According to National Planning Authority (NPA) statistics released in 2017, at least nine in every 10 Ugandans who have completed any form of education are unemployed.
Experts believe
that despite having many sectors with huge employment potential, the big
skills gap is partly responsible for the high unemployment rate in the
country.
In 2013, while at centennial celebrations for Ibanda
Kibubura Integrated Primary School in Ibanda Town, President Museveni
criticised educationalists for promoting arts courses which he said are
responsible for the high level of unemployment among university
graduates.
This year while at Gulu University’s 15th graduation, the
President warned public universities against wasting time and resources
on what he called ‘meaningless courses’ and instead focus on sciences
and research.
“The courses you are running here at the
university, which problems of the society will you solve? If you answer
this question carefully, you will appreciate the courses you are giving
to learners here. Don’t train people just because we have a university,
but they should be able to solve society problems,” the President said.
Transformative learning
In
a bid to address the rising unemployment crisis, some institutions for
example Gulu University have adopted transformative learning methods as a
model of preparing students being implemented under project called
Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA)
The
four-year project is being implemented by International Network for the
Availability of Scientific Publications in four partner universities
with the aim of improving learning experiences for as many as 3,000
graduates by 2022.
Course redesign
The initiative looks at re-designing courses to suit societal challenges and scale up development in the country.
Education expert based at Aga Khan University, Kenya Edward Misava
Omabajo says graduates’ unemployment crisis has persisted because most
universities have failed to cope with rising pace in skills development
required in the competitive job market.
“Our higher education is
really suffering in terms of faculty development, teaching and learning
and that is why it is important to re-design courses that will enhance
skills in terms of faculty understanding,” Omabajo says.
He notes that many universities don’t have a link to the job market and do not even know what skills are expected of graduates.
Teaching model
Gulu
University Vice Chancellor Prof George Openjuru Ladaah says the model
of teaching in Uganda is partly to be blamed for the increasing
graduates’ unemployment.
