Decades of being college principal

Dr Beatrice Byakutaga has been a principal for 32 years. Photo By ALEX ASAGALA

What you need to know:

  • While growing up, she dismissed thoughts of being a teacher as childish jokes but that was to change while at Kyambogo National Teachers College when Beatrice Byakutaga developed love for teaching and has for more than three decades made tremendous contribution to the education sector.

Despite her desire to become a medical doctor, Beatrice Byakutaga’s first experience in a lecture room as an education student wooed her into the teaching profession. Today, she is one of the longest serving principals of Primary Teacher Training Colleges having been at the helm of two of the country’s PTCs for more than 30 years.
“Until my first Fine Art lecture at Kyambogo University then National Teachers College (NTC), I did not know how interesting teaching was! I had always hoped I would become a doctor and that is what my father wanted too but fate destined me into teaching a career I now appreciate so much,” Byakutaga, 58, states.

Genesis of career
After her diploma at Kyambogo, she taught Fine Art at Kibuli Secondary School for three years before joining Makerere University for a degree course in the same field.
“Teaching was interesting but when chance for me to go back to school availed itself, I embraced it. I now had to juggle between school, my job and a new marriage at that time,” said Byakutaga.
Reminiscing about her primary school teachers, one of whom she recalls only by one name, Perpetua, Byakutaga says she said she would become a teacher at one point in her life. However, she thought this was a childhood joke that she never took seriously while growing up. “That teacher was always punctual, always smart in her dresses. I imagined being like her. However, that thought fizzled out of my mind when I reached secondary school,” she says.
Because of her enthusiasm, Byakutaga enrolled for a Master in Education degree at Makerere which she completed in 1994 and started lecturing at Kyambongo National Teachers College. She spent a year as a lecturer before she was appointed principal of Nakaseke core Primary Teachers College (PTC) as the first principal of the institution.
“This was a defining moment for my career. I was sent to a college that did not have any structures. I had to start from zero. I was working amid senior men as the only female principal. I thought I would not manage but I believe in the saying, ‘If others can, then why not me?’ I became brave and started working amid all the challenges,” Byakutaga recounts.
And in a very short time, she had embarked on constructing the first structures of the college. For 18 years she was at the helm of the college until she was transferred to Shimoni Core PTC in 2003.

New challenge
“When I joined Shimoni, I knew I had another challenge ahead of me. I came prepared because by 36 years, I had stopped giving birth and only had to concentrate on my job,” she says. In addition to her duties as principal, Byakutaga took on another challenge. She enrolled for a PHD in Education Management Planning and Administration at Makerere University.
“Sometimes I felt I was biting more than I could chew. Despite the many times I stopped and resumed, I graduated this year. I am happy to have taken on that challenge and

Brief bio
Dr Byakutaga went to Nabisunsa Girls School before for her O-Level after which she went to Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga for her A-Level in 1979. Because she did not perform so well in her Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Fine Art, her aunt advised her to go for a course in Diploma in Education at Kyambogo National Teacher’s College where she majored in Fine Art. Dr Byakutaga is married to Stephen Mwesigwa Byakutaga and together they have five children.