Kiggundu's magic touch draws parents to her school

BY JOEL OGWANG  

At 11:00am, Fiona Mirembe Kiggundu emerges out of her office, clutching a book titled The Napping House. Just before she calls them on, a group of youngsters in yellow and red T-shirts with blue shots jostle to sit on two mats under a tree shade.  “It is story-telling time,” they yell excitedly.

“Okay, let us keep quiet and listen to the story,” says Kiggundu, the director of Child Time Pre and Day Care School on Ntinda- Kiwatule road.  For the next 30 minutes, the concentration levels are high; and it is only the hooting motorists and chirping birds that occasionally interrupt the pupils’ attention.

 It is during this session that Kiggundu manifests her magic touch and this is what makes her a model teacher in Ntinda and Kiwatule. “At a tender age, children are stubborn and difficult to deal with,” says Dr. Brian Asiimwe, the former Ntoroko MP. “Kiggundu creates a perfect learning environment at school. Besides being a model teacher, the school was near my home. It is well-enclosed and Kiggundu is friendly.

From my discussions with her, I was convinced my two children will get a good foundation of education while in her hands.”

While most school directors and owners shun teaching and stay glued to their office seats, Kiggundu defied this, to support the school’s 16 teachers.

“When I do not have children around me, I feel like fish out of water,” she says. Indeed, for her passion, Kiggundu has juggled being a parent, teacher and child-rights advocate for 13 years, nurturing over 400 children.

How it all started
In 1995 when Kiggundu, now 41, first travelled to the US with African Children’s Choir, an orphanage that raises funds through performances abroad, she discovered her passion.  “I realised my passion was working with children, love them and try to fill their parents’ emotional gap,” she says. 

It was this passion that motivated Kiggundu to pursue an associate degree in early childhood education and day-care management at Houston Community College in 1997.  During the day, she volunteered at a day-care school, earning $85 (about sh200,000) per day and $300 (about sh700,000) every week; by taking care of six children as she studied in the evening.

“This helped me in paying tuition and upkeep,” she says. When she returned to Uganda in 1999, she decided to rent a three-bedroom house on Muteesa Road and started a day-care with three children, with each parent paying sh120,000 per term. In 2000, she went house-hunting, getting a residential house for which she pays sh2.5m a month on Kiwatule road.

Today, this is the home of Child Time Pre and Day-care school, boasting 151 pupils. “I was tired of juggling different jobs where I earned more money, but not satisfaction,” says Kiggundu. “I asked myself why I could not start a kindergarten when I had the competence and ability to do so. That is how I started this school.”

While most owners of schools are motivated by profits, often attracting more pupils than the facilities can accommodate, Kiggundu resisted this temptation to keep the population at 151. “We would have liked to have more children, but we want to have enough space and quality services for our pupils,” she says.

It is this, coupled with the school’s wall-fencing, serene environs and teaching regime that attracted Annet Kirabira, a counselling psychologist, to enrol her three sons at the kindergarten. “I know her (Kiggundu) as being passionate about children and this motivated me to take my sons there,” she says. 

“I would drive my first child from Bulange where I lived to Ntinda daily in 2000. His success and good foundation motivated me to take my other children. I have no regrets for taking all my sons to the kindergarten.”

Prospects
Kiggundu has acquired land in Naalya where the school will relocate soon. Backed by demand from parents to enroll more children, she plans to build facilities that will house 300 pupils and increase teachers’ population to 30, up from the current 16. 

“I want to start the first young performing school where pupils learn to act, dance and make presentations so as to nurture their confidence and talents,” says Kiggundu. 

She has since started Project Princess, an NGO, to empower abused girls and equip them with life-skills.  “We take care of over 120 girls, 70 are at Kalinabiri Primary School and 17 in secondary school, while two are joining university soon,”she says. “We make Kitenge bags where people who cannot sponsor the girls directly, can   buy! says Kiggunndu.