Why Social Sciences are more relevant today than never before

For a while now, the head of state has made several and quite unfortunate public statements on some academic courses taught at in institutions of higher learning, which according to him and others with a similar mindset are useless and outdated in favor of sciences that they say are relevant for the times.

The courses disliked by our head of state are from the field of social sciences. Unfortunately, no one, not even a single professor in the field of social sciences has come out to guide the young people and their parents and the nation at large on the relevance and importance of having such courses taught at universities.

It looks like Uganda is the only unique country world over that wants to outlaw social sciences from her universities, something that is very unfortunate and regrettable. A simple search on the net will give you more than 50 top-notch world Universities that are offering the same courses that our leaders here are calling irrelevant and our learners to stop pursuing them.

The courses in question are in the category of academic disciplines concerned with society and the relationships among individuals within society. The disciplines include, but are not limited to anthropology, archaeology, communication studies economics, folkloristics, history, musicology, human rights, international relations and diplomatic studies, geography, jurisprudence, linguistics, political science, psychology, public health, and sociology, etc.

It is a branch of learning that examines society’s institutions—their structures, theoretical foundations, evolution, and interrelationships—and how they affect and are affected by human behavior. The disciplines include anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, sociology, ethnic studies, women and gender studies, and some areas of mass communications, development studies, international relations and diplomatic studies, governance, democracy, and leadership, etc.

It is a field of study that is separate from the natural sciences, which cover topics such as physics, biology, and chemistry. Social sciences examine the relationships between individuals and societies, as well as the development and operation of societies, rather than studying the physical world.

Social sciences tell us about the world beyond our immediate experience and can help explain how our own society works – from the causes of unemployment or what helps economic growth, to how and why people vote, or what makes people happy. It provides vital information for governments and policymakers, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and others. Yet this is a field of study that our leaders want to see off our curriculum.

Unknown to many is that Social science graduates have a variety of career options, and many rarely go without employment as they are employable in almost all sectors in the country, so it’s not true to say that those that are not employed in our economies are social scientists because they can fit well in all sectors.

Social sciences help to explain how society works, exploring everything from the triggers of economic growth and causes of unemployment to what makes people happy. This information is vital and can be used for many purposes. Among other things, it helps to shape corporate strategies and government policies. In developed nations, for instance, many social science careers are financially fulfilling as well as personally fulfilling, and some even earn six-figure salaries.

For example; if you have an interest in politics, then a career as a political scientist might be the right choice for you. Not only is this profession the highest paid in the social sciences, but it revolves around the study of something that is constantly relevant in modern societies across the globe–politics. Political scientists investigate every aspect of politics, from how political systems originated and progressed to how they currently operate and from political trends and new political policies and ideas, they predict patterns and trends relating to politics, the economy and social changes.

In addition to forecasting trends, political scientists also evaluate new and current ideologies, policies, laws and current events. So, you might be surprised at the number of possible workplaces for these professionals. Naturally, many – about 50 percent of political scientists work within the government and much more work for political lobbying groups. They also find employment with labor organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

Political scientists may specialize in studying national politics, international relations, comparative politics or political theory, so when we decide to outlaw social sciences from our universities, are we ready to import experts at a later date, because we will always need political scientists.

Economists study the factors that determine how goods, services, and resources are produced and distributed. Economists draw from current data and historical trends to predict changes and patterns in the economy and help companies, individuals and the government on economic changes.

The economy isn’t just about money, but about resources of all kinds. Economists investigate the costs of education, energy, healthcare and consumer products. They may work in the fields of public finances, labor economics, industrial organization economics, financial economics, international economics, macroeconomics and microeconomics. Does this attitude we have enough to explain why our economy is struggling and lack of right economic predictions? Shall we be employing engineers to do this noble work and who will be running the economy so scientists can concentrate on their experiments?

How about the Industrial-organizational psychology that has a place in a wide range of departments, from administration to marketing and human resources to sales. These professionals often work with management on tasks such as hiring and training employees, creating company policies, and strategically planning the growth and development of businesses. They seek to solve workplace problems such as improving productivity and increasing morale. Industrial-organizational psychologists may investigate a variety of topics involving workplace behavior, such as team effectiveness, employee motivation, occupational stress and safety risks and job performance. They use their knowledge to guide companies in selecting, training and retaining the right employees and making the work environment a productive one. Shall we employ medical doctors in this field then?

