BY MICHAEL TUMWESGIGYE
The latest developments in Uganda, of top government officials, involved in political corruption of iron sheets that were meant for poor people in Karamoja got me thinking: How can education be used to create a corruption free Uganda where people are kind hearted to others? Moral degeneration in families, workplaces and even in other social spaces is a manifestation of an education deficient of values.
Social hindrances such as corruption, poor work ethics, sectarianism, selfishness, violence and tribalism have a root in an education system that lacks values. If good education is provided to children, they are likely to live a flourishing life and become responsible citizens. Uganda’s failure to recognize and embrace the life of practicing values and a national culture has for a long time denied consistent growth and political certainty. This has over and over again caused incidences of in-group favouritism, sectarianism, out-group discrimination, ethnic and political tensions, cultural conflicts and consequently, political turmoil. This sad state has ethnocentrism at its centre.
The national aims and objectives of education in Uganda emphasize the promotion of the values of national unity, patriotism, self-discipline, integrity, tolerance, human fellowship, a sense of service, duty and participation and all, essential in achieving national development. However, these values seem to be practiced on paper only. As Ugandans, we must work hard to rebuild and sustain a morally upright society with national integrity for the fulfilment of Uganda’s aspirations. This can be achieved through integration and main streaming ethical values in all national, social and economic development activities.
It is still early to say whether, the new lower secondary education curriculum will address this challenge. Schools are producing graduates who are educated but are morally lacking. There are schools in Uganda with no spiritual stand and aesthetically deficient. It is therefore necessary that children, from an early age, be taught the imperatives of values. At a societal level, values are elements of “conformity” to the established order. People must conform to norms and customs, of particular societies, in order to ensure cohesiveness. In a troubled country experiencing such development problems like corruption, violence, risks of dehumanisation among others; the role of schools cannot be underestimated.
Uganda has 10 national values (as in the National Ethical Values Policy-2013). These are:
1) Respect for humanity and environment;
2) Honesty-uphold and defend the truth at all times;
3) Justice and fairness in dealing with others;
4) Hard work for self-reliance;
5) Integrity-moral uprightness and sound character;
6) creativity and innovativeness;
7) Social responsibility;
8) Social harmony;
9) National unity and
10) National consciousness and patriotism.
As Ugandans, it is high time we strengthened and popularised national values at all levels. For example, value should be enhanced in education institutions starting with primary schools & secondary schools and all post primary institutions. In all tertiary institutions, Ethics should be taught as a compulsory module.
Therefore, key stakeholders in values system strengthening should all implement their mandate. These include: families as a first social unit, churches, work places and communities. The key challenge however, remains that family fibre is broken. Teachers are facing bigger challenges than before because of change in the roles of parents in the modern families where almost all parents are busy believing that teachers will help in nurturing their children.
There is need to integrate service learning in our education system. With younger learners, this can mean identifying and solving problems within their classroom. With older learners, it can mean creating service projects that help their school, community, or people across world. Children need to practice, from early on, how to take action, to solve the problems in their community, to have a positive effect. They don’t need to wait until they grow up to change the world.
Education ought to be more about practical life. Learners must be equipped with transfer skills to effectively apply what they learn in class and outside of class to real life. My view is that, most of the time, education teaches us to earn a living, but not the values we need to live in a better society. Education ought to aim at creating a society with virtues where people have principle standards of life. Focus ought to shift from only creating human labour to moulding better human beings. Education needs to create good citizens who are also ethical beings.
Human beings should make informed decisions in all situations not to follow instincts like animals. Perceiving and assessing what is right or wrong, good or bad in a specific situation is about ethics. It implies asking questions such as: What should I do? Was I right to do that? Where are the limits? Knowing the consequences of what I did, should I have done it? This supports a holistic understanding of a competency, assuming attitudes and values are inseparable from cognitive processing.
These competencies include: knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that all people need for today and for the future. For education to be complete, a learner must develop all domains of life. Holistic education should therefore elicit affective (education for the heart-values & attitudes), Cognitive (education for the head-knowledge) and Psychomotor (education for the hands-skills) domains.
Uganda’s education system for long has been emphasizing cognitive education at the expense of affective and psychomotor education. It’s therefore time to work for a well-balanced education.