Prime
Govt completes construction of seed school despite challenges
Students of Amuca primary school in a class session. The government of Uganda and its partners have set up several schools over the last 2 decades. PHOTO/COURTESY/MoES.
What you need to know:
- Currently, the administration block, laboratories, six classroom blocks and three units of the staff quarters have been completed.
When the late second deputy Prime Minister, Mr Kirunda Kivejinja, commissioned the construction of Kitayunjwa Seed Secondary School in 2019, with a call not to politicise the project, he was spot on.
This was because the Shs1.9b school faced site challenges as it was at first located at St Andrews Secondary School, Naminage but the church set restrictive conditions which eventually led to its relocation to Kitayunjwa Primary School.
This transfer also failed and eventually Mr Julius Dhimukika, the father of the outgoing Kamuli District chairman, Mr Thomas Kategere, donated six acres of land for the school to take off.
“Busoga is mine and I have personal interest in Kitayunjwa which has high profile personalities like Bishop Bamwoze, who was a development pillar.
His passion for education is a legacy everyone should promote and this is what we fought for,” the late Kivejinja said then.
At the start of its construction, one of the administrators, because of a political fallout, allegedly organised students to strike and chase away the founder.
The students also stole Shs1.8m from the school during the strike.
“It was very unfortunate for a beginning school to stage a strike with the aid of one of the administrators and make students wage a war they did not understand,” Mr Paul Wanso, a board member, said.
Currently, the administration block, laboratories, six classroom blocks and three units of the staff quarters have been completed.
The Ministry of Education and Sports has also declared vacant teaching posts for the school, meaning the teachers who have been volunteering are going to have the priority of being regularised on appointment of the board of governors.
During a guided tour of the school on Sunday, Mr Henry Dhikusooka, the vice chairperson of board of governors of the school, said: “This school is going to be the best secondary school. We shall become a centre of distinction for others to come to learn from so don’t give it a stillbirth.”
According to Mr Kategere, the progress of the school construction and readiness of students are an indicator of the thirst for education and justification of his insistence to construct the school at all costs for public good.
Mr Kategere said in the spirit of sustaining Bishop Bamwoze’s legacy and passion for education, local authorities resolved to name it Bishop Bamwoze Memorial Seed Secondary School to honour him. Bishop Bamwoze’s son, Mr Paul Bamwoze, is the inaugural interim board chairperson.
Other Board members include Mr Dhimukika, who donated the land, Mr Sam Wotakyala, the acting head teacher and Mr Wilberforce Kundhuba, the LC3 chairperson Kitayunjwa sub-county.
The school leadership has been marred by controversies which almost ruined the construction of the government-aided school.
To allay any fears, notably of two head teachers claiming leadership of the school, Superintendent of Police Ronnie Waiswa, also a board member, warned fraudsters and conmen at large, who are obtaining money by false pretence, saying a General Inquiry Police file is going to be opened to charge them accordingly.
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