Africa-Press – Uganda. Old students of Manjasi High School, a traditional secondary school in Tororo District in Bukedi Sub-region, are struggling to restore the institution’s past glory.
The school used to be an academic giant between the 1970s and 1990s with a capacity of more than 3,000 students. It currently has 567 learners, up from 157 learners recorded three years ago.
For several years, the school had not had a student scoring first division in the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) examinations for both the Uganda Certificate of Education.
Many old students, who turned up for the meeting on June 17, wept after looking at the dilapidated school.
The association chairperson, Dr Apollo Epuwat, said they should work together to contribute to increasing the number of students enrolled at the school and also renovations.
“As an old student, make it a point that you even enroll your child or your dependant in this school before you can go and convince your friend or your neighbor,” he said.
Mr Patrick Bulumbya, an old boy of the school and an aero engineer, emphasised reviving a wood and metal workshop that has been abandoned.
“I urge the administration to work with the old students to revive the workshop section because some of us are engineers because of that workshop. So abandoning it would deny the young a lot of opportunities,” he said.
He said the workshop would help to reinforce the abridged curriculum.
The school’s head teacher, Mr David Sidialo Wanyama, hailed the efforts of the old students in mobilising resources to revamp the school.
“I ask the old students to keep visiting the school to help mentor the students to refrain from strikes as they focus towards the general structural rehabilitation,” he said.
The drastic drop in enrollment forced the then school administrators and board of governors to make it a mixed school and later opened the school to day scholars.
In 2020, Mr Sidialo, an old boy of the school, was posted as head teacher, and he set up a committee to establish why the enrollment had dropped.
“Some of the issues that were raised included violent strikes, poor academic performance, and absenteeism of teachers and we tried to find solutions,” Mr Sidialo said.
He said their efforts started bearing fruit because, by the end of 2022, the student population rose to 350 from 157 in 2021, 410 in 2022, and to 567 currently.
“The enrollment would be higher had it not been for the two-year lockdown imposed on schools to manage the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Mr Sidialo said they have introduced compulsory preps and remedial classes on weekends and public holidays to improve academic performance.
In a bid to motivate staff, we have introduced allowances for teachers who conduct lessons beyond normal working hours or over weekends,” Mr Sidialo, said.
He also said the school registered five first divisions in the 2022 Uganda Certificate of Education exam while 18 students obtained three principal passes at the 2022 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education exams.
Ms Martha Anyokorit, the head teacher of Lincoln High School in Kayunga District and a former student, said she is ready to offer support to revive Majansi High School.
“As a pioneer female old student of this school its has always been haunting me on what I can plough back to my former school. ..but as old students, we shall manage and I propose that fencing of the school should be done urgently for the safety of learners and teachers” she said.
Lord Dolar Popat, the United Kingdom Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo; Mr Stephen Ojambo, a commissioner of secondary education at the Ministry of Education and Sports; and Mr Patrick Bulumbya, the board chairperson of Soroti Flying School, are also former students.
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
