr cornubation development story, yet wholeheartedly embraces a romanticised revision of the rebuilding of the NewYork World Trade towers? My examples are relevant to the extentent that both take place at a time when both countries are reeling from the devastating effects of war or something similar to it, the quintenssential development studies story!
So shall we say the learner failed to see the relevancy of these events to today’s world problems or the teacher failed to teach the learner the importance of these events in the grander scheme of things? Of course that is slippery ground, in Uganda the Educationists are most of the time previously mediocre students, or cash-strapped students who could not afford the ‘real’ courses, truth be told. It is my conviction that using Bloom’s classic model, any object of study, in the hands of a good teacher, can produce a well rounded individual.
Personally, I believe the education sytem of Uganda suffers from a problem of its own creation, teachers that are averse to new knowlege, and ways of gathering it. And as for, the curriculum, a more integrated one would answer her problems. The good news is that the so-called vocational subjects are already piloting a thematic curriculum similar to that which is taking root in the primary school sector- the Integrated Production Skills Module.
Did I not, through the previous paragraph, contradict all I was saying in this post? Thse search contiues in …… the ensuing posts.
