Catholic institutions asked to rethink higher education approaches

Mpigi, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  The Papal nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Luigi Bianco has challenged catholic founded institutions to rethink their way of teaching and front an ‘integral education in a fragmented world, full of contradictions.’  

The Papal nuncio says that challenges stirred by development and the evolution of technology need appropriate and up to date responses.  He made the remarks while presiding over the 25th graduation ceremony of Uganda Martyrs’ University, Nkozi, where 2300 students graduated in various disciplines.  

Archbishop Bianco says that university education is not only about filling the head with concepts but considering the Taxonomy of Learning Domains which is categorized as the cognitive domain (knowledge), psychomotor domain (skills) and affective domain (attitudes).  

He observes a need to consider what contribution they can, and must, make to the integral aspect of a person and an inclusive ecology.  

The call is in line with a recent assertion by Pope Francis that Catholic universities need to become places where solutions for civil and cultural progress for individual persons and humanity, marked by solidarity, are pursued with perseverance and professionalism.  

This year, the Catholic Church adopted a new perspective to education at institutions of higher learning under the theme New Frontiers for University Leaders: The Future of Health and the University Ecosystem.  

In the same development, the chairperson of the Uganda Episcopal Conference Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwa says that Uganda doesn’t need graduates that can articulate theories but is in dire need of views of high education to produce graduates who can apply their relevancy outside their academic qualifications.    

Bishop Zziwa, who is also the Uganda Martyrs’ University chancellor decried the current systems through which many universities continue to pass out graduates, some of whom have turned into career students after failing to get employed.  

The Vice-Chancellor Rev. Prof. John Chrysostom Maviiri noted that they have already embarked on a deliberate move to review all courses and the entire circular to underpin their relevancy focusing on innovation, employability, creativity, and entrepreneurship.  

He adds that this has begun with vigorous training to retool staff members on the changing needs of the fourth revolution requiring a new approach to the delivery of higher education today.   

Meanwhile, Bishop Zziwa has warned the graduates and other students in all institutes of higher learning to resist the increased relativity thinking inform of individualism and secularism and corruption among other vices which are softly killing all cores of different cultures and the nation as well.     

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