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Ugandan schools shine at EAC MDD festival
Students of Kitende Secondary School jubilate after emerging as overall winners of the 2024 East African Community (EAC) Secondary Schools (MDD) that ended at Busoga College Mwiri in Jinja City on August 30, 2024. PHOTO/DENIS EDEMA
Uganda’s representatives at the East African Community (EAC) Secondary Schools’ Music Dance and Drama (MDD) festival have scooped all the medals.
The five-day competition ended on August 30 at Busoga College Mwiri in Jinja City under the theme; "Greening schools: Our responsibility towards our environment."
Students from over 70 schools in Uganda and Kenya competed in dance, poems, traditional dance, folk songs, speeches, playing traditional instrumentals and singing Western songs, among others.
Kitende Secondary School, Amus College, Kisubi-Mapeera Secondary School, Bweranyangi Girls Secondary School, Kasenyi Secondary School and Jinja Senior Secondary School were named the best six performing schools respectively.
The Director Directorate of Education Standards in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ms Frances Atima, who represented State Minister for Higher Education, lauded the schools for exhibiting quality performance.
“All schools have exhibited quality pieces during this year’s festival, and I commend every participant for that,” she said at the closing ceremony.
She added that the government of Uganda is committed to supporting MDD because “it contains a lot of messages reaching people” and encouraged all schools to promote it because it is a source of employment and income to people.
Ms Atima further revealed that there are plans to always take the best-performing schools to present their items before the Head of State as a motivation for continued participation in the festival.
The Commissioner for government secondary schools in the Ministry of Education, who doubles as the chairperson of the National Organising Committee for MDD, Ms Julliet Muzoora Atuhaire said the festival was funded by the government through the Ministry of Education and there is a plan to increase the number of participating schools.
“You heard our counterparts from Kenya saying that over 140 people; but we hope to supersede this number. This year, Uganda only hosted 5,000 participants,” Ms Atuhaire said.
The chairperson Kenya National Music Festival, Prof Fredrick Ngara, said in Kenya, MDD is being encouraged in schools to improve on the competencies of the learners. “Our curriculum is competence-based and in our country, MDD is helping us to achieve the goals,” he said.
He noted that such cross-border music festivals are cementing the already good relationship Kenya is enjoying with Uganda, saying more schools are expected to turn up next year for the competition that will be hosted in Nairobi.
