He turned Gulu High around

Odongo Onyango is a jolly man, a smile never leaves his face as he speaks to you.
Donning a blue kitenge shirt, Onyango at 72 years of age, still looks strong enough to work but surprisingly, he tells me he has turned down many job offers after his retirement in 2002 to give chance to the young generation.
Onyango is among the outstanding head teachers in the region who saved a once powerful academic power house from collapse. The retired head teacher’s legacy as the best Geography teacher at Gulu High School still lives on to date. Onyango’s 16-year triumph in administration at Gulu High School was no easy feat considering the state in which he found the school, but team work and good decision making saw him turn around the school into one of the best in the region.

Rude welcome
“My first visit to the school to take on the administration in 1986 was a nightmare. I wondered whether it was a market or a school,” he reminisces.
“There was no difference between lunch break and class hours since students were always loitering in the school compound,” he adds.
Onyango says strikes were a common happening at the school. Teachers taught at their own will. All these made him contemplate declining the position, prompting him to write a resignation letter to the chief administration officer (CAO). But the CAO convinced him to try out for a year.
Onyango devised a formula for turning around the school based on three principles - team work, firm decision making, and regular discussions with students, teachers and support staff.
He says although the school board was not comfortable with some of the decisions he came out with, he often stood by his word, which brought in a lot of tremendous changes.
“Every week, we would gather with the students and the teachers to discuss the gaps in the administration and teaching and before the end of Term One, normalcy had returned to the school,” Onyango says, adding that the teachers and the students started putting in efforts to study. This greatly improved the academic ratings of the school, which had spent several years without a First Grade.
“In my first year of leadership, the school managed to attain six First Grades in the O-Level examinations and by the time of my retirement in 2002, we got 50 first grades,” Onyango boasts.

His teaching journey

Onyango’s teaching journey started at Kitgum High School where he taught Mathematics and Geography after completing a diploma course in Education from Kyambogo National Teachers College in 1968. He taught here for three years and joined Makerere University for a Bachelor’s Degree in Science.
In 1975, he went back to Kitgum High School where he taught only Geography at both O and A levels. He was later appointed acting head teacher for a year at YY Okot Memorial Girls Wing and Kitgum High School Boys Wing in 1980.
In 1981, he was transferred to Sir Samuel Baker School in Gulu as a deputy head teacher for one year before being posted back to Kitgum High School as head teacher from 1982- 1984. In 1984, he was posted to Pabbo Secondary School but after two years of excellent performance, he was transferred back to Gulu High School.

About Gulu High School

Start. The school was built in 1964 by the missionaries of Church Missionary Society after they had established the Diocese of Northern Uganda in 1961.
Type. It is an Anglican faith-based school under the Church of Uganda. The school also provides education to the visually impaired students at both O-Level and A-Level.