Part I: Education and Unemployment in Uganda
KABALE, UGANDA – Lucky Ariho, 26, counts herself fortunate that her education landed her a prestigious job. She is a lecturer in the English department at Kabale University in southwestern Uganda.
“I was lucky, like my name, and I was one of the best students in the BA class, so I got an opportunity to join a work and study scheme at Uganda Christian University, Mukono, near Kampala,” she says. “I was able to study for my master’s degree in literature and have a job at the university.”
She is also the acting deputy director of the Institute of Languages at the university, which enables her to play a role in administration. She says she has noticed that people are hungry to attain academic degrees.
“Today, there is hunger for academic qualification,” Ariho says. “The major reason is that there is this belief that the more qualifications you have, the better chances you have for a job.”
She says she is currently looking for scholarships to pursue her doctorate in literature.
“Some years ago, a bachelor’s degree was considered a big achievement, but these days even a master’s degree is not enough to put you at ease. Today, anybody can acquire a master’s degree despite their performance.”
Ariho says she worries that education is becoming devalued because there are many private institutions of higher learning in this country. She says the growing number of schools means that many are willing to enroll students regardless of their academic qualifications.
She adds that the excitement surrounding academic achievement in Uganda adds to this trend. She says that the euphoria that follows the Uganda National Examinations Board’s release of results for examinations such as the Primary Leaving Examination at the end of primary school, the Ordinary Level examination at age 16 and the Advanced Level examination to determine university acceptance is incredible. The students who excel are interviewed and photographed together with their parents and teachers. Schools, eager to be recognized, air radio announcements showcasing how well their students performed.
“Parents also love to mention that daughter so-and-so and son so-and-so has a master’s now or a Ph.D.,” she says.
Ariho says that there is a contradiction in all this because many who go for further studies are not necessarily able to get jobs.
She says that the market is flooded with graduates as a result of this academic hype, and yet there are no new jobs coming up.
The few jobs that are available require experience, which a fresh graduate does not have. She also says that self-employment is unrealistic because most graduates lack access to capital to start their own businesses.
Ariho says that on one hand, having a lot of highly qualified people is positive because their knowledge will in one way or another contribute to the general development of their communities.
“On the other hand,” she says, “having so many qualified people who are underemployed or outright unemployed will not motivate the younger ones. And this could, in the long run, contribute to the increase of school dropouts because it will appear to them as if education has no real value.”
Some fear that the hype around academic degrees in Uganda and the commercialization of the education industry will lessen the quality of education. Many say the traditional education system centered around exams and papers already lacks value, urging more holistic, practical and interactive approaches to learning. The current setup is churning out graduates who receive few opportunities to use their degrees. Still, advocates say that increased education can never hurt a society. The government has set up schemes to promote entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, nongovernmental organizations and grassroots initiatives are offering alternatives to supplement what youth learn in school.
More than 400,000 students graduate each year from some 35 universities and 100 colleges and institutes in Uganda, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. But each year, only 113,000 enter formal employment. Ugandans with higher education made up just 5.6 percent of the labor force as of 2005-2006.
Uganda’s labor participation rate for citizens 15 and older was nearly 65 percent as of 2009, according to the World Bank. The employment-to-population ratio was 61 percent.
Robert Rutaagi holds a doctorate in marketing. He has retired from formal employment but still lectures at Metropolitan (Uganda) Business School and Uganda Management Institute. He agrees with Ariho that students are hungry for degrees.
“Yes, there is more than hunger,” he says. “In fact, I would call it famine for academic qualifications. You only need to visit any campus to appreciate this fact.”
He attributes this mainly to the commercialization of education. He says that the government’s liberalization and privatization of schools, universities and colleges led to a mushrooming of them. Today, there are many private schools and universities who are marketing themselves aggressively, which was not the case some years ago.
He adds that although this leads to easy access to education for more people, it may also reduce the quality of this education. Rutaagi says that the devaluation of education could result – not from having too many highly qualified people – but from having too many schools. The trend toward treating the education industry like a business could lead to diminished academic standards.
“Education could still remain valuable, even when so many are highly qualified, depending on the quality of education obtained,” he says.
But some say that the current education system already lacks value.
Betty Kituyi Mukhalu is the coordinator of Café Scientifique, a grassroots public science initiative that aims to demystify science research for the general public, in Uganda. An executive in her mid-30s, she holds a Master of Science in chemistry with education from Makerere University. She hopes to pursue a doctorate as soon as she is able to obtain a scholarship.
But she says that many people are not stopping to think about why they need to study and attain an education and have forgotten what education is. She cites a need for new programs that address holistic education of a person’s three faculties – the mind, body and the soul.
Today, education has been reduced to exams, cram work, papers and more papers, with little acquisition of practical skills necessary for solving day-to-day problems, she says. She feels ashamed to see the publicity given to the release of national exam results each year.
