In this week’s Uganda News Review, find out about the dangers of high-tech crops and the blessings of low-tech health equipment, and how Uganda is planning to boost science teaching, libraries and eLearning. All this – and one reason why you’re never too old for school – read on…
Uganda News in brief: Civil society activists petition the Constitutional court over anti-gays bill (Monitor) ++++ One of Idi Amin’s sons to stand for parliamentary election in 2016 (Independent) ++++ Uganda chess team beat Kenya in annual “Battle for Migingo” (New Vision) ++++ Japan grants Sh620m for education and water to N Uganda (New Vision) ++++ Uganda 5th best exhibitor at tourism exhibition (New Vision)
12/03/2014
HEALTH: Stanford Professor Manu Prakash has invented an “origami” microscope. Folded out of a single A4-size sheet, it outperforms traditional field microscopes in lab tests. As the BBC reports, the technology is now due to go on trial in Uganda.
AGRICULTURE: GM crops are making their stealthy way into Ugandan farming – a worrying trend for The Africa Report journalist Kalundi Serumaga, who feels it will lead to the privatisation of knowledge, and the loss of centuries of tried-and-tested agricultural practice.
GENDER: Entrepreneur Evelyn Namara has made it on the tech scene in Uganda. But for women to succeed in her sector, she cautions, they must be tough enough to overcome engrained prejudices and stereotypes, as she writes in How We Made It In Africa.
SCIENCE: The O-Level results were unequivocal: Uganda is falling behind at science (Observer). Now the Ugandan Government is looking to recruit 6000 science teachers to pick up the shortfall and safeguard the economy of the future, as the Monitor reports.
LIBRARIES: Kampala has only one library, with eighty seats, but that, according to New Vision, is soon to change. The number of people seeking to use the existing library has expanded beyond its limited capacity, prompting the City Authority to start the process of building five more – one for each division of the capital.
eLEARNING: Universities must play their part in enabling Ugandans to have access to the best possible education. The State Minister for Higher Education Dr. John C. Muyingo has called for institutions to invest more heavily in online learning, New Vision reports.
TRAUMA: Acholi region is still suffering the trauma of the LRA insurrection, a war that was as mentally devastating for its victims as it was physically and socially. Gulu University has established a trauma centre there, using the latest technology, to help rehabilitate Northern Uganda. The Monitor reports.
and in other news…
UNIVERSAL PRIMARY: Thanks to some careful cajoling from her priest, Prikeria Gubika of Wakalende Village, Mayuge town is now in primary school – at 55. She had bought herself a Bible two years before, but being illiterate had only ever carried it to church and back. After her priest urged his congregation in a sermon to learn to read, she enrolled at her local school. New Vision continues the story.
