By Ismael Kasooha

Kyankwanzi

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja wants the intervention of Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) in the education sector to address prevailing challenges, especially inspection.

“When the President deployed the UPDF in agriculture, the outcomes were very positive and I hope if we did the same in education, the concerns of non-inspection and performance will be addressed,” said Nabbanja.

She noted that if the current trend in government schools was not addressed, the future of the education system in Uganda would be at stake.

Nabbanja was on Sunday afternoon addressing Secondary School head teachers and coordinators from the central region of Uganda while opening a 10-day mindset and patriotic ideology workshop at Kyankwanzi National Leadership Institute-NALI.

Nabbanja said the introduction of the army in school operations would facilitate the enhancement of school inspection, attendance to duty and help in the fight of illegal fees levied in schools.

“I’m going to inform the president of this intervention because you people have let us down by not inspecting schools which consequently led to poor performance in government aided schools,” said Nabbanja.

According to Nabbanja, since the government deployed UPDF Army Brigade in construction works, positive results were realized.

“The people of Uganda voted the NRM government into power and we promised them in our manifesto that we would provide universal education so whoever tries to sabotage our plans must be dealt with ruthlessly,” said Nabbanja.

Nabbanja was also opposed to the practice of transferring teachers who fail to perform and those with unprofessional behavior in particular schools to others arguing that the practice bred incompetence.

“If you have failed to perform there is no need of you being transferred to another school because we shall be promoting incompetence and the children will be at risk,” emphasized Nabbanja.

Brig. Gen. Charles Kisembo, the Director of NALI said the workshop was focusing on mindset change and Patriotism.

“Our Mission as NALI is to train a critical mass of knowledgeable and visionary leaders who are the primers of Uganda’s socio-economic transformation,” said Kisembo.

Part of the modules covered included understanding politics, leadership and ideology, thinking as a tool in understanding, patriotism ideology, and laws of social, economic transformation, historical materialism, unlocking Uganda’s Geography, pre-colonial history of Uganda, post-independence history and the NRM struggle, the state of Uganda’s economy, skills at arms and self-defense among others.

A total of 515 head teachers from the central region and patriotism coordinators attended the training.

The head teachers welcomed the initiative of training them in leadership and asked the government to organize such trainings regularly.

Grace Nantajja Ssebanakita, the Headmaster Mengo Secondary school who also doubles as the chairperson of the Central region said that such trainings were long overdue because they helped them understand their country and also a refreshment in their course of serving the country.

“The workshop is very beneficial to the teachers because it focuses on mindset change. There are a lot of things that we are learning that we probably were not thinking it is our role to do and to play in the community. This workshop acts as a point of reference and reflection as we go back to our schools,” said Nantajja.

Rehema Kisitu Lutalo, one of the head teachers thanked President Yoweri Museveni and the First lady for thinking about them for such enriching training as teachers.

 NALI has the vision statement “to be a national and international center of excellence that develops leaders who are knowledgeable, visionary and are fully committed to the economic transformation of the country.”

NALI also has a mission of “Facilitating the development of the qualitative leader who can stimulate and drive Uganda`s rapid economic transformation.”

Ends