Makerere University main gate
Makerere University has registered another round of resignations, with several academic staff opting to leave Uganda’s premier institution. The departures, according to staff who spoke to our reporter, reflect growing unrest among lecturers and senior faculty, signaling deeper concerns within the university.
A document signed by the Chief Human Resource Officer and obtained by our reporter shows that the Appointments Board, in a meeting held on Thursday, September 25, approved the resignation of 18 staff members, including 12 academic staff ranging from assistant lecturers to professors.
Among them is Professor Jacob Godfrey Agea from the Department of Extension and Innovation Studies and Associate Professor Wilber Manyisa Aheba from the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity, and Tourism. The board accepted Prof. Agea’s resignation but instructed him to clear outstanding utility bills before formally leaving the university.
Other departing staff include Dr. Marion Alina, a lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication; Dr. Simon Echegu, a senior lecturer in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Studies; Dr. Clement Nabuuto Lutaaya, a senior lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Science; and Dr. Alex Samuel Bamunoba, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, among others.
Some of the resigning staff will receive payment in lieu of notice, with varying terms—three months for some, two months for others, and one month for a few. The board did not indicate any arrangements for the rest. One staff member noted that the list is likely incomplete, suggesting that several colleagues have already submitted resignation letters but were missing, either because their letters had not yet reached the board or were filed after a specific cut-off date.
“The real number is higher. The university has a serious problem and it’s only growing. The reasons for departure might vary from one person to another,” the staff member said. Those who remain at the university are increasingly reluctant to speak out. Even prominent voices within the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA) now tread carefully, fearing reprisals.
Another staff member, speaking anonymously, said Makerere is rapidly losing its appeal as an employer of choice. “Other institutions, including newer public universities, are now preferred. Employment systems there are fairer and more law-abiding, so people feel they can grow their careers better outside Makerere,” the source noted.
Meanwhile, as 18 staff members exit, the Appointments Board has confirmed new hires, bringing 54 staff members into university service. Most of the appointments are in non-teaching positions, while about 26 are academic staff, the majority at assistant lecturer’s levels.
-URN
When Chinua Achebe wrote ” Things fall apart”, many people were reading it as a novel not about their own society. But now that the real things are happening even in the political field, society is either awakening or sleeping. This is no different from 1980s when Nrm men wanted Muasa to kneel at makerere university but professors like Pro. Mamdan had to ask for leave without pay. The Afunadula of the time and Dr. Akiiki reverend are good examples to testify. By then the chairman of nrm election commission were just teaching assistants. They lost their own story and have nothing to tell their grandchildren like Che Guevara and Nikolai 😂😂😂😂😂
Management must be the problem. This is a clear red flag.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young ”
-Henry Ford
Let’s morn for Makerere University, then let’s pray for it. I imagine the kind of strife we are suffering in secondary school teaching, is happening their. Those who know what to do are increasingly becoming fewer that those who fumble with things/ideas. Those who who know what to do are fought out of stations, and now with influences of headteacher associations, a teacher can be fought at a regional/national level, by a network of headteacher. At secondary school level, those was who are less qualified and even not appointed by government (including part-timers), are preferred (by many headteacher) to head departments and also for other administrative positions (on local appointments). These category fights out government posted GTs from stations, and woodwind headteacher to rely on their fellow part-time staff. Secondary schools turn into centers where non government appointed teachers (being favored by headteachers on personal relationships) takeover decision making, fight out government posted GTs (whom they fear), as the non government posted teachers squart in stations, awaiting targeted ESC recruitment, so as to be posted to the schools where they are squatting. A government posted or non-government posted teachers (grade V or GT) who has a relationship with two head teachers, can take up administrative positions in two schools, and ensure removal of teachers he hates from both schools. As the innocent