Groomed to teach since childhood

Charity begins at home and Kuburah Nalubega, a teacher at Masaka Secondary School, Masaka District is proof to this. The Geography and Islam teacher believes that she did not learn teaching at the university but from her parents who were teachers.

She says the career demands time, love and intelligence, which her parents instilled in her from her childhood. In fact, Nalubega scoffs at people who resort to teaching as a last option saying this breeds unprofessional conduct. “My parents were unique teachers, very profession, intelligent, creative who not only adored the profession but loved their learners,” she asserts adding, “These are the traits I emulated from them.”

The last born in a family of 15, her parents started nurturing her teaching career as early as Primary Seven vacation when they asked her to teach the nursery section in their school.
“It was mandatory that we (children) practice teaching during our Primary Seven, Senior Four and Senior Six vacations,” the mother of five shares.

Background
Nalubega was born in Kayunga village, Kalungu District on January 5, 1982 to Hajji Modde Bukenya and Hajjati Mariamu Nabbuto. She started school at Kayunga Parent’s Primary School which was a family project started by her mother.

After Primary Three, she moved to Nambi Umea Primary School in Luwero District and completed Primary Seven in 1994. She later joined Wakataayi Muslim Secondary School in Wakiso District for O-Level before joining Masaka Secondary School for A-Level.

The hurdle
Despite getting informal teacher training, her dream was to become a doctor. That is why she resisted the idea of her parents sending her to Kabukunge Primary Teachers College after O-Level.

“My parents later allowed me to join Masaka Secondary School on condition that I earned a government sponsorship for university education or join Kabukunge PTC,” she recounts.

Nalubega was then given Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics but later changed to an arts combination (History, Economics, Geography and Islam) because she had joined in second term and her teachers felt she would not manage.

As fate had it, Nalubega got a government sponsorship at Makerere University to study a Bachelors of Arts in Education, with Geography and Religious Studies as her teaching subjects.

In 2001 she joined Makerere University, after spending her vacation teaching, as was the norm at their home. “My mother never stopped telling me how she wanted me to be a teacher. This made me feel like joining the profession would be an honour to her,” Nalubega says.

While at Makerere, she went to Masaka Secondary School in 2004 for teaching practice and because of the early training she had received, she performed well and the school administration retained her.

The 13 years she has taught at the school have made her appreciate the career which her parents groomed her into. This is after seeing the number of students she has groomed.

Her tricks
Nalubega says her strength lies in loving her students because this is one of the causes of failure. “Teachers should appreciate their profession and allow interaction with their students and look at their work as a service than a job,” she says adding that teaching rewards in different ways.

“We do not wait in queues because we meet our students in hospitals courts and most public offices which makes it easy for us to access services,” she proudly says.

However, Nalubega says the recent move to prioritise science subjects in schools has resulted into limited number of Arts students at A-Level. This, she adds, has not only decreased the number but it also resulted into lack of respect for Arts teachers.

The staunch Muslim faithful, recommends that students get more counselling because Arts subjects are equally important saying some force themselves on science subjects even when they do not have the potential causing them to fail the final exams.

“By nature some people are gifted in Arts and others in Sciences,” Nalubega says.

Nalubega’s brief biography
Nalubega was born in Kayunga village, Kalungu District on January 5, 1982 to Hajji Modde Bukenya and Hajjati Mariamu Nabbuto.

She started school at Kayunga Parent’s Primary School which was a family project started by her mother. After Primary Three she moved to Nambi Umea Primary School in Luwero District and completed her Primary Seven in 1994.

She later joined Wakataayi Muslim Secondary School in Wakiso District for her O-Level before joining Masaka Secondary School for A-Level.

She graduated with a Bachelors of Arts with Education from Makerere University and has been teaching at Masaka Secondary School for 13 years.

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