Over ten thousand students graduated from Makerere University last month, which is just a fraction of the estimated 400,000 young people who join the labour market in Uganda annually.

Faced with the unenviable option of joining the competitive boda boda industry or promoting some business outfit in town, many are choosing to advance in studies while others are opting for careers outside their realm of training.

According to poverty expert Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba, before we know it, Uganda will be like Nigeria and Ghana where many taxi drivers are degree holders.

Nearly almost everyone you come across who has taken time off to critically assess the causes of unemployment, will have an issue with the ‘bookish’ or theoretical education system in Uganda.

The tragedy of Uganda’s rising youth unemployment, estimated at 83%, according to Nuwagaba, stems from the country’s ‘bogus’ education system that was left by the British which churns out so many schooled but unskilled people.

For Nuwagaba and many others, Uganda’s education system has done the country a great disservice by failing to impart practical skills that can help the young generation to create their own jobs and become productive in an ever competitive global job market.

“Youth unemployment is a menace in Uganda and constitutes a real danger and a threat to Uganda’s democracy,” says Nuwagaba.

“The reason why youth unemployment in Uganda currently stands at a whopping 83% is because of the bogus British education system that the government has endorsed,” Nuwagaba told group of youth from across the East African region who were meeting at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala, after a 9-day caravan.

“We have so many schooled people, but only a meagre percentage is actually skilled,” he added.

Nuwagaba cites countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, China and, recently, Tanzania, which he said adopted practical courses and are reaping the benefits of vocational education.

“In Mauritius, 70% of the budget is spent only on practical education, such as industrialism, textiles and accounting. We also need to radicalise our education system so that we can produce employable people,” Nuwagaba told The Observer.

Nuwagaba’s views are not very different from some of those who have overseen Uganda’s education system over the past few decades. Fagil Mandy, a former government Chief Inspector of Schools and a prominent advocate of vocational education believes that Uganda’s education is 50 percent responsible for the high rate of youth unemployment.

He stresses that the education system is theoretical and therefore does not give students hands on experience to develop knowledge and skills. Mandy therefore suggests that the curriculum should be revised to include practical lessons.

David Semwogerere, the Head teacher of Mpoma Schools does not differ very much from other academics when argues that although Uganda’s education system greatly resembles that of Britain, Uganda suffers from the fact that it emphasizes theoretical teaching, while Britain puts emphasis on practical skills.

Semwogerere also blames the Ugandan society as having a core negative influence on the education system.

“When a child enrolls for technical school, society describes such as an academic failure. Besides parents today lookout for schools that excel in exams regardless of whether such schools equip their students with practical skills.

UNEB examinations for example are a little unrealistic.Senoir four candidates are expected to summarize what they have studied in the four years in an exam of two or two and a half hours. The government its self has encouraged cram work in schools which will not produce academically qualified graduates but rather immature professionals.

Charles Luswata, the Principal of Vision for Africa Vocational Training  School, who is also an advocate for vocational training among the youth has taken to preaching the vocational education to sensitize the youth on changing their negative attitudes towards skills education.

At Vision for Africa for example, students are required to do eighteen hours for practical work every week during which time they are expected to try out what is taught in class.

Such an arrangement, Luswata says, gives students practical experience and hands on feel of what is taught in the classroom, something that the ministry of education has not emphasized in primary and secondary schools.

He also blames the attitude of parents and society in general for considering vocational education as a preserve of academic failures and poor parents who cannot afford university education.

Luswata also points at the media as a major propagator of the myth that passing exams is all there is in education when they flash best performing students and schools in PLE, UCE and UACE. He says that outcomes of exams for vocational institutions are printed as briefs on obscure inside pages of newspapers.

It may be argued that calls for reforming Uganda’s education system have been heard by policy makers, considering the statements and some policy initiatives that have been made in recent months.

President Museveni for instance has made "investing in young people" one of its fundamental social obligations of the NRM government. The government’s allocation of a substantial amount of money to equip schools with laboratories, while also equipping youth with business skills under the Ushs 45bn youth empowerment programme, perhaps indicate a willingness to do better.

Henry Kajura, the Minister of Public Service has also noted that vocational training holds the key to solving youth employment.

Kajura said: “Enhancing youth employability requires investment and training. The key elements of this include promoting vocational training and ensuring that the curriculum addresses the labor market skills demanded.”

Taking into account several unfulfilled promises in other sectors like agriculture and industrialization, many people are becoming pessimistic about the government’s resolve to radically turn around the current education system to start to focus on skills than exams.

As for Nuwagaba and perhaps many others, addressing youth unemployment cannot come short of a radical change.  But Uganda’s recent history provides very few examples of radical transformations to give anyone confidence that things, especially in the education sector, can change for the better in the foreseeable future.

By Lornah Amanya