Contrasting Ironies, English and Ugandan State Secondary Schools, is a book by Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa about the stark contrast between the Uganda school system and the English education system and the way the two relate.

While the British education system is one of the most sought after school systems in the world, Dr. Mwesigwa writes that free education in state secondary schools has eroded its value and if Uganda’s is not checked, it may follow suit.
Having lived and taught in both Uganda and the United Kingdom, Mwesigwa writes in his preface that while there is a huge demand for teachers to join the English state secondary education system, it is impossible to last long there because students have adopted a culture of glorifying their own rights and forgetting that they too have obligations and responsibility for their actions towards their teacher.
The book raises some pertinent issues concerning the British educational policies and societal responsibility towards children and discusses questions concerning parameters of students rights examined side by side with teachers exercise of authority and their own rights.
The book also possess questions of the Uganda educational reforms which have among others witnessed the introduction of Universal Secondary Education (USE) and its envisaged challenges of disrupting the long enjoyed discipline of students in state secondary schools.
Nevertheless, the book portrays the Ugandan state secondary education system as a model in comparison to the English state secondary education system.
The intention of the book is to open a debate on the best way forward in ensuring that discipline and a positive attitude to the education of Ugandan students is sustained under the new educational developments of USE so as to avoid a scenario of the English state secondary schools where a free and compulsory education system, with its emphasis on students’ rights and privileges over responsibilities, has resulted in students not attaching great value to education.
This book therefore highlights the irony of the British state education system that is falsely a dream destination for children in developing countries. Finally this book is intended to bring to the fore the plight of the teachers in English state secondary schools who suffer physical and verbal abuse and are therefore at the mercy of students.
The book was published by Fountain Publishers and will hit the shelves soon.
Dr. Mwesigwa qualified as a secondary school teacher in 1985 and has both taught and administered in a number of schools, his last posting was deputy head teacher at Ntare School in 2005.
He has a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Association of Theological Institutions in Eastern Africa, a Master of Education and a PhD both from the University of Leeds, UK.
He is currently a senior lecturer and Dean of Faculty of Education and Arts at Uganda Christian University, Mukono.