The Government of Uganda has emphasized the study of sciences as a key area for growing our economy and job creation. This can be seen through initiatives like; enhancing salaries of science teachers, building science laboratories, establishment of more public universities for sciences, putting a whole ministry of science and Technology among very many good efforts. Every Year, Universities graduate thousands of scientists in various science disciplines. For sure, to study science subjects requires a high level of hard work, commitment and discipline because sciences are hard, very wide but very important. I personally did Biology, Chemistry but it was not very easy. In addition, most parents sacrifice a lot to raise school fees and are resolved to sell their land, get loans, spend sleepless nights to raise tuition for their children especially those doing sciences with a hope that the children will reap big from being scientists.
Very poor working conditions
Most scientist graduates in Uganda are facing hardships to just take care of themselves. Imagine graduating with a bachelors degree in a science discipline and only to be offered a job of 600,000 or 900,000/= (gross pay) in Kampala metropolitan area. How much savings will this person remain with after spending on school fees, rent, food, transport etc and how many years will this person raise money to buy a plot or build a small house for the family? Very many investors enjoying tax holidays are the same people frustrating our Ugandan Scientists with very poor pay and poor working conditions while investors are paying foreigners, the so-called “Experts” who receive juicy benefits (free housing, feeding, transport, medical, and entertainment) on top of a heavy envelope in thousands of dollars yet most of the work is done by the Ugandans. Scientists are poorly renumerated in the private sector to the extent that some regret why they studied sciences. There is need to look into the way how employers in the private sector treat scientists otherwise the government goal of developing this nation through sciences should be forgotten.
Unfair/ weak policies and regulations
Some scientists are not well utilized because the existing laws and regulations do not favour their practice. For example, a.) the National Drug Policy/ Act only specifies that the supervision of drug Manufacturing and Quality is only for pharmacists yet there are other professionals like the Pharmaceutical Scientists who are specialised in drug Manufacturing and even Chemists can supervise the Quality control of drugs in industries. The NDA Act requires to be revised and ensure that there is equity if the pharmaceutical sector is to grow. b.) The private sector is not regulated on how they treat scientists (great efforts have been made in the public service though), issuance of work permits to foreigners to do work which our Ugandan Scientists can ably do. In addition, the foreign experts do not respect our Ugadan Scientists hence leading to frustration. There is need to do an overhaul of all policies and laws that do not favour Scientists or that are made to only favour a few cadres at the expense of others if the Government of Uganda is to achieve its goal of using science to develop our country.
Wastage of Government resources
The government of Uganda has invested heavily in the training of scientists but very many scientists have left their science profession and have gone to do other things totally not related to the science field which is a very serious loss to the country. Mind you most of these scientists study on Government money, use government resources but this whole investment is put to waste. There should be value for money where after training scientists, they are given a favourable environment to flourish.
Lack of facilities or failure to utilise Scientists
Some science courses equip people with specialized skills but are not highly utilized. For example if Pharmaceutical Scientists, chemical engineers, Biotechnologists, molecular biologists, chemists, engineers, pharmacognosy experts and very many others were well utilized, provided with facilities required for them to practice their fields, our country would develop at a very high rate. Moreover some scientists are not provided with facilities to do their work. There is less being done to support drug development and formulation of drugs by Ugandan pharmaceutical professionals. Thanks to projects like PharmBioTrac which is supporting the formulation and development of biotechnology and natural products. There is need to establish facilities for supporting certain highly specialized science professionals e.g., establishing many drug research and product development labs, establishing labs for chemical process development and engineering, establishing many technology business incubators, putting more resources to research in science fields that have direct impact to the economy. In the medical field, medics sometimes lack basic requirements for doing their work e.g., lack of basic PPEs, lack of medicines, lack of other hospital supplies frustrates them. One of the examples is example is like Kiira Motors corporation where engineers were given chance to showcase what they have.
Conclusion
In conclusion, very many scientists are facing hardships and frustrations. There is also an urgent need to make an overhaul/ review of all laws that affect the practice of science, to review the conditions under which scientists work especially in the private sector to ensure equity in the work environment.
There is need to put up facilities needed by scientists in support of their innovations and also support for small and medium enterprises already established.
Despite the efforts done by the Government in promoting sciences, scientists deserve better and if Nothing is done to improve the practice of sciences in Uganda, it will be very difficult to achieve the goal of developing Uganda through sciences and job creation.
The author is a young scientist who is so passionate and proud of being a scien