KAMPALA – Members of Parliament have protested the removal of teaching their kingdom culture history in the new lower secondary curriculum, saying the changes have caused unrest within kingdoms.
The protest was in response to a concern raised by Stephen Mukitale (Buliisa County) who petitioned Parliament the decision by the Ministry of Education to delete the history of Bunyoro-Kitara in the new curriculum, saying the move hasn’t left the kingdom at peace.
Thomas Tayebwa (Ruhinda North) was one of the MPs who defended the decision by the Ministry of Education to delete teaching of kingdoms’ history in schools, but he was shut down by fellow MPs prompting Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to order the clerk to expunge his comments from records of Parliament.
“Putting issues of Ankole kingdom aside, in this era where we are talking of unemployment, skilling, you are here discussing about kingdoms, no way, even us Bakiga had kingdoms but they are no more. To me I would think, if it was for me, we wouldn’t be having kingdoms in this curriculum,” said Tayebwa.
Alex Ruhunda (Fort Portal Municipality) said that the Ministry of Education should return the teaching of culture in the curriculum, a submission that was backed by Speaker of Kadaga who described the matter as extremely serious because even Buganda kingdom complained about the same curriculum that erased the history of kingdoms culture and history.
Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka Municipality) reminded Parliament the Katikiro of Buganda Peter Mayiga had written to the Ministry of Education about the content of the curriculum especially on making Agriculture, History and local languages optional subjects, with advise to make these subjects compulsory in secondary schools.
Mpuuga who doubles as Shadow Minister of Education said that the authors of the new curriculum were not certain of what type of curriculum the country wanted and hence there is need to have the policy reviewed.
Elijah Okupa (Kasilo County) said that the review of the curriculum over omitting teaching of history and local languages should not be limited to Buganda and Bunyoro kingdoms but the policy review should be done in most of the sub-regions across the country.
Paul Mwiru (Jinja Municipality East) described the decision by the Ministry of Education to push out teaching of history on local languages as an attempt to take away the identity of Ugandans.
However, Minister of State for Higher Education, John Chrysestom Muyingo denied Mwiru’s allegations saying that there is no intention to destroy everyone’s culture and history and promised to study the concerns raised by MPs and give a report to Parliament over this matter within two weeks.
