Ms Agnes Ssebayiga, the head teacher of Our Lady of Good Counsel SS Gayaza. Photo | Owen Wagabaza
Next week, the first batch of candidates sitting UNEB under the new curriculum will begin their exams. Touted as a game changer, the new pedagogy emphasises learner-centered education, fostering essential skills and competencies that prepare students for real world challenges.DM bodytext: “It is one of the best innovations to come out of this country. The new Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) enhances student engagement, motivation, and achievement as well as fostering creativity, collaboration and critical thinking,” Ms Agnes Namulema Ssebayiga says.
Ssebayiga, the head teacher of Our Lady of Good Counsel SS Gayaza, however adds that the CBC would have performed even better had all the stakeholders been involved from the start.
“We have candidates that are sitting UNEB under new curriculum but as we speak now, we do not know what curriculum they are going to follow in A-level, meaning that we have stepped ahead, but we are still behind,” says Ssebayiga.
“It has also been challenging to us the teachers as we have been learning on work, and people are not sure what is going to come out of their students at the end of the day. Nevertheless, the CBC is destined to turn around the fortunes of this country in the near future and all we need to do right now is to identify areas that require improvement and we improve accordingly,” Ssebayiga adds.
She further calls for parents’ full support if the curriculum is to effectively be delivered and achieve its full potential.
According to Ssebayiga, the curriculum is quite expensive and if the students have to get certain skills, the parents have to part with extra money yet unfortunately, a big chunk of these parents either don’t have or don’t want to part with the extra money.
“We therefore need parents who are fully supportive so that when we ask for these items, parents contribute because it is their children who are going to use them to learn a particular skill,” she says.
Who is Ssebayiga?
Currently the head teacher of Our Lady of Good Counsel SS Gayaza, Ms Ssebayiga’s first posting was at Trinity College Nabingo where she taught for 10 years, serving in different capacities notably class teacher, head of department, careers mistress, in-charge boarding section, farm-incharge, Nabafumbo (head of married couples) among others. After 10 years, Ssebayiga was promoted to deputy headteachership and posted to St Peters SS Nsambya where she served till 2007.
“In 2006, my headteacher retired and I worked as acting headteacher for one year. In my time as acting head teacher, we produced one of the best students in the country in 2006. With support from the board, we also embarked on constructing a Monumental Science Laboratory block which unfortunately I was not able to complete,” she says.
Makerere College School
In 2007, Ssebayiga was appointed a substantive head teacher and rather than be retained at St Peters Nsambya, she was posted to Makerere College School.
“At Makerere College, we improved the school discipline, and did a lot of renovations and repairs. We also worked on the school toilet and set up a fully equipped sick bay. We also attracted funders such as the Trinidad and Tobago Embassy which contributed to renovating the main hall,” Ssebayiga explains.
“I also found when girls were sleeping outside the school in hired hostels. In the school’s strategic plan though, the school had a plan of constructing a girl’s hostel inside. We started on the plan to construct the hostel and at the time I left, the ground floor had been completed,” she says.
It was also around that time that the Ministry of Education brought up the idea of renovating Centers of Excellence and Makerere College School was on the list of the schools that were to be renovated and expanded.
“We had land in Mulawa, Kiira Municipality and my view was that we develop this land and put up a second campus in Mulawa rather than putting up more structures in the already congested Makerere campus. Fortunately, my idea was embraced by the board and I was immediately dispatched to go and share my idea with the Ministry of education.
The ministry bought my idea and we were given a go ahead. Construction was started and completed seven years later, and the new campus in Mulawa became the A-level campus while the old campus at Makerere became the O-level campus.
Makerere College is currently one of the schools running two campuses successfully.
“It gives me immense pride that the idea of setting up a second campus that I birthed is not only working well at Makerere College School but has since been embraced by many other schools around the country. Many schools are now establishing more campuses especially when they have the land,” says Ssebayiga.
Joins our Lady of Good counsel
“I came in and really felt I was home. The school had a very prayerful environment, team spirit, and respect for everybody. I also found a very expectant board in a view that they had brought in somebody they felt would accomplish their targets. I was therefore given quite a number of things by the board to do and we have since tried,” she says.
According to Sr Florence Babirye, the deputy headteacher in charge of administration, Ms Ssebanyiga has done quite a number of construction, notably the Golden Jubilee Monument.
“She has equipped the administrative offices, the amphitheater and has also renovated the classroom blocks, set up a dining shade and the library has been stocked with the necessary literature,” she says.
Sr Babirye adds that Ssebayiga has paved the school, a number of school vehicles have been purchased, the library has been stocked with the necessary literature while at the same time improving the staff welfare. She has also come up with a master plan to guide the school.
Mr Henry Joseph Kagimu, the deputy headteacher in charge of welfare says the headteacher has encouraged staff development, expanded the boys’ dormitory, and has put up a pleasing physical plan.
“She has beatified the school by paving the school and planting more trees and flowers around the school. She has also encouraged staff development, expanded the boys’ dormitory, and the school has since transitioned from pit latrines to water borne toilets and tiled bathrooms,” says Kagimu.
In sports, Ssebayiga is currently working on the state of the art sports field.
“We have not been performing according to our expectations because we have been having challenges with our sports field which was not up to par. We expect it to be complete by the end of this year,” Ms Ssebayiga says.
In academics, Mr Joseph Zizinga, a long serving teacher and dean, lower school says the school’s academic performance has been improving year by year.
“Our best performance was last year, when we hit 85 percent first grades in the UCE UNEB exams. For A-levels, all our students got the principal passes to join higher institutions and do the courses of their dreams. At the time she joined, the school was getting 45 percent first grades.
