President Yoweri Museveni yesterday presided over the 69th graduation ceremony of Makerere University Kampala. Over 13000 students graduated at the event held at the University Main grounds.
The President congratulated the graduands and the teaching staff upon the completion of the courses in various disciplines.
While speaking at the event, the president reiterated the government’s decision to improve the standards of the university to match those of international academic institutions and improving of renumeration of staff salaries.
He however warned that the university would have to prioritize to achieve this and not all salaries would be improved at a go.
The president also urged the university to grow its research capacity to catch up with the other top African universities.
Short statement from the President.
Social science disciplines should aim at art music, entertainment and meaningful intellectuality. If this teaching is done correctly and purposefully, then the products (graduates) will be useful to society.
For graduands in the arts, where job uptake is low, the government will offer support through the various youth programmes, using low interest loans and grants to start ventures like maize milling, carpentry, leather tanning, etc.
Eventually these should become owners of capital units and job creators. It will also help reduce Uganda’s import bill when we stop buying items like furniture, construction materials etc, from abroad.
I thank the university for recognizing Dr Muranga, Rev Guma Oshabe, Alice Muhoozi and myself for our thesaurus (Katondozi) authored in Runyakitara. These indigenous languages are very rich, that is why I thought it important to contribute to their preservation.
Ends.
