Introduction

The development of a modern civilization has a lot to do with advancement of science and technology. The quality of science education directly impacts on the extent of growth and development of science and technology. Consequently, it becomes evident that the amount of resources a nation or country puts into science teaching and research determines, to a fair extent, the level of scientific and technological advancement. Quality teaching of practical science is expensive. It is even more expensive to conduct research in science. In Africa, the private sector is not financially up to the task of execution of quality cutting edge research in science. It requires interplay of a strong private sector and keen interest and support from government. It is therefore important that African countries critically review their positions, support and involvement in programs that enhance science and technology.

The brains to excel in science are nurtured right from the early stages of learning. Africa has, over the years, produced these problem-solving brains. Some of them have their education completed here. Others have their advanced studies done in the developed countries. A good number of them leave Africa in search of greener pastures. It is important that the education system, instruction materials and teaching staff in Africa are of high quality. Working conditions that stimulate cutting edge science research need to be put in place to reduce brain drain. This can be possible with support from highly enthusiastic government organs that are charged with ensuring quality education and advancement of science. This presentation gives a brief overview of the state of science education in Uganda and gives a few suggestions to the way forward for science in Africa. This is based on the assumption that African countries and, indeed, most of the developing countries have a lot in common with the Ugandan situation.

Challenges of science in Uganda’s education system

Primary Education

The primary section is comprised of seven levels/years/forms of study. This is uniform in all government aided schools, except for private schools which may have nursery/kindergarten in addition. The curriculum mainly consists of Mathematics, English, Science and Social studies. Science at this level is mainly if not exclusively theoretical. The recent introduction of Universal primary education saw the teacher to pupil ratio greatly reduced. The increase in enrollment is not commensurate with the existing infrastructure. In some schools, make-shift classrooms have been improvised due to lack of proper and sizable buildings. These problems, coupled with poor remuneration of teachers lead to inefficient teaching and learning. Whereas some pupils make it to the good schools, most of which are privately owned, the majority of the Ugandan pupils are from poor families and can only access public schools which are less equipped to cater for the large numbers of pupils. For a large fraction of the primary going pupils, the development of scientific skills is crippled at an early stage in their academic life due to problems such as those highlighted above.

Secondary School Education.

The education system, especially in secondary school, is characterized by teaching a wide range of subjects in the ordinary level (up to 19 in some schools). This leads to a more theoretical coverage of subject material. The situation is not improved by the low teacher to student ratio, especially in most of the public schools.

The few teachers on the government payroll are poorly remunerated. As a result, most of them take up part-time employment or private business enterprises in order to make ends meet. This sees their commitment to the teaching of science (which demands for sacrifice) greatly reduced. Therefore, even the few available resources for teaching of science are not put to use.

There are few science laboratories in secondary schools. A good number of these are ill equipped. Most private schools do not seriously handle science disciplines. All these do not only deny the students the chance to acquire scientific practical skills, but also kills their interest in science disciplines. The other disheartening issue is the fact that the national examination board assumes an ideal situation and sets the same national exam without regard for the local conditions of study in each school.

University Education

The above scenario translates into a very small percentage of students joining University for science courses. A small percentage of these students are on government sponsorship.

University science education in Uganda is not devoid of problems that hamper the effective imparting of knowledge and practical skills to these few science students. A few of these problems include the following:

There is poor remuneration of university staff and simultaneous deliberate attraction of the same staff into politics. This creates “internal brain drain” leaving departments with limited highly skilled manpower to train other scientists and engage in research. Other staffs seek greener pastures which in most cases are not geared towards science development. This means that the number of research projects going on in the university is greatly reduced.

Their few organizations in the private sector which support research in science. There is no government sponsorship for postgraduate studies. Government puts in little or no effort to solicit for funding for research projects. Individual researchers struggle on their own to obtain sponsors for projects within the researchers’ interests. Because sponsors provide limited funds specifically for the research project, it is increasingly difficult to develop capacity to create continuity within departments. There are minimal efforts by government to establish schemes for this capacity development.

Institutions do not enthusiastically promote collaborative research, be it interdepartmental or interuniversity within the country, region or even further. This in effect reduces the quality of research done in these institutions.

Students study to get degrees and seek jobs. There hasn’t been much emphasis on publication of research findings. This impedes quality research and dissemination of knowledge to the international community. Therefore we have more theses/dissertations than publications from the work they do.

Other challenges to science development in Uganda include the following:

The presence of internal and external conflicts, such as wars, has led to the resources allocated to education and research to be greatly reduced. The allocation of resources is further influenced by politics which in most cases never consider science development and research. A look at budget allocation to the ministry of education for the fiscal years 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 (Table below) confirms the limited support for University education to conduct meaningful research.

