week ago, donors chopped funding to education sector here over allegations of graft and impaired performance under free primary and secondary education programmes.
The development ironically came after Makerere University students at the School of Engineering, Art, Design and Technology brought for test drive on campus an electric car they made, captivating the nation over its reserve of a breed of progressive intellectuals.
Ugandan students have not just woken up here, it might appear, but also overseas, posting record-shattering results. A student of Ugandan origin at Cambridge University has been named the most outstanding black student in the UK, according to information on the universitys website, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
Mr Ssegawa Ssekintu Kiwanuka topped the list of the outstanding black student compiled by Future Leaders magazine, a publication that inspires children from Britains African and African-Caribbean communities to apply to university.
His feat tells the story of our countrys paradox: Where a cocktail of structural barriers and governments half-hearted investment in education suffocates innate flair of disadvantaged students unable to pay tuition, and therefore buy the best quality teaching, at premium private institutions.
If, for instance, Mr Kiwanuka had lived and studied in Ugandas blighted universities, and not in London, he would have perhaps excelled locally, but not so likely to be recognised internationally, let alone by the Education minister in Kampala.
The development ironically came after Makerere University students at the School of Engineering, Art, Design and Technology brought for test drive on campus an electric car they made, captivating the nation over its reserve of a breed of progressive intellectuals.
Ugandan students have not just woken up here, it might appear, but also overseas, posting record-shattering results. A student of Ugandan origin at Cambridge University has been named the most outstanding black student in the UK, according to information on the universitys website, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
Mr Ssegawa Ssekintu Kiwanuka topped the list of the outstanding black student compiled by Future Leaders magazine, a publication that inspires children from Britains African and African-Caribbean communities to apply to university.
His feat tells the story of our countrys paradox: Where a cocktail of structural barriers and governments half-hearted investment in education suffocates innate flair of disadvantaged students unable to pay tuition, and therefore buy the best quality teaching, at premium private institutions.
If, for instance, Mr Kiwanuka had lived and studied in Ugandas blighted universities, and not in London, he would have perhaps excelled locally, but not so likely to be recognised internationally, let alone by the Education minister in Kampala.
