By Namutebi Angela
Raising children in this present day poses a number of challenges to the parents and guardians. These challenges are defined by the nature of society and the role it allows parents and guardians to play. Parents are handcuffed and they can’t reach the extremes of disciplining their own children because of the biased policies of the current age.
It is absurd to say that currently, a number of children are incompetent, have low self-esteem and are not achievement-oriented as it used to be. Teachers and parents who used to work ‘tooth and nail’ to polish up this young generation are all demotivated and have chosen to look for survival in other things. The people that would highly be considered by our government are teachers and spiritual leaders because the are the pillars that firmly ground each one of us in this dark generation. With schools closed and all children are on rampage, teachers can never really do their work well as they would wish to.
Parents are now abusing their own children with all sorts of evils ranging from sexual harassment to child labour; children who would be safer in schools and churches are now at great risks at home. NGOs that had tried to come up with various programs to help our children, especially the girl child who is a bit more vulnerable, are closing down one by one due to the unfair taxation and policies that won’t let them thrive in Uganda.
Corruption has subtlety creeped into the church where our only hope was. The spiritual leaders are bought off to only speak what is in favor of the government in power. They are gripped by fear and they can’t say anything about the real issues that ought to be rectified in this land. The good news is; the Lord is never without a remnant to use in such times as these.
The media which is said to continuously broadcast the church services is also biased and it only gives a small percentage of it’s time to the church and airs the agenda of the god of this world most. Churches must be unconditionally opened so that the people are continuously guided on life issues. As a matter of fact, how many Ugandans can fully afford proper gadgets to access online learning services or even the church services? More so, there is always a great impact in physical meeting with any one be it a teacher in class or a pastor in church!
My deep desire is that schools are opened unconditionally without any mandatory vaccinations as it really was before the pandemic hit. I remember most of the schools had been established on the foundation of religion and they all had places of worship in them. This would help the students to know who they really are; this would contribute to their moral and emotional intelligence. Institutions like Gayaza High School were built on an Anglican foundation; Seroma High school on a Christian(born- again) foundation and Kibuli on a Moslem foundation which would at least instill a descent culture in the children of today, only to mention but a few.
With all these schools closed, imagine what befalls the youngsters who were being groomed in these schools and places of worship before these relentless lockdowns.
Personally, I think Uganda has bled enough especially in the scope of academics and spiritual matters. We need to instigate the healing of our motherland. This can only be done if places of worship and schools are unconditionally opened. The Bible says in 2Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Uganda, you have bled enough and you need to heal.
The author is an Educational consultant and a Teacher.