The reality of Gombe SS and its gradual rise

It was no surprise to me when I saw UPDF soldiers manning the school, for Gombe S.S is a big school, a force to reckon with both in Academics and sports.

Inside the school, both new and old buildings with various quadrangles dotted with flowers and gigantic trees welcome you. Among the trees is a tall medium sized mahogany tree which Sir Edward Muteesa planted in 1955 at the opening of the school.

Though it's a holiday time, parents keep coming in to get vacancies for their children, with one of them, Hajjati Mastula Wambalwa coming all the way from Mbale. "It is a very good school especially in sciences. That is why I want my child to study from here," Wambalwa says.  The school shares a boundary with Gombe hospital. 

Background

In 1952, a group of Buganda Muslim chiefs met the then Kabaka of Buganda Sir Edward Muteesa and requested him to set up a school where their daughters who had missed out on Nabisunsa, Kibuli and Budo would be admitted.

Unfortunately, the Kabaka did not have anymore free land in Kampala. It is then that he offered his 47 acres of Land in Butambala as the site on which a new school could be built. In the meeting, it was agreed that the school starts operations in 1953.

However, the Kabaka was exiled in 1953 and the progress of the school stalled. It was not until 1955 when the Kabaka returned from exile that the school opened its gates to students. According to Yasin Kiggundu, an alumnus and currently a history teacher at the school, Gombe S.S started as a girls' boarding junior secondary school in 1955, though after three months, boys started being admitted on special request from residents that their sons also be allowed to access quality education the school offered. However, the boys were admitted on condition that they remained day scholars.

To give the school more mileage, Buganda Kingdom visited the neighbouring kingdoms of Tooro, Bunyoro and Busoga and requested them to send their children to the newly opened school. This helped to attract many students from those kingdoms among whom was princess Bagaya of Tooro Kingdom.

The fall

With the school's strong attachment to Buganda Kingdom, Gombe S.S never survived the 1966 crisis. The then President and Kabaka of Buganda Sir Edward Mutesa II over thrown by Dr. Milton Obote and exiled in the United Kingdom. "The school closed until 1970 when the elders in Butambala agreed to restart the school as a private institution. The group of elders was led by Hajj. Asuman Katambala and Hajj. Layidi Juma. At one time, Hajj. Juma went as far as mortgaging his land to pay the teachers," Kiggundu says.

Unfortunately, the elders failed to run the school and in 1976, the group opted to approach the then President Idi Amin Dada to take it on as a government aided school. "The President was very happy with the idea. He saw it as an opportunity to please the Muslims with a gift of a school," Kiggundu says.

Since Amin was very interested in making the school an Islamic one, he wanted to get a Muslim head teacher but unfortunately, Muslim head teachers were very few at the time. It is then that Amin zeroed on Ali Ssendagire, a chemistry teacher at Kampala High School. "The presidential guards found Ssendagire in class teaching. When they told him that the President was calling him, Ssendagire trembled. Because of the political situation at the time, Ssendagire said farewell to his family and friends for he knew he was not going to come back alive," Kiggundu narrates. 

Amin appointed Ssendagire as the new head teacher of Gombe S.S and ordered him to transform the school into an Islamic school within one year. Ssendagire failed in this assignment especially because he inherited a staff that was 100% Christian.

It was until 1984, when Swaibu Mbaziira Mubiru was appointed as the headmaster that Gombe S.S became a Muslim school. "Mbaziira was a radical man and within one month of his reign, he had replaced most of school sign posts with Islamic ones. He also replaced many of the Christian teachers with Muslim ones," Yahya Katunze, a history teacher at the school says.

Rise

Mbaziira's arrival marked the beginning of the school's rise to stardom. "Mbaziira put a lot of emphasis on academics. In the process, he built a boarding section for boys henceforth allowing boys to also become boarders. Since its inception in 1955, boys had been day scholars. In 1989, Basajja Naku became the head teacher and built more dormitories.

In 1997, Hajj. Ali Mugaga was appointed as the headteacher and he also introduced a number of changes which put the school on the national academic scene. "He greatly improved the academic standards of Gombe S.S, putting lots of emphasis on sciences. He also built more dormitories for both sexes, built more classrooms, a sickbay, a well equipped computer lab and in 1998, Mugaga closed the day section henceforth making Gombe S.S an all boarding school." Wasoko Ramathan, the school warden says.

Mugaga also put a lot of emphasis on discipline and sports. The school has since become a sports giant in athletics, netball, handball and football winning trophies at district, regional, national and international level. Mugaga is now the head teacher of Kibuli S.S.

The current head teacher Ibrahim Lule who joined the school in 2012 has also done well, by introducing water borne toilets, improving on the academic standards as well as sports. He is currently building a multibillion girl's dormitory complex.  

Lule claims that currently, Gombe S.S is the most populated government aided mixed boarding school in the country with a population of 2,084 students. The school has 113 teachers with only 53 of these on the government pay roll. It also has 12 support staff and 36 non-teaching staff.

The school is equipped with over six state of the art science laboratories, two computer labs and a well stocked library.

Over the years, the school has gone on to become an academic giant in the country.

"We produce some of the best science students in the country and we have stormed professional courses more than anyone else in the country," the headteacher brags.  The school always takes a great number of slots on science courses, on Government admission.

A revamp

Gombe S.S was one of the schools that were chosen as centers of excellence in the country by the government. As a result, the school has benefitted greatly courtesy of the African Development Bank and Government funding. The government recently handed over five facilities to the school. These included two science laboratories, one computer laboratory, classrooms, a magnificent library, a multipurpose main hall and four units of staff houses. The project cost over sh3.3bn.

"The first world facilities given to us will enhance our capacity to learn. The current students and old students as well are already excited about the new facilities. We are moving from glory to glory," Lule says.

Lule says that the school now has, "Enough space for reading, advanced laboratories to galvanize the teaching of sciences and computer laboratories to spring the next danced level of learning."

He also notes that the library, main hall, classrooms and staff houses, "Will surely step up the teachers and students commitment to excellence in studies."

Challenges

The school is facing a challenge of high costs of scholastic materials used at the school since many of them are bought from Kampala. Also the 53% teachers who are not on the payroll have left the school bleeding from the nose. "The Government should bail us out. Getting a good teacher to work in a remote area like Butambala is very expensive, we call for government intervention,"Lule says.

"We also have a challenge of enough staff accommodation since the surrounding area is not well developed," Lule adds. Related to that is the inadequate accommodation for students, however, the school is constructing a multibillion girls complex that they expect to finish at the end of this year.

Socially, the natives, as well as the feeder schools in the neighboring Butambala district, are too poor to the extent that over 95% of the students come from other parts of the country. This has left the natives at a loss in benefitting from their own school. The school charges about sh750,000.

The head teacher however, says they have come up with a number of ways to solve the problem, notably through the bursary scheme offered to Butambala natives.

Prominent old students

·     Princess Elizabeth Bagaya of Toro

·     Prof Badru Katerega, Owner of Kampala University

·     Hajj. Abaasi Kawaase, Former Headteacher of Kibuli SS

·     Sulaiman Kiggundu (RIP), Former Governor Bank of Uganda

·     Al Hajj. Moses Kigongo, Vice Chairperson of the National Resistance Movement

·     Muwanga Kivumbi, MP for Butambala Constituency

·     Elias Kisawuzi, Registrar of the Court of Appeal