“This is ironical because we know that many graduates languish at home without jobs,” she says.
She says that the hunger for academic qualifications is leading to a society of graduates only.
“This is not natural in any society,” she says. “Our intelligence varies, and yet this is what makes us unique.”
Mukhalu has come across many people who have bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and even doctorates but are not using them because they can’t find jobs.
“Many times, there are no jobs for what they have qualified for,” Mukhalu says.
Ronald Turyamuboona graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Makerere University Business School in 2002. But he says he has been underemployed since and has never done anything in line with what he majored in.
“Now I work with Inland Container Depot, and I am underpaid,” he says. “And we work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. When I was at university, we were led to believe that we would get good jobs, but I have even worked in a bus company as the conductor/cashier.”
He says that his co-workers mocked him for working there despite his degree.
“When I worked in the bus company, the uneducated would taunt me and ask me what I was doing amongst them!” he says.
But his case is not unique.
“There are many like me and even more who are more qualified but are either doing a job they did not study or they have no job,” he says. “My wife studied social work, but she works in a company that makes ceramics.”
Rita Sarah Nakalanzi graduated from Nkumba University in 2008 with a master’s in business administration and marketing. But she says that nearly every job application she filled out after graduating required experience and that she didn’t have any connections in the industry.
“I was disappointed and desperate and did not know where to go,” she says. “Then eight months ago, I started helping my mother. She has always had this wedding cake making business. We all grew up helping her, and so I could make all kinds of wedding cakes.”
That month, her mother was overwhelmed with cake orders and asked her to help.
“It was like a flash of light,” she says. “Why not continue? We talked more, and we now work together and I have decided that is the way to go!”
She says she thought she had needed a master’s degree but now is not so sure.
“It is true there is hunger for academic qualifications, and that was why I thought of pursuing a master’s degree,” she says. “Now I am doing what I should have done years ago.”
Still, she and others say their education is valuable.
“Maybe I am too qualified for cake making, but my education is very valuable,” she says. “We have already discussed expansion and how to improve the marketing.”
She says education generates respect from others, knowledge for business and an understanding of new ideas.
“My advice to everyone is: Get educated, but do not put all your hope in getting employed,” she says. “Look out for other opportunities, Your education will prove to be an asset in whatever you choose to do.”
Turyamuboona agrees that education is still valuable.
“It helps you to be a member of the elite,” he says. “With education, one can easily branch into something else, and that is what I advise the younger ones – not to only look for a good job but be able to do anything else, including business.”
Kate Kasiisi is an inspector of schools in charge of Ndorwa, a county in Kabale district. With a bachelor’s degree in education, she started her career as a teacher and has more than 30 years of experience in the education system.
She attributes the hunger for academic qualifications to competition for jobs. She says it is possible to find someone who started as a primary school teacher but now has a master’s degree in educational management in the hope of becoming a head teacher, or principal, one day.
Her advice is that people should not stop pursuing higher education, as more education can only help.
“Because what we gain is also very essential,” she says. “And secondly, someone who completes O-Level will be better at whatever he or she does than that one who completes only primary seven.”
She says that education also opens doors for graduates outside the country if they are not able to find employment within Uganda.
“With higher qualifications, one can even get employment outside the country,” she says.
She cautions people about the institutions that lack the abilities to teach others well. But she says that even a low-caliber education is better than no education at all.
She says that people must value the government’s efforts to increase access to education.
“Educated parents value education,” she says. “Today, the government programs of Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education are not doing well because of uneducated parents. The uneducated parents want the government to provide even lunch for the children, yet this is something they can do for their children if they valued what the government is trying to do for them.”
At the same time, she would like to see the government recognize people’s achievements by increasing their salaries. She says that having too many qualified people who are unsatisfied with employment opportunities could cause insecurity and corruption.
“Too many highly qualified people who are idle can be a source of insecurity,” she says. “Things like forgeries can increase.”
The government of Uganda has put some measures in place to help fresh graduates, such as Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies, a microfinance scheme under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development that aims to help graduates access funds to start small businesses. The government also encourages young people to be job creators and not job seekers.
Various nongovernmental organizations also promote youth development. The Uganda Youth Convention's mission is to reduce unemployment among youth by encouraging them to rely on personal initiative. Bayimba Cultural Foundation and Bavubuka Foundation both connect youth to the arts and music with the goal of economic and human development in Ugandan communities.
Mukhalu says that Café Scientifique strives for more holistic education by aiming to bring science outside the classroom.
“A good education system should link students with the society,” she says. “In this case, the students are learning about everyday science and interacting with the experts that have the experience. And in a way, these experts are acting as torch bearers to what would otherwise be a bleak future.”
She says that education needs to be changed in a way that develops students’ passion and talent.
“Driving an education system on testing, exams and papers, as ours does, kills the opportunity to develop students’ passion and talent,” she says.
