KAMPALA – Following the recent released PLE, UCE and UACE exams, most schools,administrators and teachers are living in self denial claiming under marking, favouritism and imbalance in grading.
Some institutions spend days and nights with so-called strategic thinkers when they can’t think of anything good.
The “Dead Horse Theory” is a satirical metaphor that illustrates how some individuals, institutions, or nations handle obvious, unsolvable problems. Instead of accepting reality, they cling to justifying their actions.
The core idea is simple: if you realize you’re riding a dead horse, the most sensible thing to do is dismount and move on.
However, in practice, the opposite often happens. Instead of abandoning the dead horse, people take actions such as:
• Buying a new saddle for the horse.
• Improving the horse’s diet, despite it being dead.
• Changing the rider instead of addressing the real problem.
• Firing the horse caretaker and hiring someone new, hoping for a different outcome.
• Holding meetings to discuss ways to increase the dead horse’s speed.
• Creating committees or task forces to analyze the dead horse problem from every angle. These groups work for months, compile reports, and ultimately conclude the obvious: the horse is dead.
• Justifying efforts by comparing the horse to other similarly dead horses, concluding that the issue was a lack of training.
• Proposing training programs for the horse, which means increasing the budget.
• Redefining the concept of “dead” to convince themselves the horse still has potential.
The Lesson:
This theory highlights how many people and organizations prefer to deny reality, wasting time, resources, and effort on ineffective solutions instead of acknowledging the problem from the start and making smarter, more effective decisions.
The state of Uganda education sector is like riding a dead horse.
Take this.
“When the teacher becomes the poorest of government employees, don’t ask about the future.
In every nation, there is a standard that never fails to measure its future: look at the state of its teachers, and you will know where it is headed. If the teacher is honored, the nation is heading towards prosperity, and if they are marginalized, then know that the society is heading towards the abyss of ignorance and decline.
The teacher is not just an employee who performs a daily duty, but rather the foundation upon which generations are built, and the basis upon which civilizations are established. So, what if this foundation is fragile, struggling to make ends meet, and fighting harsh conditions that show no mercy? What if the profession of shaping minds becomes synonymous with poverty and deprivation?
When you see a teacher suffering, know that the nation has abandoned its glory, and the society has begun to lose its way. The teacher is not just an individual in society, but rather the builder of civilizations, the guardian of identity, and the bearer of the torch of knowledge in the paths of ignorance. A state that ignores its teachers is destroying its own foundation with its own hands, and digging the grave of its future in deadly silence.
The strength of nations is not in their high walls, nor in their treasure troves filled with gold, nor in their equipment, but in the minds of their children, which are shaped by the teacher. When states neglect their teachers, they are compromising their true security, because knowledge alone is the weapon that does not rust, and the power that is not defeated.
Schools are not just buildings made of brick and mortar, but factories for minds, and laboratories for revival. What is the use of walls if there is no thought that illuminates, and no knowledge that changes? A nation that makes the teacher just a marginalized employee is destroying the pillars of its future with its own hands, and condemning itself to remain in the shadows.
When the teacher’s salary is the lowest on the state’s salary scale, barely enough to last two or three days, know that the state has chosen ignorance over knowledge, and decline over progress. The teacher is not just an employee who performs daily tasks, but rather a leader who shapes minds, and an engineer who builds the future.
What if the state neglects its teachers, and thereby destroys the future of its people with its own hands? How can a nation prosper when its teachers are begging for respect before rights? How can a society progress when its role model is crushed under the weight of poverty and neglect? When the teacher is unable to secure their most basic needs, education becomes a trade, and schools turn into centers for grades rather than minds.
The teacher is the torch that lights the way for generations, and if the state extinguishes this torch, it will plunge into the darkness of ignorance and backwardness. And when the dignity of the teacher is broken, it is not just an individual who collapses, but an entire nation.
We have two choices, and there is no third option: either we make the teacher the foundation for progress, or we continue to fall into the swamp of backwardness. Nations that respected their teachers built their civilizations, and nations that neglected them became a thing of the past.
There is no revival without education, and no education without a noble teacher. If we want to build a future that is worthy of pride, let us start by preserving the dignity of those who shape minds.
The true homeland is not just land and borders…
The homeland is a mind that thinks, a child who reads, and a teacher who burns to illuminate the path of generations…”
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The writer, Mudi Kangave, is a teacher, teacher trainer, and author. He also serves as the National Chairperson of the Private Teachers Platform Uganda.
Email: mudikangave@gmail.com
Tel: +256757525254