Sociologists also help to investigate social interactions in humans. They observe social interactions in cultures, organizations, social institutions, groups and relationships and develop theories to explain these interactions and social processes. Sociologists may work with educators, lawmakers, policymakers, administrators and social workers to determine the influence of political, social, religious and economic forces on behavior and devise solutions to social problems. Could this explain the unending social problems that our country is facing?

We also have Clinical psychologists as healthcare workers who diagnose mental health disorders and treat them through psychotherapy, behavioral modification and, in certain states, medication. Counseling psychologists also work directly with patients, but instead of treating mental illnesses, they guide patients in understanding and solving problems in their lives, such as substance abuse and relationship problems. School psychologists work in academic services, helping students at grade levels from pre-school to college cope with learning and behavioral problems and reach educational goals.

Forensic psychologists work in the legal system, where they testify in courts regarding psychological factors in criminal, civil or family cases. In other words, how shall we solve crimes without well-trained personnel in the field of forensic psychology? Are we happy with the way we handle investigations and prosecutions and the cases our government loses because of the lack of evidence, which would have been obtained through the use of such skilled individuals?

We cannot afford to do away with social sciences because the knowledge of that field helps us improve our societies. And by studying such concepts, we become better informed about how societies should be put together.

Whoever is agitating for the removal of these courses from our curriculum should first appreciate the creation, first, we cannot all be the same, we can’t have the same capability we can’t all have the same talents, and we can’t all be pure scientists.

God intended we have varieties, that is the beauty with humanity, we are differently endowed but complementary, look at Jesus and the combination of the twelve disciples each had his own attributes.

Society is conflict-prone and we are always conflicting because of difference in opinion, interest, values and norms, and for that, we need to train people who will help us manage these conflicts whenever they manifest, well-grounded in conflict resolution, a process of resolving dispute or disagreement and aims at reconciling opposing arguments in a manner that promotes and protects the human rights of all parties concerned, this needs someone who is well-grounded in negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy and only one who has been trained in conflict resolution is in a better position to handle the task, I am beginning to believe that our lack of such professionals may be the reason we can’t solve even the simplest conflicts among us.

All serious career diplomats must be trained social scientists, well-grounded in international relations and diplomatic studies, conflict resolution. Sociologists, historians, political scientists, engineers and medical doctors may not do much as diplomats because of their training. We have some time failed to shine at the international scene because of the deployed diplomats who may lack the required skills.

It’s only through social scientists that we can conquer the world, look at the explorers, non was a scientist but historians, geographers, sociologies, archeologists etc who later after achieving their mission called on medical doctors and engineers to follow them, this only emphasizes the need to have social sciences in place until our last days.

All our law books are premised on sociological principles since it’s based on people’s history, culture, norms, value systems, experiences and desires, without these social scientists, we wouldn’t be having law books in place and thus an organized society. The good book (bible) is written based on the culture and values of the Jewish people and not on newton’s law and it has stood the test of time and a guiding tool to every one of us on the known and unknown too.

Yes, we can promote pure sciences without killing the social sciences, because we need both in place and they have complemented each other so well before I don’t know what has changed lately to decide that we can outlaw social sciences.

We will never have a society where all people are scientists, not in our lifetime or time to come, so we should just guide and encourage our people to act professionally in whichever field one chooses and know that the end game is to develop society.

How do you deal with war-fatigued officers if we don’t employ psychology to counsel them and stabilize them, the neglect of such programs for our officers will always work against our good intentions, both the retirees and serving officers need to undergo such programs, in preparation for operations or retirements before integrating them into the civilian life, so these disciplines are more relevant in our times as they have always been and must be encouraged than outlawed, if we make such a mistake then soon we will find ourselves in a situation where we pay highly in outsourcing such professionals from abroad.

Already, more than 80% of our workforce falls under this category and they should be empowered and others encouraged to undertake such courses rather than discouraging them, based on the understanding that not everyone can be a scientist however much we wish for it or force it, many will fall in the discipline of social science. Just tell me if you are going to deny them university education simply because they are not scientists.
Finally, the social scientists too should be allowed to apply for students’ loans to enable them to acquire university education because they have rights to education too since their parents are taxpayers, so, we should encourage both equity and equality in our education policy programs.

Look at the Democratic Republic of Korea, they have encouraged science and technological innovations, yet they influence the foreign events through KASS (Korean Association of Social Scientists) and they are really doing well promoting their country globally through such an association.

Our insufficient planning, nepotism, tribalism, corruption, people who have reached retirement age not giving way to those coming in, hoarding of available jobs, etc may be the reason some of our people lack jobs, not because of the courses they undertook at university that would only be a very costly excuse.

We can make our Pearl of Africa great without disadvantaging some sections of the populace.