FDC disapproves Museveni
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has criticized a proposal by President Yoweri Museveni to prioritize the increment of salaries for science teachers over others.
The opposition party says this strategy is only aimed at controlling the minds of Ugandans to become stale.
The FDC Deputy Secretary, Harold Kaija, while addressing a press conference on Monday, said that Museveni’s plan for a science-led economy will only depress Arts teachers and eliminate philosophy in schools.
“We hear that he now wants to do away with philosophy because this deals with how people think and Museveni does not want that. In a nutshell, he does not want reasoning, he wants people who cannot think, he wants to make them green like robots because then, a robot can be fed information through a computer,” Kaija said.
Kaija’s comments follow comments made by President Museveni last week during national celebrations for teachers at Kololo in Kampala. Museveni said the government will only increase salaries for science teachers and not Arts because the country needs medicine and not philosophy.
Kaija believes that the president has always been deliberate and strategic in eliminating Arts from the education system like he did previously with civic education in primary schools and political education from secondary and tertiary institutions.
“Mr. Museveni is like Napoleon who said he can’t rule people who study history and philosophy. Museveni went to school & studied Arts, but when he came here the first victim was civic education. He doesn’t want people to reason,” said Kaija.
He says currently the majority of schools countrywide are struggling to educate science students because of lack of laboratories, which is a necessity for sciences.
FDC disapproves of Museveni proposal
Kaija wonders why some sectors of the economy continue to splash money on persons who are not scientists at the expense of Arts teachers.
“KCCA councillors would not be earning more than doctors. In UNRA, the boss, who is not a scientist, earns a good salary of Shs 30 plus million. The directors, who are scientists, earn Shs 25 million, station engineers earn Shs 6 million,” Kaija said.
