There has been a deliberate move by Museveni government to promote science. It started with making all science subjects compulsory in secondary School and now has graduated to paying science teachers better.
Does Uganda need only Scientist to Develop? Would science without art make meaningful development? Has any country development by just focusing only on science? Shouldn’t we rather encourage every child to excel at his or her best?
I personally studied Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering and after college I started a sole proprietorship business. My services included installation, maintaining and repair of fridges air-conditioning, cold rooms etc.
But even in such a technical business I needed arts people to help me make it successful.
I needed a receptionist to receive calls and clients, I needed marketer to make my services known and an accountant to make sure we understood figures.
I believe no matter the industry weather it’s a farm, hospital, engineering etc we will always need our arts brothers and sisters.
A quick analysis will show we actually need more people in art than in science.
When I started working I found one injustice that our brothers in art were being paid better for example a technician was being paid 350k while a marketer was paid 450k that because marketers were bringing in business for technicians to do.
My question was would the jobs make any meaning if the technician didn’t do them? This was completely wrong because we paid the same house rent, took the same taxi, eat the same food etc.
I would never desire the same injustice happening to teachers of arts.
One of the big mistakes of M7 government is to think one trade is better than the other. This is wrong and should actually stop.
It’s so sad to find people doing the same job, with same qualifications, employed by the same government sometimes in the same ministry but under different project paid differently. That is an injustice we should stop if we are going to promote patriotism.
An accountant in URA should be paid the same just like an accountant in KCCA and the same as an accountant in local government. This is what they call patriotism.
Finally let’s accept God created us differently and value each other in our uniqueness. Not everyone can become a doctor engineer an Agriculture and other sciences but that others are lawyers business politicians etc. Let’s allow our children to be true to who they are. A compulsory for science subjects in O’level should stop right away
A musician is as important as a doctor or a lawyer. We need everyone not just scientist.
GOdfrey TINKA
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