A WORD FROM THE HEADMASTER

PEREGRINE KIBUUKA,

B.A, DIP. EDUC. M.Ed.

"THE CHILD IS THE FATHER OF THE MAN"

No one can be truly an educationist without implicitly believing in Wordsworth's epigrammatic observation above. It is this faith in educating the youth as the future leaders in society that led the Mill Hill Missionaries to Found Namilyango College in 1902. With no professional teaching skills, they ventured out as pioneers in Education to found the first Secondary School in Uganda. Bishop Hanlon made it clear that except for class hours, the students should be left to themselves to manage their own affairs.

In effect, Bishop Hanlon was advocating what scholars later on crystallized as the six life skills which consist of; decision making, problem solving, communication, critical thinking, self assessment and coping strategies. Namilyango Old Boys, to mention but a few have emulated this ethos. Such are Cuthbert Obwangor, Matthias Ngobi, the late Kayira and many others. The above decided not to be unreflective followers of systems when such a course of action could have guaranteed them comfort. Obwangor, as leader of Government Business, chose to disagree with Obote in 1967, Ngobi got arrested and Kayira chose the bush when he could have been assured of comfort in the prisons service as a scholarly criminologist. This ethos of a liberal education continues to be the order of the day at Namilyango College. The College's students catchment area continues to be the four regions of Uganda as it was from its very inception. And the College has produced men of substance in the fields of politics, academics, professions and sports. To date the College is proud to count the Attorney General of Uganda, Hon. Bart Katureebe, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Hon. L. Kezimbira Miyingo, the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, Professor J.P. Ssebuwufu, Chris Kasami, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, among its Old Boys. The College has produced the former Governors of the Bank of Uganda in the person of Leo Kibirango, Onegi Obel and a former Head of the Civil Service, Mr. Martin Orech, a former Prime Minister - Hon. Cosmas Adyebo and a Major General (rtd) in the person of Francis Nyangweso. One could go on ad infinitum.

Faithful to its ethos of producing a responsible citizen, Namilyango College has found it fit to equip the future leaders of the 21st Century with Computer literacy, a skill that is increasingly becoming a "sine qua non" for future, if not already present employment. It is in this light that the College's authorities chose to mark the 95 years of the College’s founding by opening the Computer Laboratory, thus launching the school into the Millenium. The Computer Laboratory is fittingly named after the late Rev. Fr. Bernard Anthony Kuipers, M.H.M, that Mill Hill Missionary priest who came to Uganda in 1944 and devoted all his life to the education of the youth of Uganda right up to 1991. Fr. Kuipers served at Namilyango College first as teacher, then Deputy Headmaster and finally as Headmaster of the College. He could be termed as the Founder of Science Teaching at Namilyango College. It is under his leadership that the school expanded and become an 'A' Level school. It would be naive on any body's part to imagine even for a minute that the development and successes scored at Namilyango College are the achievements of any one particular individual. It is my fortunate duty to be the coordinator of all the efforts of the various stake holders in the College for the last ten years or so. These are the Catholic Church, the Government, the Parents, Teachers, Students and the nation at large. Their combined efforts in cooperative partnership constitute the basis for the College's development and success. We are ever so grateful to all the above.

When it comes to the Ben Kuipers Computer Laboratory, mention must be made of the following Institutions/Organizations/Officers and individualists.

(i) THE WORLD BANK:

The World Bank started a pilot project of interneting certain Ugandan Schools to similar ones in America. Only three schools were picked. Namilyango College was one of the three, the others being Gayaza High School and Mengo Secondary School. The Bank availed the schools with three new computers, second hand and connected us to the Internet.

(ii) THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION:

The Ministry of Education, and the Hon. Minister himself has given clear signs that they have a soft spot for the Computer Project. We are most grateful for the 5,000,000/= (five million shilling) capital grant for the purchase of computers for the project. We have put the money to good use by buying two computers.

(iii) PEACOCK PAINTS:

The Board, P.T.A. and the school community are profoundly grateful to Peacock Paints and its Managing Director, Mr. Kaddu Kiberu for the generous contribution of 208 litres of assorted paints towards the completion of the Computer Laboratory.

