Students in Uganda (Source: United States Agency for International Development January 2008)
By Atwine Allen – DIPLOMATIC TIMES CORRESPONDENT
-KAMPALA, UGANDA –
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Diplomatic Times East Africa Correspondent Atwine Allen interviewed several students who are studying Bachelor’s in Education at the Bugema University in Kiwenda, Uganda for their opinions as to why unemployment in Uganda has become rampant).
Many Ugandan students today have little hope of realizing their dreams after completing their educational studies because of rampant unemployment. The future of Ugandan youth is at stake.
More than 75% of Uganda’s population is below the age of 30, with the country having one of the highest youth unemployment rates at 13.3%—the number of youth actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labor force—in Sub-Saharan Africa. Students blame the government of President Museveni for the lack of future prospects because they feel the government has not created jobs. Many also feel the government educational system is unable to teach and guide youth on how to create jobs other than seeking them after completing their studies. Many feel there is no promising future in Uganda. This is why so many of Uganda’s young people travel to Middle Eastern countries on a daily basis looking for greener pastures, but many end up dead and mistreated there.
It used to be in Uganda, that those who did not have a formal education were the ones who did the lower jobs like housecleaning, house maids, but today you see young university educated Ugandans with Bachelor’s degrees and even Masters’ whose parents struggled and sacrificed to pay their tuition to give them a better education and life; these educated students are now ending up in Middle Eastern countries working , cleaning and taking care of other persons households suffering as maids being disrespected like slaves. Some have even been victims of organ harvesting while in those countries.
For most Ugandans, traveling to study in London or any other European country to further their education is not an option because it is too expensive. Tragically, there is no way youth will help in building up the country of Uganda with the lack of jobs. To make matters worse, those companies recruiting for jobs often belong to some government officials. Many students feel the government of Uganda should introduce marketable skills for them to learn, then encourage the youth to participate in them after they create markets for them within the country and outside the country. In Uganda, many unemployed youths turn to crime and become thieves and even robbing banks because they want to survive. One can see many idle youths playing cards every day simply because they don’t have jobs. Many are of the opinion that the educational sector in Uganda today has lost meaning and relevance in that it is failing to teach skills that apply to current real-live situations. Teachers in Uganda strike often. Nurses and doctors also strike often in protest of very low salaries and the hard work they perform. Rich people in Uganda have opted for international schools as an alternative to an inferior domestic educational system. Also, workers in Uganda government are supposed to retire at 50-years of age, but now they removed that, and it decreases the chances of youth’s chances of finding jobs in the country. There are thousands of youth graduating from university but there are no jobs because the older ones don’t want to retire from their positions.
And there are even situations where the older Ugandans who refuse to retire are offered government contracts, but instead of performing, they become non-performers for years and years and don’t leave those offices and work on contract basis. Therefore, many Ugandan youths graduating from the universities don’t have a chance to fight and compete for those good positions and government contracts. There is also the missed opportunity for the needs of the youth to be addressed with the older, non-performing workers.
Many also believe that there are lots of people who are not qualified but obtain good paying jobs in government because of connections. Most often, getting a job in Uganda depends on whom you know. Many are of the opinion there are solutions for creating decent jobs in Uganda. By providing capital and hands-on skills, the government and private sector could promote business start-ups as a solution to the high unemployment.
“The youth who are unemployed are highly educated. They have attained high levels of education. But on the other hand, there are no jobs waiting for them. They are really hopeless and despairing…and end up in the streets where they live a really miserable life. So the government has really attributed much because it has not created enough jobs to these. The government needs to really help the youth with skills so that instead of being job seekers, they will become job creators. Then the youth will not have to go to other countries seeking greener pastures.”
-Alice Birungi – Student, Bugema University in Kiwenda, Uganda
DIPLOMATIC TIMES VIDEO. UGANDA STUDENTS EXPRESS OPINONS ON HIGH YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
“It is true that most of our students are going through pain and they try to get from here and there, and at the end when they finish up with their levels of education, they hardly get jobs. In this context, I think the government has a role in this that is negative in the current development of the economy. We find that we have an education system that is not matching with current requirements for the country. For example, one who studies… we are doing things like history… we are requiring many areas in some other areas or countries abroad and we lack some relevant information that can be applied in our day-to-day life situation. So, we spent a lot of time, a lot of money, but in the end the information that we get is not to the need for the current situation.”
-Richard Ndyakurugyi, Student, Bugema University in Kiwenda, Uganda
