The proposal for government to take over the ownership of the East African Civil Aviation Academy in Soroti faces opposition from the private sector and EAC legislators.
The Academy’s Manage Advisory Task Force, MATAF- wants the facility, locally known as Soroti Flying School, to be put fully owned by the government of Uganda, so that it may be able to access better funding and other facilitation than currently.
In the proposals, MATAF also wants the academy integrated into the national curriculum under the university council and accredited by the National Council for Higher Education.
Eng. Mackenzie Ogweng, the chairman of the advisory task force says the lack of a proper legal status, regarding the ownership and management of the school has made it difficult to achieve its vision. He says for example that the training facilities are getting outdated with the school still training the students on propeller aircraft, yet airlines today, including Uganda Airlines are operating jet aircrafts.
At the inauguration of the new Management Advisory Task Force for the Soroti Flying School General Edward Katumba Wamala, the Minister for Works and Transport said he completely supports the proposal.
Wamala said no EAC country can lay claim on the academy because, since the collapse of the community, Uganda has been struggling solely to maintain the facility. He said the government should use all means to ensure the academy is made a legally Ugandans institution since the other countries are also establishing training centers.
In 1985, Tanzania set up the Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) as the training arm of Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority, and also has a number of other privately owned centers.
Kenya on the other hand established its own and appropriately named it the East African School of Aviation under the ownership of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority. Former senior pilot Capt. Michael Mukula however, is opposed to the idea of Uganda legally claiming the Soroti academy, saying it is already part of the EAC that was revived in 2001.
According to him, this would be against the objectives and vision of the EAC, Instead, Mukula, the former Soroti Municipality MP and owner of light passenger aircraft businesses, said that instead the countries should be looking and deeper aviation integration like creating a regional airline instead of disintegrating further.
Mukula advised the government to push the East African Legislative Assembly, EALA, to ensure proper facilitation of the regional institution, and also implement the regional centres of excellence as provided for. The academy, according to him, through a civil aviation academy also trains military pilots and is therefore more important to Uganda.
George Stephen Odongo, Uganda’s representative to EALA says the government and the academy still have ways of ensuring that their funding complaints are met.
For now, he says the regional parliament has not received any petition to the effect that they need funding from the EAC.
The Soroti academy was founded in September 1971 under the Directorate of Civil Aviation of the EAC. The government of Uganda, EAC, the United Nations Development Programme, and the International Civil Aviation Organization were the major contributors.
When the first EAC collapsed in 1977, the Ugandan government took over the management and maintenance of the school. In 2012, the government began the process of returning the school to the EAC in 2014, the EAC Council of Ministers agreed to take it back, followed by the agreement between the presidents of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to reinstate it as one of the centres of excellence in the community.
Cabinet has been toying with the idea of retaking the management since 2019 to the failure of partner states to remit operational and development funds to the school. But Eng. Ogweng also suggested that the School be turned into a higher institute of leaning under the University council and accredited by the National Council for Higher Education. He says this would allow them expand its relevance and attract more students.
Capt Mukula, also NRM Vice Chairman East, welcomes the proposal saying it is high time the country civil aviation training evolved from the system that was drawn decades ago.
According to him, it is not prudent for aviation to stay separate from the rest of the education system, without a relation to the mainstream syllabus.
He explains that some countries have long moved on and their aviation education systems offer academic equivalents in the mainstream systems.
