Nuwagaba resumed school at 40
Jul 20, 2020
After completing senior four, Nuwagaba gave up on education, a decision he later regretted.
EDUCATION
At the age of 59, some people have given up on their dreams but this was not Dr. Ephraim Lemmy Nuwagaba a senior lecturer at Kyambogo University in the department of Adult and Community Education and a visiting professor at Haramaya University Ethiopia.
"At the age of 59, I got an opportunity and enrolled for a PHD," he says, "I have always said that if I got an opportunity to education, I would do it all the way."
But Nuwagaba's attitude towards education was not always positive. After completing senior four, Nuwagaba gave up on education, a decision he later regretted.
At the age of 40 years, Nuwagaba studied a diploma, at 46 he went for his first degree completing it at the age of 49 and at 50 he was pursing his masters' degree.
In spite of resuming school late, Nuwagaba still benefitted from the fruits of education.
How it began
While his classmates enrolled for Advanced level, Nuwagaba chose to pursue a career. Against his father's wish, he applied for a job at the East African habours and Uganda Post and telecommunications in 1973.
"I got a job in the accounts department in the Uganda Post and Telecommunication," he remembers. "The salary was attractive."
Nuwagaba says his salary was better than that of government workers who were graduates. "I computed," Nuwagaba reveals, "Someone goes for A'level for two years, university three years.
Where will this person find me?" With that kind of rationale, Nuwagaba refused to join Advanced level, a decision he later regretted.
After 1980 elections, there was political turmoil in the nation, which shook Nuwagaba's job: he abandoned it.
"During that time, I had been promoted as a chief cashier," says Nuwagaba. "Unfortunately, after the war, very many people who were in charge of cash were being killed."
Fearing for his life, Nuwagaba quit. For three years, he worked in Bugonji Secondary school as a bursar in the 1980s.
Since there was no job satisfaction, he joined business.
Nuwagaba dealt in poultry and stationeries. The latter was carried out in monthly markets with a group of traders from his Village, Bugonji.
They would move in all the present day Ntugamo, Shema, Buheju and parts of Mbarara district selling, from Monday and return on Saturday after sales.
One evening, during tea, Nuwagaba told his friends about his desire for education.
"I told them that I would one day return to school," he reveals.
An opportunity beckons
Later, an NGO called National Training Adult Association visited Nuwagaba's village. It was promoting adult education, project planning and management.
In the training of monitoring and evaluation, Nuwagaba learnt he was not making money in his poultry business.
When the programme solved Nuwagaba's problem, he took keen interest in it, following them up in three neighbouring villages.
Not only that, Nuwagaba started participating in their discussions and sharing his experiences.
One of the officials said to him: "We are running a certificate programme in Kampala, which can give you this content in all its totality."
After completing the seminar, Nuwagaba received a scholarship for the certificate in the same programme.
He did the exams at Makerere University and passed highly.
Elated with the results, the Germany organization sponsored him at the University of Zambia for a diploma in the same programme.
When he returned at the age of 46, Nuwagaba enrolled for a bachelor's degree in adult and community education at Makerere University.
And at that time, his five children were already in secondary school competing for the family's few resources.
However, in 1994, at the age of 49, he completed. "I learnt that I had got a second upper degree on phone while I buried my father," he says.
After graduation, Nuwagaba's became a member of the executive committee and then a vice-chairperson of the association.
Around 1998, Nuwagaba engaged in politics for three years. He was the LC III in the village.
In 1999, he was elected as programme director of the organization after the incumbent resigned.
For a while Nuwagaba juggled between being a politician and director of the organization.
He quotes Psalms 117: 3, which says God can lift you from nothing to something.
When the association wanted to affiliate his programmes to Kyambogo University, Nuwagaba did the work.
He executed his job so excellently that the administration took him on as a part time lecturer in 2004.
Consequently, the Germans offered him a scholarship for his masters at the University of Kwazulu Natal South Africa.
In 2006, he graduated. On his return, Nuwagaba was appointed as the head of the department.
At the age of 59, Nuwagaba enrolled for his PhD studies. To those who say that he was too old, Nuwagaba says age is just a number.
Advice
"What we do on earth does not matter at what age you do it," he says. "Whether you are 70 or not, learning is a lifelong process. No knowledge is useless."