(iv) PAN WORLD INSURANCE COMPANY:

The above company played a very significant role in the early stages of selecting schools for the Pilot Project and liaising with the World Bank. We are ever so grateful.

(v) THE P.T.A:

We are ever most grateful to the Parents of the school. The P.T.A. alone under the able Chairmanship of Professor J.S. Mugerwa, set upon themselves the task of extending the Computer Laboratory to meaningful accommodation. The Computer Laboratory can accommodate 63 computers, which when all are procured, are enough for any class. Apart from the construction of the building, the Parents have so far bought five computers. The students are most grateful.

The list is endless. There is Mr. Kiwanuka Ltd, who constructed the building, Mr. Mike Kalanzi who did the finishing touches. The teachers, Mr. Kanyonza and Miss Nakanwagi in charge of the Computer Project. And the students cooperating in the learning effort.

Last but not least, I must sincerely thank all those companies/institutions who advertised in THE ANCHOR. They offset the cost of its production and the balance of their contributions have been used to buy a computer for the project. We are most grateful.

And finally, mention must be made of the school workforce, the Teaching Staff, the auxillary staff and the Group Employees who daily continue to facilitate the students towards their learning effort. To all I say. Thank you All the above efforts would come to naught,

NISI DOMINUS

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MESSAGE FROM A FORMER HEADMASTER

ALFRED MUGODA

B.Sc; Dip. Educ (MUK)

Headmaster, Namilyango College

Sept, 1973 - August, 1986.

I am happy to have been requested to say something about Namilyango College on the occasion of its 95 years celebration since its founding. I am honoured and privileged to have been associated with Namilyango College, the first secondary school in Uganda having started in 1902, as one of its lucky few headmasters since its founding. My gratitude goes first to Kampala Archdiocese which granted me this honour for thirteen years. I was posted to head Namilyango College by the Ministry of Education with effect from 1st September, 1973. This was on transfer from St. Aloysious College Nyapea in Nebbi District, which at the time was part of West Nile. I had been headmaster in Nyapea for two years. Earlier on, before moving to Nyapea, I had been Ag Headmaster of Jinja College for one year when my headmaster Rev. Fr. John Jones had gone on leave.

My thirteen years of administration at Namilyango College, however, were certainly not a bed of roses. As one would expect, they were years of ups and downs. Without wishing to apportion blame to any body, at the time I took over the administration of the school in 1973, both the academic standard as well as the discipline in every aspect of the school were at their lowest! For example before I took over later in the year 1973, earlier on in April that year during the Easter season , the son of Bishop Betungura was murdered at Seeta at night! This was an S.2 boy at Namilyango College. The teaching staff was not any better either. Some would be brought back on wheelbarrows at night very drunk by students who were equally drunk. At first I was discouraged and even thought of giving up. But being young and still energetic at the age of 34 and a son of a county chief, I was determined to succeed. The task to change things was not all that easy. A number of teachers including the Deputy Headmaster I found in the school as number one on the list, had to be transferred from the school. With students, things came to a head in 1977 when I had to expel as many as 64 students at once for misbehavior. This seemed to be the medicine for the discipline in the school. After that incident discipline as well as the academic performance started improving very rapidly.

As mentioned earlier my thirteen years at Namilyango College had both the good and the bad things. To save on time, I shall highlight only one of each. Starting with a bad one, in 1977 the school was due to celebrate its 75th year of its existence. All preparations to celebrate the occasion in style were already underway, with the intention of inviting the then Head of State as the Guest of Honour. All of a sudden some of the Old Boys of the school who were in the Government at the time warned us against the function. In particular Major General Francis Nyagweso who was a cabinet minister at the time and very close to Amin, disclosed that the Field Marshal, Life President Idi Amin Dada was not in mood to hear of any such celebrations taking place in the country. That was the year when Archbishop Luwum and others were killed in a motor accident. So the golden opportunity of celebrating such an important occasion which comes once in a life time of an institution like Namilyango College, had to pass unnoticed. It was really sad indeed for the institution and in particular for me as the Headmaster of the College at the time.

