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Education for Democratic Citizenship
Conclusion

Education for Democratic Citizenship

The education system of the country can be a powerful tool in nurturing the type of society that the country would like to produce. Unfortunately, in Uganda we have not yet deliberately addressed the curriculum to this important task. We have taught the facts of history, geography, civics, economics and even religious education for their own intrinsic sake rather than as a basis for making moral, social, political and economic judgments required of reflective, competent, and concerned citizens.

Love of freedom and liberty, love of country, dissent toleration, an abhorrence of injustice, belief in majority rule and devotion to human rights are not qualities that can be transmitted incidentally and unthinkingly to students, they have to be deliberately taught and learned as they are questioned, thought about, criticized, practiced and improved. Our education systems must be conceived in terms of the society we want to build and the civic values we would like to promote.

It is not enough for the school to teach valid reliable knowledge to students, but it must also exemplify democratic political values throughout its whole operation so as to help students to imbue the values and skills of concerned and participatory democratic citizenship. This should be done through the overt curriculum as well as through the hidden curriculum such as how the school is governed, and rituals such as school assemblies, flag raising, regular singing of the National Anthem and reciting the oath of allegiance to the nation. Every school should have the national flag and Coat of Arms in addition, instead of the portrait of the person who temporarily occupies the position of President. Furthermore, the study of the constitutional development of the country i.e. of all Constitutions we have scrapped and the one to be produced should be an important part of the curriculum. The first and greatest honour that citizens can pay to the constitution is to read, study, know and understand it. The Makerere University Department of Music, Dance and Drama, the Nyonza Singers, Jimmy Katumba and the Ebonies, the Kayayu Film Players and many other theatrical groups are trying in their own way to promote a spirit of unity through culture. But much more could be done by the education system as a whole.

In a pluralistic society such as ours there is bound to be a continuing tension, and even overt conflict between the values of Unum and those of Pluribus (Butt 1980 p. 127), but the education system as well as the future constitution must honour and encourage both. We submit that loyalty and pride in one's ethnic origins and culture need not lead to distrust in or detraction from one's identity with the nation as a whole, just as pride in one's family should not lead to separation from the people of one's clan and village or church. On the contrary, understanding and pride in our own culture clarifies why we behave in certain ways, how we see reality, what we believe to be true and false and what we accept as good and desirable. We also begin to see why other people behave as they do. By recognizing these differences we can avoid ethnic stereotyping and intolerance. It is our submission here that an individual who has no pride and respect for his own culture, language or ethnic community - in other words, a rootless person - is not capable of valuing and respecting the cultures and even the life of others.

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Conclusion

The greatest crisis facing Uganda today, as a culturally pluralistic country, is that of national integration. Education properly conceived not merely as formal schooling for young people, but as learning for all, has a big role to play in promoting knowledge, skills, and values that are needed to produce reflective, competent, concerned and participating citizens. The type of education that is advocated is that which aims at promoting a heightened sense of being in the individual as a member of his family and community and a sense of wholeness of the entire society based on the recognition of the unique strengths of each of its cultural units. One of the central objectives of the education system should be to teach all individuals to understand and appreciate their own cultures and to respect those of other people who constitute our pluralistic society.

The foregoing arguments lead me to making the following proposals as values and principles, which inter alia, should be embedded in our future constitution and emphasized by the education system:

(i) Commitment to a strong national government for Uganda with enough normative authority to prevent secession from or dismemberment of, and aggression against, the state, but with a great deal of devolution of powers and responsibilities to local governments to manage much of their own development.
(ii) Commitment to the idea of the continued development of Uganda as a multi-cultural society and an appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of our country, and the need to develop further and invigorate the indigenous cultures, and the restoration of the traditional cultural heads in those areas where the majority of the people want them.
(iii) Commitment to the development of a democratic society founded on freedom, liberty, equality, brotherhood and justice; and the sanctity of human life; freedom to follow one's conscience, and the respect for man qua man.
(iv) Commitment to innovation and modernisation and desire for change and increased control of nature through close cooperation and interaction among people.
(v) Commitment to the concept of a mixed economy, in which both the government and individuals contribute to the growth and development of the economy to the best of their ability.
(vi) Commitment to limited terms of office for the President.

It is only by the above-mentioned values and principles, among other things, in the making of our constitution, that we can develop a political community of people drawn together by their common participation is shared governing processes and bound together by a common frame of political values (Butts 1980: 124).

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References

1. Apter, David 1961. The Political Kingdom in Africa. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
2. Butts, R. Freeman. The Revival of Civic Learning, Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1980.
3. Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington Jan. 16, 1787 cited by Hirsch, Jr. Ed.: Cultural Literacy, Boston, Houghton, 1987. pp. 12-13.
4. Kajubi, W. S. The Historical Background to the Uganda Crisis 1966-86, in Wiebe, Paul D and Cole P. Dodge (Eds). BEYOND CRISIS - Development Issues in Uganda. Kampala Makerere Institute of Social Research, 1987.
5. Mazrui, Ali A. 1972. Cultural Engineering and Nation Building in East Africa. Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press.
6. Mill, John Stuart, 1968. Cited in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Vol. 2) New York, MacMillan.
7. Wringley, C.C. 1985. Four Steps Toward Disaster, Uganda Seminar, Institute of Political Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 25-28 September.

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