Naggalama alumni inspire candidates ahead of UNEB exams

_________________

MUKONO - Senior Four and Senior Six candidates have been asked to remain disciplined, focused, resilient and devoted in their books as the dates for sitting for their final Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) exams draw closer. 

According to the UNEB timetable, Senior Four candidates will start their exams on October 14, with a briefing session and write their exams on October 17, with a Mathematics paper in the morning. 

Thaddeus Tumwebaze Ayebare, the registrar of the High Court said success and discipline move concurrently saying that whether one is in the best school when indisciplined, they will not be able to succeed. 

Ayebare made the remarks while addressing students of St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School Naggalama in, Nakifuma-Naggalama Town Council, Mukono District on Saturday during the annual St Joseph Naggalama Old Students Association (NOSA) professionals’ expo. 

Professionals who are old students from different categories turned up speaking to the current students about how they made it to where they are. The professions that turned up included medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, journalists, accountants, bankers, the religious, among others.   

Ayebare who is also an old student said that the students got a chance to listen to different successful people from several professions, something which helps them to choose a path to follow when they still have time to do what is required. 

“Our only purpose is to inspire these young ones, but the key principle at least each professional has been highlighting is discipline and hard work. This is a rare opportunity these students are getting, because we did not have this chance and many other students out there are also not as lucky as these ones. They must therefore adhere to the advice,” he urged. 

Among the speakers was Mary Mbolanyi, a technical officer in charge of communication, navigation and surveillance at the Civil Aviation Authority who is among the technical staff handling the aeroplanes’ landing and flying at Entebbe International Airport. 

Mbolanyi, a born of Naggalama said that she comes from a very humble family of peasants who almost failed to raise her school fees to complete her studies at St. Joseph and that if it was not one of her teachers who helped her to foot part of the fees following the fact that she was so bright and disciplined, she would be telling a different story. 

She said that even when fellow residents mocked her mother, the late Mary Mbatudde for taking her children to Catholic-founded schools, yet she was a Muslim even staying near Naggalama Mosque, she did not give up because she knew that what they wanted was far beyond religion. 

“I knew and my mother always told us together with my sister that it was only education to liberate us from poverty. Indeed, we studied and are no longer regarded as peasants. I have travelled to many countries which no member of my family has gone to. For your information, I was the first member of the family to board a plane!” she revealed, adding that it was the education that liberated her and the family from poverty. 

She asked the students to desist from the habit of hating science subjects saying that Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics which some people painted hard can be easily passed if one gets determined and works hard on top of being disciplined. 

Dr Maurine Namugaya, who was the best student in the whole country in 2018 with the combination BCM/Sub Math said that given the fact that they have the same teachers and other resources as theirs, the current students should be sure that they can as well make it. 

The NOSA professionals’ expo was attended by all the students from Senior One to Senior Six.

Dr Ezra Nunda, the deputy managing director of Mengo Hospital asked the students to be motivated and set their goals right so that even when they fail at a time, they should not lose focus. 

The school headteacher, Agnes Nsubuga, said the old students have for years acted as role models for the current students by telling their own experiences through school and at workplaces. 

Nsubuga said the students were advised to set goals, focus on achieving them, and be smart, resilient and persistent in achieving their goals. 

Patrick Ssemanda, the NOSA president, asked the students to utilize the opportunity they have at school profitably when they still have people who go after them asking them to read, be disciplined and smart saying when they get out, that there will be no more.