After the Electoral Commission (EC) kowtowed to the demands of city lawyer Male Mabirizi by releasing the academic documents of Kyadondo East legislator, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine, the incident set precedent for other discontented groups and individuals in reiteration to start asking for documents of President Museveni and the First Lady Janet Museveni.
Apparently, Minister of Education and Sports who is also the First Lady, Janet Kainembabazi Kataaha Museveni’s biography indicates that she attained a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Makerere University, a Diploma in Early Childhood Development from Sweden, and a Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership and Management from Uganda Christian University, Mukono.
However, controversy is stirred from the fact that Mrs. Museveni is regarded as a fully graduated professional teacher with a bachelors honor, even with no records of doing any school practice whatsoever. Additionally, there’s no clear early school records of Janet Museveni.
Because of this anomaly, Makerere University College of Humanities and Social Sciences lecturer, Prof. Mwambutsya Ndebesa decided to briefly break down Janet Museveni’s education background to a rather basic but easily understandable layout.
Ndebesa puts the record straight that Janet did not need to do teaching practice in order to graduate. He also clarified on the famous misconception about the First Lady’s Bachelors in Education degree. He explained that she did not study Bachelor of Education at Makerere University, but rather completed and was awarded a Bachelor of Adult Education sometimes called community education (in Kiswahili, Elimu ya watu wazima).
The veteran University professor further expounds that the graduates of this course (Bachelor of Adult Education) do not do school practice.
“The graduates of this course are not meant to be school teachers:they are supposed to be community educators the likes of those who conduct training, carry out civic education and awareness creation in the NGO world or those who teach adult learners outside the traditional formal school education setting. Those of you who are familiar with Makerere University geography that course has historically been conducted in Centre for Continuing Education (CCE),” Ndebesa elucidated.
Shedding some light on how Janet joined university without the mandatory UCE and UACE certificates, Ndebesa described that such individuals can join University through mature age entrance exams or using equivalent certificates.
Prof. Ndebesa quickly corrected that according to Janet’s age, there was no P.7, but junior secondary.
“There was also no UCE or UACE but I think Cambridge school certificate or East African Examinations council, not UCE,” he added.
Additional sources also indicate that even Bachelor of Education candidates don’t do teachers’ practice having presumably done theirs while at Diploma training (also known as Grade V).
The B.Ed, done along the University of London model is therefore different from the Bachelor of Arts/ Science in Education degree in design, nomenclature and target group as the latter targets A level leavers minus any previous professional training when compared to the former and is three years long. B.Ed, on the contrary,is two years long, on the strength of the previous years’ earlier training as Dip. Students
Brief Review Of Janet Museveni’s Fact-file.
Janet Museveni founded the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO), a private relief agency in late 1986, which she said was shaped by her experience as a refugee. She became involved with the HIV/AIDS campaigns in Uganda in the 1990s, forging ties with radical pastor Martin Ssempa for abstinence-only sex education in Uganda.
In November 2005, she announced that she would seek the parliamentary seat of Ruhaama county in the February 2006 general elections. She contested the seat against an FDC candidate, Augustine Ruzindana, and won overwhelmingly. She was re-elected in March 2011 to another five-year term.
On 16 February 2009, Janet Museveni was appointed State Minister for Karamoja Affairs by her husband, President Yoweri Museveni.
On 27 May 2011, she was elevated to full Minister for Karamoja Affairs, with a complete with a State Minister for Karamoja Affairs.
On 6 June 2016, after her husband, Y.K Museveni’s re-election as President, she was appointed Minister of Education and Sports.
Source: The Grapevine
