HERE IS THE BIGGEST QUESTION FOR EVERY FRESH GRADUATE

Between last week and this week, thousands of graduates will be joining the rest of their colleagues that graduated in the past years to compete for the few jobs available. 

The new graduates will be entering a job market that has since changed. Gone are the days when having a university degree was an automatic gate-pass to employment, complete with good pay, a residential house and sometimes a chauffeur driven company or government car. 

Those were the days when Makerere University had the monopoly in university education and obtaining an admission to Makerere was as good as one getting a well paying job. Students would be booked by companies even before completing their courses or while still awaiting graduation. 

The liberalization of higher education sector in Uganda has however seen marked increase in university graduates whose number surpasses the demand of the job market. Things have since changed in this era that graduates need to think outside the box in order to survive in the hostile job market. 

The introduction of private sponsorship scheme in higher education institutions and the mushrooming public universities has led to a remarkable increase in the number of graduates coming out of universities every year.

It is also important to note that while the dynamics of the job market has since changed, requiring new skills and approaches to problem solving at the work place, university curricular and the overall education system in Uganda has remained stagnant, stuck to the British colonial system. The end product is that there is a mismatch between the skills that the graduates have and the demands of the job market.

Economic interest seems to have overridden academic interest in the design of new courses by some of the universities. Emphasis is put on courses that attract more students, leading to duplication and splitting of courses. 

The poor pay lecturers in these universities get has also worsen the situation, leading them to concentrate on consultancy work at the expense of research. The end product of it all is the poor quality of graduates who cannot compete favorably in the job market.

Therefore, after the euphoria of partying and celebrating the completion of one academic milestone in their lives have waned, majority of graduates will then be struck with the reality of unemployment. 

The most important question that every graduate should be asking him or herself is not what their degrees can do for them, but rather, what they can do with the degrees that they have acquired. They will be confronted with realities that require change of tact and mindset if they are to succeed.

MY DREAM FOR ABIM DEVELOPMENT FORUM

I have followed most of the posts and comments on this forum for quite some time. 

From my observation, it’s clear that we as Ethur elites have reduced ourselves to pettiness at the expense of critically analyzing the development challenges in our district. We seem to take politics as the only means to development and have thus chosen to ignore other factors that affect our development. I do understand and acknowledge that politics is critical to development since it involves distribution of resources.

However, it’s very critical for us to first understand the key development challenges affecting our district and understand how we found ourselves in that situation. For example, how did Abim General Hospital get to its current state under our watch? How did Awach road deteriorate to its present state? Where exactly is the problem?

When it comes to the education sector, how are we faring in comparison to other districts both regionally and nationally? Are we meeting the global targets in as far as elimination of illiteracy is concerned? Is it the absence of funding or mismanagement of the available funds? Who do we hold accountable? Who are the budget holders? 

In answering the above questions, we should do it with sobriety and avoid reducing this critical assessment to personalities as we have been doing. Other critical areas worth considering is the escalating youth unemployment and the resultant alcoholism that is a common sight in all corners of Thur, threats to land ownership by vulnerable groups like widows and orphans, securing our borders from our neighbors such as the Iteso who seem to be very determined to extend their district boundaries deep inside Abim district, etc.

Furthermore, in order to find the much needed answers to these and other questions that are at the heart of development (or is it lack of development?) in our district, we need to scratch beyond the surface and have a critical appraisal of our key development indicators and drivers. 

We could consider the annual budget allocations to each of the sectors in our district and monitor how these are implemented, quality of debates in our district and lower local government councils, role of NGOs and other development partners in addressing some of the  development challenges highlighted above. 

We could as well do some introspection and evaluate our role as rights/claim holders in the development of Abim district and whether we are performing these roles.

Having done all the above, we could then brainstorm on possible strategies for addressing the concerns raised above. Here, we could enlist the services of Ethur technocrats in various fields to design interventions. 

My dream is for ADF to be a non-partisan and objective forum that will have oversight on both government and none governmental sectors. We could think of organizing Thur conference under the auspices of ADF and invite key resources persons with expertise in various fields to deliver papers that will generate discussions.

If we all agree with these proposals, then negative political propaganda that does not contribute to the development of Thur, but are aimed at character assassination to further the selfish interest of some political actors should not be entertained here at ADF, since they will not be compatible with the aims and objectives of ADF. Such posts can find their way in other groups where they are welcome. 

This should not in any way stop us from critically evaluating the performance of our political leaders against their constitutional mandates, as long as this is done with concrete factual evidence and high level of objectivity and sobriety. I expect our post here to be based on well researched and informed points of view. 

In the same vein, in reacting to all post and comments, we should remain civil and agree to disagree where necessary, as long as the issues at hand are compatible with the objectives of ADF. The administrators of the group should have the privilege of moderating the discussions to ensure that it does not deviate from the aims and objectives of ADF.

I welcome any feedback on this.

Thanks,

Christopher Ogwang

Chrisogwan@gmail.com