KAMPALA – The State Minister for Higher Education, Hon. Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo has urged graduates from Higher Education Resource Services-East Africa (HERS-EA) Third Academy not to wait for the ball to come to them but to go for it instead.
The Minister appreciated HERS-EA for empowering female leaders with skills in grant writing, gender- responsive budgeting, research and publishing and other areas and preparing them to g for what he called the ‘ball’
“The Uganda Vision 2040 and Second National Development Plan prioritise gender- equitable development. The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) welcomes all partners and institutions that contribute to equitable development in Uganda. HERS-EA has focussed on discussing and identifying solutions to equitable Higher Education Institutions in East Africa and we thank you for that” remarked Hon. Dr. Muyingo.
Dr. Muyingo revealed that the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has embarked on reviewing the Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan and assured HERS-EA that the Government was looking forward to learning from their practices.
“I invite you to support the Ministry of Education and Sports and make a contribution by influencing the Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan review process.”
He further encouraged graduates not to lament about challenges in their home institutions but implement all the best practices that they had learnt from the Academy.
“Use your age and expertise to influence what goes on in other institutions,” said Dr. Muyingo.
Speaking on behalf of the Third Academy Graduates, Dr. Pamela Khanakwa from the Department of History, Archaeology, and Heritage Studies, Makerere University thanked the HERS-EA leadership and facilitators for helping her cohort understand the politics of male-dominated institutions and strategies on how to work with them. She also thanked the Academy for challenging participants to think beyond the present day.
“We have been challenged to think about where we want to be in the next five years, set targets and develop strategies on how to achieve them. We were taught how to develop career maps and paths and how to continue working even after retirement. We learnt how to discover what else we can do within our mainstream academic zones so as to prosper, thrive and stay relevant,” added Dr. Khanakwa.
Participants in the HERS-EA Third Academy were drawn from hosts Makerere University, Kyambogo University, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Muni University, Uganda Christian University (UCU), Clarke International University and Mekelle University Ethiopia.
Notable among them was Dr. Elizabeth Kyazike, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kyambogo University and first female archaeologist to earn a PhD in Uganda.
