Does Uganda need only Scientist to Develop?

By Godfrey Tinka

There has been a deliberate move by President Yoweri Museveni’s government to promote sciences. 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 arts 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 a 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 sciences.

When I started working I found one injustice that our brothers in arts were being paid better for example a technician was being paid 350,000 while a marketer was paid 450,000 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, ate the same food etc.

I would never desire the same injustice happening to teachers of arts.

One of the big mistakes of Museveni’s 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 Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) should be paid the same just like an accountant in Kampala Capital City Authority (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’, businessmen, 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.

The writer is a Pastor of HillSide Church, Katalemwa in Kampala.

22 comments

  11. obviously like your web-site however you need to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very bothersome to inform the reality on the other hand I will definitely come again again.

    Reply

  17. Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured
    I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest
    authoring a blog post or vice-versa? My site covers a lot of
    the same topics as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit
    from each other. If you might be interested feel free to send
    me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
    Fantastic blog by the way!

    Reply

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *