Bitamazire’s candle burns out

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Death has robbed Uganda of Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, a famous educationist and former minister of education and sports.

Bitamazire, 84, who has been a household name in the education sector since the 1970s, was announced dead yesterday at C-Care IHK in Kampala, after a heart failure.

Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education, described Bitamazire’s death as “a sad moment.”

According to Muyingo, Bitamazire has not only been a celebrated personality in the sector, but also one of those who built the education system we now cherish.

“As a sector, we have lost not just a great teacher, but a mother who loved children and the teaching profession,” he said. “During her time as minister, there were several reforms in education and she will forever be remembered for them.”

Muyingo noted that the ministry leadership, led by the First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni, will come out with an official statement to recognise Bitamazire’s contributions to the sector.

MaaMa UPE, USE

Haji Ismail Mulindwa, the retired director for Basic and Secondary Education at the ministry, described Bitamazire as the mother of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) programmes.

Mulindwa.

Mulindwa, who served as assistant commissioner during Bitamazire’s reign, explained that she not only led education reforms, such as the rollout of Universal Primary Education (PLE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE), but also directly participated in formulating guidelines for them.

“We nicknamed her maama UPE and USE because she was the driving force. Except for the First Lady, Mrs Janet Museveni, we have not had an education minister like Namirembe Bitamazire. She understood and interacted directly with ministry staff,” he said.

“When she (Bitamazire) was education minister, she sent me to Kamengo in Mpigi for a fact-finding mission. I was a junior officer, but when I returned, she wrote a letter thanking me for delivering a report. I felt moved because ministers back then would not speak to junior officers directly.”

While Bitamazire’s song might have ended, Mulindwa noted that her melody will forever live in the hearts of many Ugandans for her contributions to the sector.

Mushega.

Amanya Mushega, who is also a former minister of education and chaired the recent Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC), described Bitamazire as “a resource centre.”

“It is sad that we have lost such a huge, resourceful person. Bitamazire became famous when she was appointed as one of the first Ugandan headteachers in the 1970s. I was still in school and she was in the newspapers,” he said.

“Recently, with EPRC, we interviewed her as a commission and she shared a lot of information on what the education sector should look like. May her soul rest in peace.”

Achievements

With the advantage of serving in a field close to her heart, she used her position to promote women’s rights and girls’ education at the grassroots.

Often, her message to parents was “take children to school and don’t leave the girl child at home.”

One of her achievements in the education ministry was the birth of the UPE scheme.

She was re-appointed Minister of Education and Sports in 2005, and this time round, she flagged off USE programme.

Many who knew her were constantly amazed by Bitamazire’s never-ending source of energy.

She took on tasks like a 20-year-old, which explains why she was always voted best minister by New Vision readers on several occasions.

Although she was soft spoken, she was always heard raising her voice on several occasions when addressing errant teachers, parents and politicians who tried to meddle in her education projects. She had no kind words for parents who refused to take their children to school or teachers who neglected their duties and refused to teach in village schools.

In 2019, the Government recognised Bitamazire’s contributions when she was captured as one of the few personalities under the new lower secondary school curriculum.

The new curriculum, which was rolled out in 2020, recognised Bitamzire’s contributions to national development.

These were selected from a number of sectors, including education, health, ethics and integrity, business and entertainment.

Under the history and political education (formerly history) syllabus, 12 notable personalities, including Bitamazire, were included in the Senior Three syllabus under the new curriculum.

The personalities are now part of the topic dubbed; Key Contributors to National building in post-colonial Uganda.

The names which include both President Yoweri Museveni and Dr Milton Obote were selected by a competent team of curriculum experts.

FACT FILE

Born on July 17, 1941, Bitamazire graduated with a diploma in education from Makerere University in 1964.

An ambitious woman, she never married immediately after university; rather, she concentrated on building her career.

Bitamazire later graduated with a bachelor of arts in 1967, a certificate in education and administration in 1971 and a master’s degree in education in 1987.

She eventually got married at 31, had seven children and continued to build her career.

Professionally, she served as director of East African Railways and Harbours from 1971 to 1973, taught at and served as headteacher of Tororo Girls School from 1971 to 1974.

As a teacher, Bitamazire taught girls about their rights as women and gave them practical lessons on how to survive in a patriarchal world.

When she left Tororo Girls, Bitamazire served as the senior education officer at the ministry (1974-1979) before becoming the education minister between 1979 and 1980.

She was then appointed deputy chairperson of the Teaching Service Commission from 1981 to 1996 before bouncing back into active politics as the Minister of State for Primary Education in 1999.

Bitamazire also served as the Mpigi district woman MP from 2001 to 2011. In July 2013, Bitamazire was appointed Chancellor of the Uganda Management Institute (UMI) by President Museveni, a position she held until 2021.