Dr. Dickson Kanakulya, a lecturer of Philosophy and Human Rights in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Makerere University is currently in hot soup for appointing a student to teach fellow students for one full month.
The university probe team which found the lecturer in question guilty of breaching the university rules, regulations and procedures has recommended that Dr. Kanakulya be referred to the university Appointments Board for Disciplinary Action.
The probe team was assigned after Dr. Patrick Mangeni Wa’Ndeda, the Dean of School of Liberals and Performing Arts received a petition from three students of Bachelor of Ethics and Human Rights in April this year.
More details indicate that students complained on the teaching and assessment of EHR31012 [Critical Thinking], a course unit taught during Semester one of the 2018/2019 academic year.
The probe team was led by Associate Prof. Julius Kikooma and Dr. Florence Nansubuga, both from the School of Psychology. The others members were Associate Professor Paul Omach from School of Social Sciences, Dr. Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi from the School of Women and Gender Studies, Esther Kabinga, a legal officer with the Legal directorate in the university and Vincent Ekwang, the College Registrar.
During the probe exercise, the team critically analyzed documents provided by the office of the Dean of School of Liberal and Performing Arts, as well as interviews about the complaints. The team also listened to testimonies of the witnesses who were mentioned in various documents as well as Dr. Dickson Kanakulya, who was assigned to teach the course.
According to William Ssekannyo, one of the affected students who just completed the Bachelor of Ethics and Human Rights course), the teaching was not uniform with that of the evening class. Ssekannyo told the probe team that Dr. Kanakulya lectured less than five times a day in the entire semester.
“Instead he would send an evening student, Ms. Irene Nakibirige to lecture,” Ssekannyo said. He added that the lecturer would go for a whole month without showing up.
“Irene [the student] taught us twice every week and I attended lecturers about ten times the whole semester,” Prossy Bameka, another student testified.
Bameka added that students in her program were asked to pay UGX 5,000 each to attend and watch a compulsory documentary. “The money was collected by external people who had organised the movie. However, some students never watched the movie because they never had the money for example Ntono Victoria didn’t watch. We went on a trip to Jinja and Mukono and paid Shilling 40,000 for the trip but he just took us to eat and dance,” Bameka added.
Robert Mutebi, another student revealed that the lecturer only gave them one test towards the end of semester yet the course work results sheet displayed on the noticeboard possessed three columns for course works.
“I wonder where other marks came from. There was a student who was caught cheating in the test but she had even higher marks when the results came. When the invigilator caught her, her script was torn. A number of students witnessed this incident.” Mutebi said.
Apparently, there is another student called Anyango Patience who never sat for the test but she had the marks. It is said that the Head of Department (Dr. Kasozi) called students who had complained and threatened them. The threats allegedly forced Innocent Byegarazo and others who had signed the letter to distance themselves from the first petition.
When Irene Nakibirige was invited to testify, she reportedly said Dr. Kanakulya requested her to look for someone among the evening class to help teach the day class Critical Thinking.
“At first I rejected the request because I was afraid as I wasn’t prepared but later, I accepted since I was helping my fellow students. I prepared myself that morning and about 9:00am went to Livingstone Hall and taught the students,” she said.
The student further confessed that she used her class notes and personal research from internet to teach the day class (between August and December, in the academic year 2018/2019).
Despite getting the chance to teach other students, Nakibirige reportedly scored lower marks compared to others.
“I discussed my discontentment of my Critical Thinking marks with a lecturer Dr. Lajul who advised me to appeal if I was not contented. I was helping the lecturer to teach day class and I don’t know how I scored low marks yet the lecturer trusted me enough to teach,” Nakibirige added.
