Butiki’s new head teacher outlines plans to revive college

In the end, the ministry bowed to the pressure and appointed Semwanga, KICOBA’s choice as the new headteacher.

“The British say it pays to study at Eton, have you of recent and on purpose thanked your parents for having schooled you at Kiira College Butiki, for you are in that seat simply because you are an old student of the school,” I ask Semwanga during an exclusive interview with Monitor.

“No, I haven’t and I may not. The media and the general public misunderstood the OBs. I strongly believe that I was appointed not necessarily because I am an OB but because of what I can offer to the school,” Semwanga shots back.  

“There are hundreds of old students from Butiki who are in the education sector serving the nation as teachers, why were they not picked? I believe the school wanted someone with a certain kind of caliber and experience, and by God’s grace, it was me with such qualities,” the seasoned administrator adds.

My track record speaks for its self
Ssemwanga who until recently served as the Deputy head teacher at Iganga Secondary School started his teaching career at Jinja Secondary school in 1996, where he grew through the ranks to become Director of Studies.

“The school had lots of challenges, but working together with the then head teacher, we came up with a number of innovations to bring it back to order. We for example re-engineered the school from a purely boys school at O-level to a very successful mixed school and the students numbers improved tremendously. We also started getting good grades, and the confidence of the parents in the school was improved,” Ssemwanga explains.

It was however at Iganga SS that his contribution became noticeable. I attracted a very big funding for the school from the Japanese embassy and we were able to set up a state of the art library. 

Then an ordinary teacher, his exploits saw him promoted to director of studies and later deputy head teacher.

At the time, Iganga SS was known as an academic giant nationally, and working together with the head teacher, the team came up with a plan to open up the school and participate/excel in other areas such as sports and co-curricular.

“Within in no time, we were excelling in sports and had become one of the best debating schools in the country,” says Semwanga.

We were working as a team, advising the head teacher where necessary on how we can take the school to the next level. The team further embarked on improving the school’s infrastructure by setting up a modern chapel and state of the art dormitories.

Semwanga was later made the In-charge of marketing the school in eastern Uganda and would move to different primary schools encouraging them to put Iganga SS as their first choice.

“We also heavily promoted our unique selling point which was teaching the visually impaired. We encouraged parents to bring their visually impaired children and every year, we produced the best visually impaired students in the country at both O and A-levels. This put us on the map nationally and internationally and we attracted international organizations such as Visual from Holland among others. Part of my duty was to attract such organizations to donate to the school,” Semwanga says. 

Other organisations such as Sky and Avsi empowered students in agricultural value addition. 

“The students were making jam, bread and may other items which they would sell. Our stall at the Jinja Agricultural show always attracted huge numbers.”

Semwanga says he was also one of the founders of the Iganga SS teachers Sacco which grew into one of the biggest and most organized saccos in the district with well audited books. 

The Sacco has a bakery and it is also into property management.
According to Semwanga, his guiding principal has always been to give his very best to the schools he is posted to, regardless of the position he holds. 

“I don’t need to be a head teacher or deputy to have impact in the school,” Semwanga says.

Whole school approach
On how he intends to turn around the fortunes of Kiira College Butiki and revive the school’s lost glory, Semwanga insists that the school had not declined.

“Outside we are on fire, people say the school has gone down, but inside, we are fine though like any other institution, we have our challenges that we are tackling one by one,” he says.

Nevertheless, he says he will be using the “whole school approach” by bringing everyone on board. 

“I have had meetings with all stakeholders, and it is in these meetings that I have communicated our strategic plan on where we want to be,” says Semwanga. 

He is also prioritising the prompt payment of staff, both teaching and non teaching as a way of improving on their morale. 

Currently no staff is demanding the school any money, we are trying to ensure that they are paid by the 28th day of every month.

He also plans to prioritise sports and co-curricular activities to enable students acquire a holistic education. The school recently reached the finals of the Fufa Traditional Schools Football Competition. 

Ssemwanga is also keen on implementing the strategic plan which includes among others giving the school a facelift. 

“Together with the team, we expect to set up a modern administration block befitting the status of Kiira College Butiki. The OBs are heavily pushing for this and with their support, we are hopeful that construction will begin sooner than later,” says Semwanga.   

Still on infrastructure, he plans to utilise his mobilisation skills to attracting funding to the school. 

“It is shocking that the school has been missing out on several infrastructure projects initiated by government, we missed out on the ADB4 funding for traditional schools, missed out on a World Bank funding project  for schools, but we determined not to miss out on the traditional school’s rehabilitation project that is being fronted  by the government.”

On improving on the discipline in the school, Semwanga says he plans to strengthen the disciplinary committee as well as fix loopholes in the structural management system at the school. 

“The boys are not that bad, we are just fixing a few things and all will be well.”

Mr George Watika, the Director of Studies at the school explains that the school has a challenge of poor payment of school fees by the parents affecting the smooth running of the school. 

“People view the school as a community school and take their time to pay fees, and this affected the implementation of a number of votes including payments of teachers’ salaries and allowances, but in the new administration, this has been prioritized and this has greatly improved on the morale of teachers,” says Watika. 

According to Mr Watika, Semwanga is “very focused and target oriented” and keen on ensuring the revival of the school. He is doing a lot of lobbying so that the boys dormitories are renovated. He is also keen on the growth of co-curriculars in the school especially debates and football. According to another teacher who preferred to remain anonymous, signs already show that Ssemwanga is the right man for the job. 

“Students’ feeding has been improved, teachers are being paid in time, and as such are working with all their energy, and the plans that he has for the school are amazing. The school is moving in the right direction,” the teacher says.