Poverty alleviation in Uganda: the case for a viable optimum curriculum to produce poverty alleviation oriented information professionals

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is a long and painstaking process. It involves knowing what poverty is, its causes and means of alleviating it. Poverty is one of the scourges including disease and ignorance a combination of which deprives humanity of the basic needs for living. Among the strategies to alleviate poverty is effective processing and disseminating of information. There is therefore need for a corps of information professionals qualified and experienced on the information transfer process. These should be the products of a viable optimum curriculum. The paper defines poverty and its causes. Information is also defined and the relationship between poverty alleviation and information dissemination is stated. A viable LIS curriculum a vanguard of knowledge, competencies and skills is explained. Besides, such curriculum should be indigenised in the context of culture, language and literacy practices of the country concerned. Basing on the findings of the study entitled “A Library and Information Curriculum for Uganda with Special Reference to EASLIS, Makerere University: A Study of Influence and Processes in Curriculum Development” compared with curricula of the Departments of Library and Information Studies of the University of Aberystwyth, (Wales) Botswana and Cape Town, issues of the viable and indigenised curriculum are discussed. Finally strategies for the future are proposed.



University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol.6(1) 2004: 103-113