{UAH} ‘Humanities useless’ debate sparks science teacher boost

UGANDA

'Humanities useless' debate sparks science teacher boost

Esther Nakkazi08 May 2015 Issue No:366

Makerere University in Uganda is reintroducing a postgraduate diploma in education to train scientists to become science teachers. The move comes in the wake of President Yoweri Museveni slating the humanities as 'useless' and asking universities to focus on sciences.  Professor Joseph Oonyu, head of the school of education at Makerere, said the programme would help to tackle a shortage of science teachers in the country. The university is reverting to an earlier system in which science teachers are first trained in basic sciences and then go on to obtain a postgraduate diploma in education. With Makerere being Uganda's flagship university, other institutions are expected to follow suit.  This way, it is believed, Uganda will again produce quality science teachers and hopefully turn Museveni's dream of having many more scientists into reality.  "We changed the way we taught teachers. It is now a bachelor of science in education – before it was bachelor of science and then education. The teacher was fully trained in the basic sciences and later in education," explained Associate Professor William Kyomuhangire. Makere is returning to the teacher training system under which Uganda produced some of Africa's best science teachers, Kyomuhangire added. A pipeline problem But there appears to be little interest among today's youngsters in studying science. Many schools lack the basic requirements to train students to appreciate science.  "Students do not want to study basic science anymore. There are also very few students who want to study science to become science teachers," said Professor John Opuda-Asibo, executive director of the National Council for Higher Education. "Maybe we need to give scholarships to students in rural areas," Opuda-Asibo suggested. In the past, rural schools were capitalised to the same level as urban schools, science was easily taught and students were eager to learn science. Professor Eriabu Lugujjo, vice-chancellor of Ndejje University who studied science at a rural school and went on to teach engineering at Makerere University for more than 35 years, said schools and pupils used to be well equipped with science kits – but not any more. Lugujjo added that teachers were also the number one enemies of teaching, as they urge young people not to go into teaching. Reintroducing the postgraduate diploma in education could also overcome the problem of students who tick education as their last course choice at university. Statistics from the school of education at Makerere show that only a quarter of its students apply for education as a first choice. This means that many graduates who go on to teach science did it at university because they failed to get into their preferred courses. Another argument is that there is no motivation to teach because of low salaries. Teachers earn peanuts. If the teacher training model at universities is changed without increasing teacher salaries, will the problem ever be solved? Joseph Oonyu, the head of education at Makerere, said: "We should treat teacher training as serious business. It should be professionalised." The science versus humanities debate Educationists feel such moves are more positive than the 'irrelevance' debate over sciences being better than the humanities, promoted by the Ugandan president and described by some as 'diversionary politics', a 'misplaced debate' and curious. Many educationists argue that humanities and sciences are complementary, citing the example of the world-class Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, which has courses in the humanities despite its focus on science. It has been argued that Uganda is looking at only one side of the debate, as if saying that theory and practice are opposites. Professor George Mondo Kagonyera, chancellor of Makerere University, said: "When I was young, I thought the only thing worth studying was science. I later realised that you need both to balance. I think what we need is an intellectual revolution. A complete change of thinking in knowledge and education." Speaking at a national higher education conference and exhibition held in the Ugandan capital Kampala in March, Professor Joshua Rubongoya from Roanoke College in the United States said no one there spent time anymore debating the humanities versus sciences issue. "It is a clear complementary system. A debate is irrelevant," he said. "We only need to decouple education from politics. It is the politicisation of education." He urged universities in Uganda to start courses in how to create jobs.  The National Council for Higher Education's John Opuda-Asibo thinks the government is only looking at what has been neglected for a long time. "In the 1960s it was statistics, then environment, then gender. Now it is science. It is not wrong for government to say that while it's easier to produce humanities [graduates], we need more science and technology graduates. "It is not that the other should be abolished," said Opuda-Asibo.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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