Spurring Namagunga’s name onwards

Sister Regina Nabawanuka says she is a disciplinarian, a personality her students have come to love.
Photos b Kelvin Atuhaire

What you need to know:

  • Sr Regina Nabawanuka is the head teacher of Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga.
  • The nun who belongs to the congregation of the Little Sisters of St. Francis was appointed head teacher in November 2018 to steer ahead the school that is celebrating 77 years of existence.

The soft-spoken and friendly Sr Regina Nabawanuka,51, has been at the helm of the 77-year-old Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga since last year. The Little Sisters of St. Francis’ nun speaks delightfully about her teaching journey which started in 1998.
“I am the fifth in a family of nine. Since Primary Three, I have always been taken care of by the Little Sisters. They took me up because I was in a dysfunctional family where my mother had to take care of the nine of us and yet she was just a house wife. She was working with them digging and washing their clothes at the time,” she reminisces.

Nabawanuka’s love for teaching cannot be hidden as seen in the way she talks about her career.

“I love teaching and working with the youth, especially girls. There are people who still think that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, but I enjoy seeing girls prosper. I know that the world would change if more women went to school,” she states.

Silver lining
Nabawanuka attended Madera Girl’s Primary School, Soroti, from where she joined St. Mary’s College, Aboke, for her O-Level from 1983-86.

“When I was in Senior Three, I looked back at my life and saw how the Little Sisters had been so good to me and felt a strong desire to join them. At the back of my mind, I thought if I became a nun, I would also be able to help other people,” she recounts.

Basing on this conviction, after Senior Four, Nabawanuka declined her admission to Namagunga which was her first choice school and instead joined the Convent at 17 years of age. “After training for four years in Pallisa Convent and passing out as a nun, I was posted to Soroti Convent for one year. The following year, I went back to the Convent and worked as a matron in a school for two years. It is from there that I joined Namagunga for A-Level in 1993,” she narrates.

But after years of not being in school, it was not going to be easy for her. “In First Term, I did not get any point. When I went back to the Convent, I told the Sister who was in charge of education that I was wasting money and they should let me do something else. But she told me she believed I could make it,” Nabawanuka recounts.

Birth of ambition
It was this statement that changed her attitude. On returning to school, she read and scored 15 points in the final examinations getting her a government sponsorship at Makerere University for a Bachelor’s in Education from 1995 to 1998.
The year she graduated, she started teaching at Stella Maris College, Nsuube, for two years before being appointed head teacher for the same school.

In 2000, she jokingly applied for a master’s scholarship with Kulika Charitable Trust after reading an advert in the newspaper. Fortunately for her, she was invited for interviews. “But her superiors instead suggested she gives the scholarship to a senior sister who had completed their undergraduate degree earlier. I told Kulika and we were both given the scholarships,” Nabawanuka explains.

And so between 2002 and 2004, she did her Master’s in Education Administration and Planning at Makerere University. “I was sent to one of our small schools in Bugiri to teach. Despite the school’s population of 69 students, and a master’s degree in my hand, I was okay with it. After that I was appointed deputy head teacher at Holy Cross Lake View Senior Secondary School in Jinja. While there, I took a break from teaching because I was asked to run projects from 2009 to 2013,” she recounts.

However, at the end of 2013, due to the passion she has for teaching, she requested her superiors to allow her go back to class which they accepted. She was assigned to St Joseph’s Secondary School, Nsambya, where she taught History and Christian Religious Education from 2014 to 2018 until she was posted at Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga in February 2018.

The disciplinarian
When asked how she would describe herself and her career, Nabawanuka says she is a disciplinarian. “The girls always refer to me as ‘tough love’. I love them, but I do not spoil them so I always want them to know why I am punishing them. I always say there is a difference between a mother and a housemaid and to me, all teachers should be mothers. That is how I regard my career in which I have touched many lives something I thank God for,” she says with pride. Honesty and integrity are also values Sr Nabawanuka holds dear. “The girls know it. If you have done something wrong and you admit it, you disarm me.”

Challenges
Leading one of Uganda’s oldest and well-known schools cannot be an easy job and Sr Nabawanuka agrees. “I was scared when I was appointed here,” she says. However, a few months down this road and it not as scary.
“I feel very welcome. There is not a day when I have felt that people are not comfortable with me. The teachers just took me up, and we have moved along very well. Many parents have been very supportive too,” she says.

And although, the school faces a challenge of space due to growing enrolment, Sr Nabawanuka is happy to say, they are celebrating 77 years of existence. The school recognises Old Girls who have been key in the occasion as well as students who scored 20 points at Senior Six last year. The board offered the four Shs1m each as pocket money and certificates. As for the Senior Four who got Aggregate 8, the board offered then full bursary for A-Level although only two returned to the school for A-Level.