President Museveni’s immersion into promotion of sciences as a fulcrum of innovation and Uganda’s socio-economic transformation has endured.  

To boost the morale of scientists and reduce temptations, for instance of health workers moonlighting at private clinics and pharmacies next to public hospitals, he in December 2017 announced plans to increase salaries of science teachers on government payroll. 

“The salary for science teachers will be competitive. We don’t want to hear that science teachers in Kenya are getting a better pay than those in our country,” he noted on his social media handles in a posted that appeared to answer the brain drain question.

Multiple surveys including by Uganda Medical Association, the umbrella body of doctors in Uganda, in preceding years showed that their specialist members were relocating for work in South Africa, South Sudan and European countries in record numbers due to better remuneration in regional and international markets.

This was an unwelcome news to government and in particular President Museveni. In a 2019 letter to Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng and copied to Public Service minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa and others, he directed that salaries for scientists be moved to the “desired levels”.

Explaining why he was prioritising scientists, the President said “paying the medical workers, the government scientists and the academicians removes the temptation of double loyalty – to the public service and to the private interest of the employee”.

“We can then be able to completely ban the practice of government health workers running parallel clinics or drug shops. It was not reasonable to do that when the salaries were so low,” he argued. 

The proclamation triggered protests from teachers of humanities who laid down tools, but the President told them to return to classrooms and stop the industrial action disrupting government plans and disadvantaging students.

8 bottlenecks to science education

•  Disconnect in teaching of science subjects, with teachers spending more time on theory than practicals.

•  Inadequate investment by private schools in laboratories and supplies for sciences.

•  Fewer than required number of science teachers in both government and private schools.

•  Use of pamphlets by private schools to teach sciences instead of text books that provide depth in a subject.

•  Poor mastery of English language, which impairs candidates from understanding and following instructions during practicals.

•  Difficulty in writing correct chemical symbols and balanced equations.

•  Failure by some students to carry out dissection of specimens in biology.

•  Low ability to carry out scientific experiments, and interpret and draw correct conclusions. By Damali Mukhaye, Daily Monitor