The lectures were launched yesterday, by the University’s Chancellor, Prof. Mondo Kagonyera. 

While speaking at the first public lecture yesterday, Kagonyera expressed the lack of respect for knowledge as the main reason Ugandans are corrupt.

Kagonyera also called upon government to revert Kyambogo University into a polytechnic because it has failed as a university.

“I am extremely concerned about the trend which education is taking in this country. It shocks me that we have people in this country who don’t respect knowledge. Why should Government continue to blame Makerere University and other institutions for producing people who cannot create jobs yet they have not told us what kind of people they want us to produce?

“Kyambogo was meant to churn out teachers and technicians but it has failed to be a university. Government should revert it to what they were supposed to do.”

The tough-talking Kagonyera however cautioned educationists not to leave education policies to politicians because they are fond of making contradictory pronouncements without carefully thinking of the impact.

He also criticized teachers’ unions for cherry-picking on salary increments rather than raising key education changes that the society needs.

Educationist attending the lecture also proposed to the government a wide range of changes in the education system of the country, including banning boarding schools at primary level, which they say has endangered the family development of children.

Prof. Abdu Kasozi, the former executive director of the National Council for Higher Education said that if the Ugandan education system is to compete with the changing societal demands and the highly-technology driven world, a group of eminent people need to undertake a study and recommend a revised education curriculum.

Among the proposed reforms Kasozi wants government to adopt include;

• banning the use of calculators in all schools

• discouraging boarding schools at primary level

 

• changing the 7 (primary) -6 (secondary)-3 (university) education system to 8 (primary)-4 (secondary)-4 (university, and

 

• The abolition of the specialization in arts and science but rather pursue a combination of subjects up to degree level.

“The major aims of education in Uganda haven’t changed since the missionaries came. There is a need to re-think our education system and align it with the changing digital and other societal changes since 1986,” he said.

The main discussant of Kasozi’s keynote address, Dr. Ronald Bisaso, the dean of East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development, said that throughout his career as an educationist, the late Senteza Kajubi advocated for changes in the education system – a spirit that government and other stakeholders should embrace.

“People of power need people of ideas. It is a balance advanced countries have come to appreciate,” he said.

The Prof. William Senteza Kajubi memorial lecture, according to Dr. Fred Masagazi Masaazi, the Principal College of Education and External Studies, would be held every year to pay tribute to the renowned educationist.

The fallen professor is the author of the famous Kajubi Report (1989) which set the ball rolling for higher education reforms in the country.

His son, Wasswa Yoweri Kajubi, welcomed the idea of the lecture and also welcomed the proposal by Makerere University to build a lecture theatre and a foundation in memory of his father.

The lecture was attended by a number of dignitaries, including the Vice Chancellor of Makerere Prof. John Ddumba Ssentamu, former Prime Minister Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Maria Kiwanuka, the Auditor General John Muwanga, former Education and Sports minister Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, ex-DP president Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere among others.