Timothy Bukumunhe : Is Namagunga Primary and Boarding School Simply Milking Parents Dry?

Hard to believe I know, but when I was much younger, I regularly used to go to church. All Saint’s was my chosen church – not because it was easy to get to or that the person at the pulpit gave the most amazing sermons. Then – the late 70s and 80s, it was said that all the ‘well brought’ up girls who supposedly went to the good and prim schools like Gayaza and Namagunga and came from the ‘right and proper families’ prayed at All Saints. Except, when we grew up, we found out that those ‘well brought up girls’ were not at all well brought up, but girls who had been rather risqué in their teens.

All Saints Church, Nakasero

In my five or six years as a regular at All Saints, I had difficulty coming to terms with giving offertory. If that was not bad enough, there was also the need to part with money for the building fund. Of the money that my parents gave me for offertory and building fund, one weekend I would support the building fund. The following week I would give offertory. The third weekend I gave nothing and the last weekend I would split the offertory in half – half went to the building fund and the other half to offertory. And I would pocket the entire building fund.

Since my time at All Saint’s, I have failed to see where all my contributions to the building fund have gone. The pews that they use today, I am sure are the same pews I used sit on as a teen back in the 70s and 80s. To the best of my knowledge, the only development I have seen at All Saints in the past 30 years plus are, a coat of paint because a member of the first family was getting married, a number of wall-mounted speakers, some plastic chairs and a tent just off the main entrance. As for the nursery school, that has hardly changed at all.

Days ago, I chanced upon a letter from one of the great Ugandan traditional schools – Namagunga Primary School, to a parent and congratulating them on their daughter being accepted and for her to report to school on Saturday 4^th February but, only after meeting the school requirements.

Has Namagunga Lost Interest In Education And Is Just A Cash Cow?

The requirements that Parent has to meet before Daughter is admitted are laid bare – almost like a receipt Teller gives you at Shoprite after you have done the weekly shopping – except that at the end of Namagunga’s ‘receipt’ which bears 19 requirements, there is no TIN or VAT number but, an email address – namagungapbs@yahoo.com.

In today’s world, who still has a yahoo e-mail account? Secondly, a school of Namagunga’s status should have by now have an e-mail address that reads: namagungapb@administration.co.ug – if they want to come off as looking professional and whose vision it is to “produce a holistic citizen through quality education.”

Getting back to the list of requirements, it reads something along these lines.

School fees at sh1,165,000 is straightforward enough.
There is sh350,000 for Development Fee. What is that?
50k for Foundation Body Fee. Again, what is that?
100k for Swimming Pool. What does this mean? They want to build a pool or….
And what’s all this nonsense of Class Requirements at 50k? What exactly are those requirements?
There is a ream of paper at 20k, bucket at 20k, club fee at 10k and the list goes on and on and on.

The Circular That Namagunga Sends Parents

With all these ‘demands’ placed on Parent, it very conceivable that this list of requirements before admission will get longer each term. What will they ask for next – kitchen utensils at 150k? Fuel for school bus at 200K? or perhaps 200k for airtime and WhatsApp data for Headmistress?