Netters,
First of all, I am NOT, repeat NOT opposed to UPE. But I can see how a careless and/or casual reader migh come to the conclusion that I am.
What I question is its timing, in the sense that development not only involves doing the right thing. The right thing must be done at the right time. That is: the sequencing of projects is as important as the projects themselves.
In particular, I suggested that we'd get higher returns, sooner, and at a lower cost if we attend to folks who have the most education, first, and not exclusively.
Secondly, in stating that Makerere has become paper-mill, I said nothing new at all. It is in the papers constantly. More importantly, it doesn't imply in any way to graduate fewer students. Any university can be a paper-mill regardless of the number of graduates it generates annually. That is, "paper-millness" has to do with quality. It has little or nothing to do with quantity.
Having said the above, of course, I can also question the utility of graduates in getting the economy going. Just look at Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. He is a graduate, I am told, but a mediocre nonetheless. He knows something about shooting guns, but he has proven to be a clueless and lousy peacetime administrator. He has done zilch for the economy, inspite of his 7% annual growth hot-air song, as facts on the ground attest. But, he is not alone. Churchill was great war leader, but in peacetime he wasn't upto the job. Fortunately for post-war Britain, he knew it and made way for more able persons. Kaguta, on the other hand, is pig-headed enough to think Uganda is his personal property, to mess with as he pleases. Some graduate he is.
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Mr. Semakula:
Let me corect one impression: I have been consistent in arguing that we don't need a national language in Uganda.
UPE came in because IF it does work, those who favour a national language may as well realize their wish.
On UPE you and I are way miles apart but let us leave it at that. You would rather the government concentrated on A'levels (the fewer) than the primary school pupils (the more numerous). In other words, it is a question of values and that is a different debate for another day.
Let us give the poor too a chance to learn how to read and write and for that reason alone, I would rank UPE far ahead of A'levels.
There is a contradiction in your arguement though. You are pertubed by the fewer graduates in Uganda, yet you criticize Makerere University for having become a degree mill? How do you reconcile the two?
That said, I would rather leave UPE and the language issues at that.
WBK
>From: "J Ssemakula" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: [FedsNet] National language and UPE >Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 18:55:38 +0000 > ><< message3.txt >>
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Netters,
Surprising as it might appear I, too, know about the politics of UPE. However, I do not see how this negates its being a farce.
Museveni's single interest is to stay in power for as long as possible, no matter what the cost is to Uganda. With UPE he simply used the tactic of blackmailing politicians or anyone who'd put the development of Uganda in real terms first and foremost. He is cunning enough to know that the country does not need more P7 graduates as badly as it needs graduates in technical schools.
Museveni jolly well knows that Uganda's education system is a pyramid: 5-6 million P7 graduates, maybe 1 million O-level graduates, perhaps 500,000 A-level graduates, and (much) less than 50,000 university graduates. (Naturally, I have hard numbers and can produce them, again, if necessary -- see the archives for some of them). In looking for votes (for he'd like to win a free and fair election too -- it is much ccheaper and safer for him than the the military domination that he has had to fall back on, time and again), these numbers tell him to aim his efforts at the lowest stratum. Kaguta is also very aware aware that millions more UPE graduates won't do didly for the economy or improve the standard of living in Uganda. He just doesn't care, for that is only incidental to him.
Now, most people know or would have no trouble in realizing that, if one were interested in getting the economy going, in the shortest possible time, and at the least expense, one would aim effort at those A-level graduates who do not proceed to higher education. This makes sense because with 13 years of education behind them, they are the most trainable. And, on graduation, with practical skills, they are the most critically needed in the economy. They are also the most likely to be self-employed, creating other jobs in the process by their economic activity -- even if we the people, via our taxes, had to give them equipment and even lend them a little moneyy (ca.$300) on graduating. This is a process that could start by building & suitably equiping one technical school in every district. It'd take very little time (10 years at most) for these schools to attract the very brightest and capable students. Parents -- who are traditionally averse to "techo", thanks to decades of British brainwashing -- would eventually see their benefits and support them ethusiatically, once their practical benefits become self-evident. This is just plain horse-sense (aka "common" sense).
As it is now, UPE is a political poison-pill, and Museveni knows it too. And lately he's been bleating about expanding the program, although he also knows we simply cannot afford it or are ready for it (teachers, money, etc) -- and will likely result in falling educational standards. he doesn't care, his children and those of his cronnies will go abbroad or to private schools. You don't have to believe me, just look at Makerere, which is now a paper-mill (degree mill).
Now, back to the issue of national language. I'd like to ask netters to address the issues I raised when I wrote:
�Again I ask, why do we need a national language? Is it worth it to continue spinning our wheels on this? Or is it that we just like rubber cookies?
Some souls have this silly notion that, if we speak Swahili, all of sudden we'll be able to trade with each other, just like that, as if by magic. I do not know where or how such naivety arises. There is absolutely no emperical evidence to support it, not even a scintilla -- other than an incapacitating dose of wishful thinking and pipe-dreams. Little wonder that just about any iddiot can rule Uganda for donkey's years!
Who or what says that at this time trade between Kenya and Uganda or Uganda and TZ is hampered because Ugandans do not have Swahili as their national language or cannot speak Swahili? Or even that Kenya and TZ are doing roaring trade (on which poor Uganda is necessarily missing out) because they both speak Swahili?
Does anyone on this forum know that right after the collapse of the EA Community, the two SWAHILI speaking countries and former partners -- Kenya & TZ -- closed their borders to each other, and that this went on for YEARS? What had happened to this magical Swwahili then?
If Swahili, why not Lingala (a Bantu Language, with no hatred baggage, that's likely be popular in ie E & Central Africa)?�
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