teacher is up and down trying to find acceptance from a headteacher, he/she is confronted by a syndicate of both headteachers (through headteacher associations, including ASSHU) and syndicates of HODs, potentially being we excluded from a region (even the service). MOES can post that teacher to a station, only to be rejected from the station, and, one can suffer a sequence of several rejections, before one may be accepted in a distant land. In all this time, families suffer, teachers’ children’s education fails, those with chronic illnesses due in teachers families. Those who suffer most are PWDs and PWCIs (Persons With Chronic Illnesses). A teacher can be excluded even from his/her place of birth (by the syndicates) making a teacher fail to set up a village home or even to protect his/her village land or plots in a town, and the land ends up grabbed by encroachers. A main sources of problems leading to secondary school teacher exclusions, is institutionalized perversion of the teaching and learning processes, and the school programme – There is no standard school programme and this affects a teachers’ use of time and health. A point has reached when it is difficult to fix problems in a teacher’s family, as one can be wanted in a school from as early as 5:00am (even 4:00am), up to as late as 5:00pm (even midnight), with no free day or holidays throughout the year. Both teachers and learners are strained by such a school (with those with disabilities and chronic illnesses that need medical check ups or scheduling of corrective surgeries or physiotherapy or renewal of assistive devices, suffering most). The other difficult to fix problems, is the institutionalized perversion of the teaching and learning process – Before the inauguration of the new curriculum, there were four different types of teaching going on in secondary schools (details omitted here – but in brief there was one correct form of teaching in very few schools, and three perverted forms proliferating in a majority of schools). In the intermediate stage of the transition from the old curriculum (OC) to the new supposed to be competence based curriculum (CBC) and it’s competence based teaching (CBT), ie when both OC and CBC were running, there emerged six different types of teaching in secondary schools – The old four types, CBT and CCBT (Compromised/Corrupted CBT). CCBT was promulgated by ECTs (Exam Centered Teachers – those reliant on question bank supported drills, with no clear structure / sequence). ECTs (being themselves products of ECTs), Promoted rote learning. Lacking an organized background in knowledge, ECTs were being challenged by the creativity needs of CBT, ending up creating CCBT (details omitted). It is very difficult for an ECT to imagine a school in with few exams and free learners doing their own personal studies. Faced with a challenge of organizing knowledge, an ECT easily develops what psychologists call random behaviour, and easily goes defensive. ECTs are younger and more populous in schools, and if one heads a department (which is the most likely case in many school), serious, seasoned and more experienced Grade Vs and GTs (who enjoy the task of organizing knowledge, and desire to do things the right way) will be in trouble (with several exiting from stations, under HOD induced Headteacher engineered transfers). These endangered category is what I call CCTs (Conceptual Centered Teachers – practitioners of CCT – Conceptual Centered Teaching – Organized knowledge). Other types of teaching are comitted from here in the interests of gravity. A teacher (government posted or not), stay in a school’s staff, depending on the disposition of a school or department of a school on matters of teaching and learning and programmed. This means that a school can be we entirely ECT (ie practicing exam Centered Teaching – and this is the majority of schools) or CCT (ie practicing Conceptual Centered Teaching), or partly ECT or CCT, depending on the disposition of its departments, but an administrative disposition on matters of teaching /learning and programme, can enforce departmental changes in line with that disposition, with the majority of schools being ECT. Even under CBC/CBT some schools subject their learners to BOTEs (Begining Of Term Exams), MOTEs (Mid Of Term Exams), EOTEs (End Of Term Exams), Several (morning, evening, weekend, and so called special) tests/exams, and several sets of mock exams, and mock bodies are businesses that have been making money out of exams out there. The later description is s just part of what forms an Exam Centered Teaching and school programming, which destroyed the otherwise CCT of the OC. Why do I credit the then OC? Because when it was not yet corrupted to become the COC (Corrupted
Ineptocracy is ruining almost every institution. They started with the lower ranking teachers they believed they could bully and coerce, and have landed on the big guys. No wonder the institution dropped in ranking. Fruits. Expect the Medical fraternity to follow close behind. Things fall apart.