Our Current Education Status in Uganda and Africa
The early colonialists introduced the so called formal education with a purpose of extending knowledge and understanding to Africa but indirectly this was part of the master plan for slavery to keep us locked in poverty and low productivity.
Our education system has been used and never updated for the last 40 years, imagine the world has changed, transformed and instead of changing with the changing world, we have instead remained still on this theory based education.
A child starts early education for 3 years studying baby, middle and Top class, they then proceed to primary section where they push for 7 years at an average age of 12, they then go to secondary ordinary level where they study for 4 years, proceeding to advanced level which is an equivalent of college.
Imagine studying a lot of irrelevant subjects and topics that are not related to the real world out here; chemistry, biology, history surprisingly European history, divinity, English, literature and very many others.
At an average age of 19 is when someone is just crossing over to university or any tertiary institutions. This is one of the most productive age of this young man or lady but imagine they proceed to go for more theory teaching at university for at least 3 years and above.
What Happens After University.
After going through this theory education for over 16 years, all you have been trained is to study hard and enter the job market, look for a job and work for someone else.
Obviously we can never have jobs for every graduate, not even 10% of the graduates that enter the job market annually find jobs but they keep piling up every year that comes in.
Over 300000 students get into the job market from over 50 universities and institutions all-over Uganda, where do these graduates all go
There are no jobs for these graduates so looking for jobs becomes their job year in year out.
A graduate can not even start the smallest business that can earn him even 5 dollars a day just because they expect to get a big job and earn millions a month.
Almost everyone in this generation has gone to school, go on the streets and ask the motor bike riders, chapati sellers, vendors name them, these guys all have degrees but failed to get jobs and sop decided to go for quick businesses available.
What Went Wrong?
There is a common saying that education is the key to success, if that’s the case then this must have been applicable many years ago, probably the padlock changed and we still use the old key to open which can no longer work.
We are in a generation where we need more job creators, more entrepreneurs, more innovators and this calls for more practical and relevant skills to achieve.
We instead have more professors of theology, masters and degree holders, theory based teachers and governments, so really we are doomed if we don’t wake up.
Even the so-called vocational and technical institutions which would have provided a solution have lost truck now and also train job seekers in the name of practical skilling.
They are just focused on having more applicants and graduates but not minding after where these people are going and how they can be guided to translate the skills into businesses and production empires.
Skills & Business Incubation, the way to go.
We need more skills and incubation centers that will not just transfer skills but will also empower the skilled with general business principles like business modeling, marketing, branding and many others.
We must ensure that the skilled are mentored, nurtured and have the capacity to produce competitively for the market and start small with whatever they have using their practical skills.
This is why we have decided to start the first of its kind the SPARK SKILLS AND INNOVATION ACADEMY where all Ugandans who wish to become entrepreneurs and job creators will come to learn practical business skills in Agribusiness, Food processing, Art & Fashion, baking and confectionary, Cottage and industrial and Computer skill categories.
Contact us now to enroll at the academy and partner with us
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