Liting Wang

Liting Wang
Professor Feindert
ENGWR 48016

April 2018
Critique of “There Is Need to Review Our Education System”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, saidNelson Mandela. The Africa News Service published the article “There Is Need to ReviewOur Education System” on April 1, 2009 by Rhoda Kalema, a well-known author and titleholder of ‘Uganda’s Forum for Women in Democracy as a transformative leader 1996.’
The article looks at some pressing issues that the education system of Uganda currently faces. There have been no proper mechanisms to expect high-quality education offered in the country. First, she explains that the experience of educated people shows their fear towards the future to come of the present-day education around the world.
If people do not have good education, they will not have a bright future. As a result, a country like Uganda might fall back and will be left veryweak. It will affect the country’s improvement in many ways. Second, she suggests that the education administration should start focusing on this situation. In addition, both learners’ and teachers face challenges that make it impossible for the education system to be ranked anywhere in the world.
The government is aware of these challenges but offers no solution. Through critique, the key issues facing the primary, secondary, and vocational education in Uganda are examined. There is no definite opinion from the author that is currently viable to revive the whole situation.
The author fails to mention the mechanisms that have fuelled the failure of the education system but only comes up with assumptions. Even though the article could be persuasive to an extent because of the clear organization, the posting’s lack of sources and evidences, grammatical issues, vague terms, and weak arguments confuse readers.
The article has a clear organization following an introduction, and lists the main points as subheadings, and a conclusion. Although the author has clear points in the article, she does not provide enough evidence and sources to support them. The author organizes the article into sections and follows with examples which is effective because it is effortless for readers to understand the ideas. However, the article does not include any sources and examples from other authors.
“This would call for the Government to improve on the few available vocational institutions, build many new and modern ones, and create regional vocational and technical instructors training colleges” (Paragraph 8). This and a few other examples appear to like her personal opinions and her thoughts because sources are missing.
Readers cannot trust the author easily. Additionally, the body paragraphs do not have transitional words, so the article does not flow well. Numerous grammar and punctuation mistakes are evident all over the article. For instance, the author presents a non-standard question “Why then stop a parent from feeding his/her child? And why stop a headteacher and his staff their role to plan school meals for their students?” (Paragraph 17). Several grammatical errors show failure to proofread some of the sentences.
For instance, in paragraph 5 she mentions: The Ministry of Education should invite retired and current educationists forconsultations, [sic] also the non-governmental organizations with the YouthDevelopment Programmes could be consulted. The education syllabus development, most importantly needs experienced and interested persons in this field and not only the appointed civil servants and technocrats.She does not avoid vague terms and presents them without any explanation.
For example, she writes “Teach the young people skills and they will never be lost children” (Paragraph 7). ‘Skills’ is a vague term which needs more specification. Another example of vague word choices is “Since this statement cannot be easily refuted, then we should mourn the future of our country” (Paragraph 2).
The word ‘easily’ could have been improved. Some of the author’s arguments are presented in random and visually uncluttered manner. The author presents most of her points with no illustrations or citations. The author points out the most exciting factors in the education system. For example, “Everyone in the country and even those outside who have ever experienced a balanced education about 25-30 years ago is in pain over what is happening in the education sphere” (Paragraph 1).
As evident from the article, there is no evidence of any citation where the author got the information from, and this puts into question the credibility of her information. The author uses weak arguments to make logical appeals. For example, “Then at one time about 3,500 or 350 were crossed off the payroll (shortly after they were reinstated, so we read.)” (Paragraph 10).
The strength of this posting is rooted in the author’s inability to bring out points to illustrate the failures that are evident to every reader of the article. Anything that contributes to meeting the huge needs of the education systems in Africa is positive, such as programs or projects driven by people who want to serve the general good of the country in the area.
The impression that one gets is that there is a desire to be involved in proposing the beginnings of a solution, a standard foundation for teaching that will integrate specific local features and at the same time will train future citizens of an interconnected and culturally mixed world. A change of school learning system will reflect this concept, and it is an interesting one.
The author points out the importance of reviewing the education system by giving an example of what needs to be done. “What we need is the Government to devote a sizeable portion of the budget to education in 2009-2010, construct double, and triple floor classrooms in the existing schools. Only then will our education system be on the right track.” (Paragraph 21).
Moreover, everyone in the country and even those that have been lucky to secure jobs outside the country never experienced a balanced education about 25-30 years ago, and it is for this reason that they are in pain over what is happening in the education system. (Paragraph 1). Nevertheless, she fails to point out what is bothering them is and that Uganda’s future is doomed to be.
The author should provide a more detailed example and offer insight into what vocational and technical institutions focus. Summing up the topic, in general, does not provide any help to the government as the government requires a practical approach to issues not only a theoretical approach.
The author does not explain that the revised curriculum needs to focus on the vocational and technical teaching, to provide skills together with the academic learning. In conclusion, the author has managed to create a list of reasons that would help the government and relevant stakeholders argue their case mostly for naught. While like-minded individuals can pull some rhetorical questions to get others thinking, there is little offered in the way of credible argument material.
The author also fails to suggest that conspirators and cartels in government hard are working to manufacture a crisis in educational reform. Policy elites are not knowingly falsifying evidence or collectively coming to a secret agreement about how to terrify the public. She also fails to discuss that school reformers inhabit a small and relatively closed network.
Policy leaders and stakeholders can accelerate the pace of development. The article is organized in a pleasant and way that makes the posting readable.
From the article, it is clear the author has some arguments to make which are sensible but fails to bring out the issue affecting the education system in Uganda in a way that is convincing. Overall, the article is well summed up, but a few improvements in certain elements would have helped in coming up with a more organized piece than what the author has delivered.