On Monday June 26, 2023, the police was called to stop a students’ strike at St. Paul Mbulamuti Senior Secondary School, in Kamuli district.
The unruly students, according to authories, destroyed school property and vandalised classrooms and the headteacher’s office, demanding for the immediate transfer of Jessica Namaganda.
According to authorities and the community surrounding the school, “the students have genuine points although they used a wrong approach”.
It is alleged that when Namaganda was posted to head the school where she replaced Busoga’s celebrated educationist, Leuben Lufafa, she laid off some professional teachers on PTA vote and replaced them with others of her choice.
It is alleged that the teachers Namaganda recruited are inexperienced and others unprofessional.
“They are S.4 and S.6 dropouts. The best among them is still pursuing his education at campus,” one student alleged.
It has been established that Namaganda laid off the teachers recruited by her predecessor because of fear that they would be used against her administration.
“She thought the former headteacher could use the teachers to rebel against her. But the boys she brought cannot really handle,” one district official who attended a Monday June 26, 2023 crisis meeting told the Eye Media.
The girl students informed authorities from Kamuli that the the ‘boys’ recruited by Namaganda as teachers turn to them for love.
“They coerce us into love affairs yet we came for studies,” one girl reportedly said.
An official who attended the crisis meeting told us that it was also discovered that the quack teachers are given more priority than the professionals deployed there by government.
“Last weekend, one of her boys (a newly recruited young looking and unprofessional teacher) ordered a senior teacher – deployed by government to leave class that he had orders from the headteacher. This act demoralized the teachers and sparked anger among students. This could be the ignition point of the strike,” the official told us.
The Headteacher is also accused of keeping in place a Board of Governors and PTA executive whose term in office expired, for fear that the new committees will unmask her poor administration.
Legally, resolutions of a BoG whose tenure expired are not binding and a meeting of such a Board is as useful as not meeting.
Students also told the officials that Namaganda charges them a boarding fee of Shs 410,000 and an unspecified amount for beds. The students say the USE school previously charged only 250,000 for the boarding section. The boarding students use classroms as dormitories.
It was discovered that the tyres and other material used in the strike were being provided to the students by the community who also accuse Namaganda of ‘killing’ their school.
It is alleaged the headteacher has a bitter relationship with the community.
Parents say the school enrollment has dropped by a half from what the former headteacher left when he was retiring.
It has been established that Namaganda has been summoned by authorities in Kamuli for at least 5 times on issues concerning about her bad relationship with the community, poor administration and mismanagement of school affairs to no improvement.
“We have tried helping her but she does not change. Really we have tried,” one official commented Tuesday morning.
Contacted for a comment, Rose Birungi the Kamuli Resident District Commissioner who swiftly went to the school to resolve the impluse blamed the headteacher for indiscipline.
“She lied even to me that she was coming for the meeting. We sat and waited for four hours without seeing her yet she said she was in Jinja. I later left the school without seeing her,” said the RDC who chaired the Monday crisis meeting.
Jinja to Kamuli is a 40 minutes drive.
Namaganda speaks out
Namaganda blames the fracas and confusion at her school on ‘some man’ who never wanted her there.
She says the man has since her takeover been inciting the teachers and students plus community members to gang up against her.
“There is a lot of politics going on. He never wanted me to take over. The entire community, students and teachers are being incited against me,” she said.