Table 1. Education Sector Shares By Sub Shares By % FY 2003/2004 – 2004/2005

Sub sector FY 2003/2004 FY 2004/2005
Primary Education 68.4% 66.2%
Secondary Education 14.9% 16.7%
BTVET 3.9% 3.7%
Tertiary Education 9.9% 10.8%
Other (including universities) 2.9% 2.6%

Source: Ministry of Education and Sports, Planning Department.

NB: During the financial year 2004/2005, the education sector budget share of the GDP was 24.1% while the education sector share was 31.2% of the national discretionary recurrent budget.

Due to varying socio-economic situations in different parts of the country, it is difficult equally implement the same educational programs in these parts. For example, Karamoja (north eastern Uganda) has the “Alternative Education for Karamoja” deemed the best suitable for this region. Some of these factors make it extremely difficult to have quality education, later on quality scientific principles.

The inability for government and the responsible authorities to ensure optimum operating conditions that support the smooth conducting of research e.g. constant electric power supply.

There is misappropriation of funds by people in positions that are meant to foster science research and technology. This is not helped by the lack of vigilance, on the government side, in combating such behaviors.
It is my hope that the situation will improve sooner than later though there are few signs of a bright near future. What’s the situation in other African countries???

What is government doing to support science?

Government though is not entirely silent on improving the science education. The following are some of the attempts by government to promote science in the country:

With effect from 2006, the government made the study of science subjects, namely; physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics compulsory for ordinary level of secondary school. Although this is a good idea, it is still difficult to be done efficiently given the limited resources available for science instruction in most of the schools.

Government plans to construct central science laboratories for secondary school education. These are to be optimally equipped with apparatus chemicals and staff so that schools with poorly equipped laboratories can access these central laboratories for practical lessons. However it remains to be seen whether this plan will be implemented since there is no timeline set.

In his budget speech for the fiscal year 2006/2007, the minister of Finance, planning and economic development, Dr.Ezra Suruma mentioned that government has prioritized the provision of support to scientists who are undertaking research and innovations related to the country’s production processes. In the budget, Shs 8 billion was provided towards research in banana development, fruit juice processing, and malaria research. He also mentioned that in addition, Government had negotiated a five-year US$ 30 million project under the Millennium Science Initiative funded by the World Bank, to support research, education and training in science and technology with linkages to the industry. He said that work on strengthening the Uganda Industrial Research Institute, under this project had already started.

Government has recently (2006) accepted to increase on the salary of the academic staff in public universities. This was, however, after the academic staff at Makerere University had gone on strike, leading to a temporary closure of the University. So if remuneration of the staff is to be improved after such scenarios, then we cannot expect the output of similar quality and magnitude to that of a well motivated staff.

Government is in the process of establishing technical colleges and polytechnics to impart practical skills to school leavers so that they can be economically productive.

What can/should be done?

Government should take a leading role in promoting scientific research in higher institutions of learning. This can be through project sponsorship, scholarships to science students, and loan schemes for postgraduate students engaged in science research. They should help solicit for research grants on behalf of research organizations to supplement the efforts of the individual researchers.

Government should appropriately remunerate academic staff at institutions of learning.
Institutions should engage in collaborative research. Researchers should establish forums, such as WAYS, ANCAP, NUSESA e.t.c, through which they could share knowledge and experiences. South – south and north – south collaboration is important and it would be much easier if our governments took keen interest in supporting these issues. This could enable one to gain access to better technologies easily and cheaply without necessarily having to own them.

Regular meets, fellowships and conferences offer a unique experience in as far as dissemination of knowledge is concerned. Scientists involved in research should frequently organize these meets. Efforts should be made to improve access to high impact science journals, especially to universities and research organizations.

It is important that young scientists in Africa get to have the passion to do quality research and efforts should be made to attract as many as possible since the future of science in this naturally gifted continent largely depends on the activity of the young generation.

Conclusion

One can only reap where he sows. The excellence of science research and technology requires excellent training in scientific skills. This calls for concerted efforts between the private sector and government to greatly improve the education system right from the primary level to the tertiary level. The teaching of science and research are expensive ventures which require governments to try as much as possible to improve the systems. Sharing of information and instrumentation is vital for the development of science in Africa. This justifies the need for collaborative research, conferences, training workshops and networks such as WAYS e.t.c. through which experiences can be shared. It is upon us the young scientists to strive to uplift the standard and frequency of such fora for the future of science and technology is largely dependent on the performance of our generation.

References:

The National Report on the Development of Education in Uganda at the Beginning Of The 21st Century: Report to the 47th Session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, Switzerland 8th-11th September 2004; Ministry Of Education And Sports, Uganda.

Budget Speech; Financial Year 2006/07, delivered at the Meeting of the 1st Session of The 8th Parliament of Uganda at The Parliament Buildings on Thursday, 15th June, 2006 by Honourable Dr. Ezra Suruma Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
UGANDA: Changing attitudes to education in Karamoja; UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, IRIN News.org.
Margarita Focas Licht (2000); Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) – Uganda. EENET Newsletters : Newsletter 4 Contents.