Mityana's Mawejje uses music to improve learners' performance

BY PASCAL KWESIGA
They say when you do something you love most, you do not care about the pay or the challenges that it may come with, but you focus on perfecting it.

This is certainly true for Patrick Mawejje, a teacher of music, history and Luganda at Makerere University Mubende Students Association (MUMSA) School in Mityana district.

When I met him at the school, he was preparing his students for an inter-class music contest for Careers Day. As Mawejje sang and danced along with the students to traditional music under the scorching sun, you could see music flowing in his veins. The students enjoyed what he was doing and struggled to do it like him.

One would be forgiven to think he was a music trainer, who had been hired by the school. But Mawejje was not a hired trainer. He is a graduate, who earns a living through teaching music and prides himself in it.

Ivan Ssenjovu, a Senior Six leaver, says Mawejje linked him to a local film producing company.

“He is a talented teacher. He molded us into what we are today.”

Ssenjovu plans to pursue a music dance and drama programme at university just like Mawejje did.

For the 23-year-old Mawejje, the love for music did not start yesterday.

During his high school days, he used to escape from home to attend music concerts in Mityana town. This did not go down well with his mother, Tereza Nalukwago, who wanted her son to concentrate on academics.

Ironically, Mawejje performed his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations well and joined the university on government sponsorship.

His mother ensured that he did not choose Music Dance and Drama (MDD) on the Public Universities Joint Admission Board forms because she did not want him to follow that career path.Mawejje explains that when he completed university with a degree in education, he had already started MUMSA School along with Joseph Kawuki and Ibrahim Ssentongo.

He briefly taught at the school before he went back to Makerere University for a master’s degree in MDD in 2003.

“After I had done the course my mother wanted me to do, I pursued my desire,” he adds.

Mawejje, who went to Kiyinda Primary School, St Jude Secondary School and Mityana Secondary School has since produced six music albums. They are Baffe, Muko weewumbe, Maasomojji, Mulwanyamuli and Maama. He has also written plays such as Idiot, Family Puzzle and Ekifuulanennge.

Mawejje is the firth born in a family of 12 children. His mother was a primary school teacher, while his father, Asanansio Mukwaya-Mukasa, was a brick-layer.

“During my childhood, I used to love my mother’s job. But she disapproved of my love for music. I went against her wish and joined a drama group called Tebifaanana Abifuna,” he says.

Mawejjje says fans used to tip him, while the drama group paid him sh700 whenever he played the xylophone.

“Since then, I started loving music so much,” he adds.

The school head teacher, Joseph Kawuki, says Mawejje played a key role in the school’s excellent performance in last year’s 2012 UACE examinations. “His subjects are the best done each year.”

The school produced the overall best student in he examinations, Florence Nakayiwa, who got 25 points.

Having joined MUMSA with a second grade, Nakayiwa did not expect to be the best in the entire district in the examinations, but Mawejje assured her that she had the potential to pass.

She adds that Mawejje helps to enforce behavioural change and resolve conflicts among students.

Mawejje, who has been the chairman of Kiyinda Catholic Church in Mityana for the past two years, where he used to play a piano, says teaching is not rewarding to those who join the profession as a last resort.

Some of the challenges he faces is his busy schedule and indiscipline among some students.

Despite these challenges, Mawejje says his love for the job keeps him going.