However, my best moment throughout my career as school administrator, was in 1982 when Namilyango College was for the first time declared the best in the ‘A’ Level results and only one student out of 87 failed to enter Makerere University. During the same year the College was second in the ‘O’ Level results. At the time I felt I was on top of the world considering how I had found the school in 1973. To dramatise the whole matter, the then Minister of Education Prof. Isaac Newton Ojok, himself an Old Boy of Namilyango College paraded me and introduced me to a huge gathering of people in the Makerere University Main Hall as the best Headmaster of the year!

My regret is that I was Headmaster of Namilyango College mainly the reign of Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada. As every body is aware there was no enabling environment of the time for building and construction. The only major construction I recall leaving behind was the second or false roof on the HSC building which we renamed after Kuipers, another long serving former Headmaster of Namilyango College. We also renamed mainly the IDA houses which we used to call A, B, C, D, etc.

All the improvements in the College were not entirely due to my efforts alone. I used to work with very hard working, capable and dedicated Deputy Headmasters. At this juncture I wish to acknowledge the devoted efforts of the following Deputy Headmasters who worked with me during my term of office at Namilyango College. These include, Mr. Zziwa, Mr. Nuwa Mukasa, Mr. Fred Bagyenda, Mr. Jalango, Mr. Vincent Ndyanabangi, Mr. Deo Ssebulimagi and Mr. Obolony, besides the very many teachers whose names I cannot reproduce here. My immediate supervisors in the name of Chairman Board of Governors included ;Msgr. Kamya, Msgr. Kanyi, Bishop Joseph Mukwaya and Bishop Mathias Ssekamannya, all of whom displayed deep understanding and appreciation of the problems of the school. These always supported me 100%. I am greatly indebted to all of them.

Our spiritual leader throughout my term of office was the Right Rev. Fr. John Sweeney. Although a person of independent mind, we always found Fr. Sweeney very valuable in the area of spiritual guidance both to the students as well as the members of the teaching staff. When I joined Namilyango College, there was no PTA. Here I would like to express my gratitude to the Late Robert Ekinu who was the Chairman of the Steering Committee which drafted the constitution of the Namilyango College PTA. When the first elections were held under the approved constitution, Prof. Mugerwa was elected the first Chairman of the PTA. I had the pleasure to work with him for six consecutive years as my Chairman of PTA as a result of being re-elected Chairman every year for those six years until I left in 1986. This goes to prove how gifted a leader Prof. Mugerwa is. He was the most friendly and approachable person. For the two bodies, that is to say the Board and the PTA, there was a person who used to belong to both whose valuable assistance I cannot fail to acknowledge. This was Mr. Pius Kawere. I used to find his advice very useful indeed in the running of the College. Rev. Fr. K Mckee was also always on the Bboard of Governors and he was former teacher of Namilyango College, his advice was always very significant.

As I mentioned earlier I had even thought of giving up at the beginning because of the many problems in the school. However I was most encouraged by a strong letter of support from the President of the Old Boys Association which he sent to me soon after I had taken over the administration of the school. This was one single letter which made me work for success during my thirteen years at Namilyango College. Dear Old Boys I thank you very much for these words of encouragement.

In conclusion, I am very happy that I was replaced by Mr. Peregrine Kibuuka who is very energetic and very hard working. Discipline and the very high academic standards which cost me a lot of effort to bring about, have not only been maintained but improved upon even further.

I am grateful to the Government for creating such an enabling environment for us to make it possible for important celebrations to take place in the country without fear. I wish Mr. Kibuuka every success in the administration of Namilyango College and I wish the entire School success on the occasion of the 95th Anniversary Celebrations.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

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A WORD FROM THE WORLD BANK

Young Kimaro,

World Bank Task Manager

Congratulations on your 95th anniversary and in completing the computer lab. There could be no better strategy than a total commitment to information technology to take Namilyango into the 21st century.

Information technology will arm the students with a competitive edge at home, and reduce their knowledge gap with the rest of the world. I pray more Ugandan schools will join the ranks, swell the number of computer literates, and boost productivity, making Uganda more competitive in the world market.

I look forward to the day when Namilyango reaches out to teachers and students of disadvantaged schools and let the door to the world of information technology also be opened to them. Will that not foster a sense of One Community which will strengthen Ugandas stand vis-a-vis a world that is shrinking into a Village?

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