Government to consider abolishing Saturday exams
- Written by JONATHAN KAMOGA AND JUSTUS LYATUU
President Museveni has said government will consider a request by the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church to abolish Saturday examinations at all public education institutions.
The SDA are a conservative religious denomination in the country that observe Saturday as their Sabbath, a day of dedicated to only worshiping God and rest.
The president made the announcement on Twitter this morning after yesterday’s meeting with the SDA Church World Leader, Pastor Ted Wilson, and his wife Nancy, at State House, Entebbe.
The Wilsons are in the country on a four-day pastoral visit christened “Total Member Involvement” to continue entrench SDA beliefs in Uganda and the East African region.
They were accompanied to State House by Uganda SDA Union leader, Bishop Daniel Maate, and other leaders from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan.
“I thank Pastor Wilson for visiting Uganda. I commend members of the SDA community in Uganda for their discipline. We shall consider the church’s request about our education institutions not conducting examinations on Saturday,” the President wrote, adding: “We shall also look at the interests of other Christian denominations that need to be freed from school examinations on Sundays and also for the Muslim community on Fridays.”
On several occasions, Students from SDA families have been forced to miss lectures, tests or examinations slated for Saturdays opting to go to church, instead!
CO-EXIST
After arriving in the country on Wednesday, Pr Wilson addressed the media at Peniel Beach Hotel in Entebbe where he urged religious and political leaders to co-exist and complement each other for social development.
He noted that it is only through this religious-political symbiosis that the region can realise peace, political stability and end poverty.
“There are a lot of inhumane killings around the world but what should be known is that every life counts, the world needs everlasting peace and this comes from God only, part of our mission is to make Uganda feel they are part of creating peace,” he said.
Pr Wilson also promised to ask President Museveni to abolish Saturday exams because they are unfair to Adventists.
“The problem of students doing exams on the Sabbath (Saturday) is critical in many countries and I will certainly bring this to the attention of government (President) to try to give the students much consideration as possible,” he said.
“Governments [should] allow freedoms and liberties of worship, by which we are happy that Uganda provides; when freedom of worships is implemented in a full way, a nation is blessed.”
According to Israel Kefeero, the general secretary of SDA in Uganda, there are about four million SDA Christians in Uganda, with about 3,600 registered churches. There are about 21 million Adventists across the world.
Comments
Just the other day, Museveni declared a Janan Luwum day making it a public holiday.
Now the SDAs wanted Saturday to be given special treatment because it is their day of prayer, supposing the Muslims started pushing for the same plan for Friday and the the Traditionalists pushed for Wednesday being set aside for their prayers.
At the end of the day, all days of the week will be holy and not used for activities such as exams
Infact Museveni should consider abolishing religions
Do we have to wait for some "pastor" peddling a version of The Lord's message to tell us when and why we can/cannot carry out our usual activities?
Soon some "sheik" will turn around and say we can't work on Fridays or travel on Thursdays. We must stop this "foot salaams" from the foreigners and determine our own destiny as Ugandans. What do you think, eh?
Imagine if a "foreigner" arrived in the country tomorrow and said; " You know what, you Ugandans are better of "doing the pooh only on Wednesdays." Would you say it was an 'option' worth considering?
Hop it was not just politics
Let me fold ma hands & wait
We have several religious denominations and if every sect demands to free a particular day of the week, we shall be having public holidays for the entire week.
I know muslim students do exams on Fridays just as Christians do exams on Sundays at Universities.
Why can`t the seventhday students just compromise and do exams on a Saturday if scheduled. Perhaps this will just happen once in their life time and they ought to understand. It is practically impossible for institutions to bow to pressure of every religious sect, otherwise we shall run crazy!
If the mainstream Christians have the Sunday and now the SDA are demanding the Saturday then in all fairness the Friday should also be a non work day in respect of Islam!
It was like that some years ago here in Uganda with the only difference that Saturday became a half work day.