You must chat with students to teach them

In 1990, when results of Primary Leaving Examinations were released, David Sigenda’s Primary Seven class had performed exceedingly well. This pleased the school administration and board members except not all of them.
Sigenda recalls that one of the board members had remarked that he was a good teacher except he did not have professional training. This came as a sharp edge trying to rip through Sigenda’s heart because, well, it was the truth. He had started teaching in vacation and had just been only recruited as a Licensed Teacher (LT).
“That statement offended me. When I returned home, I told my father about it and he supported the board member,” Sigenda recalls. The board member was right and so was Sigenda’s father. It should be noted that Sigenda had before this refused to join a primary teachers’ college which was his father’s wish. And because of this, his father had stopped paying fees to further his education.
But those comments were eye-opening. “I conceded and decided to take up a teaching course. In 1990, my father secured a vacancy at Kabukunge Primary Teachers College in Kalungu District.” And that was to mark the beginning of 49-year-old Sigenda’s journey of teaching.
While growing up, the head teacher of Masaka Police Children School, was always a stubborn child. In Primary One he rejected the name Nvirimbi (loosely translated as bad hair) that his father wanted to name him.
He says although his father wanted to groom his children into other professions, later in secondary school, Sigenda met a group of his age mates in National Resistance Army war in the early 1980s and tried to join then at once. Here he either had to follow his father’s wishes or go against them.

Efforts to join war
While at St Mary’s Nkozi in Mpigi District for Senior One in 1985, his friends introduced him to stealing raw cassava from gardens around the school and selling it to NRA soldiers who had a camp near the school. “We started adoring military maneuvers and even started getting basic skills training such as using a gun and self-defense drills,” he recounts.
But just as his love for the army was getting deeper, his father transferred him to Kasaka Secondary School in Gomba District and he lost contact with his military friends bringing his dream to join the army to an end.
His turning point
“On my first day at the school, I found that students had organised a strike and with my earlier drills by soldiers I fully participated; almost as a commander,” he shares.
Now a renowned teacher of English, Sigenda shares that the following day he was called with fellow culprits and suspended for two weeks as well as expelled most of them. He survived because he was new at the school.
“There were gunshots near the school days after the strike. I happened to see those who had been shot dead physically. The incident shocked me and I dropped the idea of ever becoming a soldier,” he says.
But his actual turning point was to come when his teacher counselled him about settling and concentrating on his studies.

The learning teacher
After completing O-Level in 1988, Sigenda who has been a head teacher for 20 years, wanted to join A-Level but his father wanted him to join a primary teachers college. “I was not happy with my father’s decision and decided I would rather stay home before my former teacher Godfrey Wansanso called me to teach at Nabusanke Equatorial Primary School in 1989.”
Although he had no interest in a teaching career by June 1989 the entire school had recognised his abilities and registered him as a Licensed teacher. He started receiving Shs200 as salary.
But after he was castigated by a board member and his father, he enrolled at Kabukunge Primary Teachers College and completed his course in April 1992. That same month, he was called to teach at his former primary school, Nkozi Demonstration School. He taught there for a year before joining Masaka Baptist Primary School where he taught from 1993 to 2000.
The father of nine shares that it was at Masaka Baptist School that most of the values of a teacher were instilled in him. It was also here that he rose from being a classroom teacher to head teacher in 1996. He served up to 2000 before joining government in 2001.
While at Masaka Baptist School he enrolled at Kakoba National Teachers College, Mbarara for Grade V in 1995 and completed in 1998. “In 2000 Masaka District Service Commission advertised looking for teachers. I applied and got my first government appointment. I was posted to Masaka Army Primary School in 2001 and served there till 2006.”
Serving different capacities
In 2007, he was transferred to St Joseph Kiyimbwe in Masaka municipality where he served up to 2008 before joining Nyendo Public School from 2009 to 2011 and later to Kijabwemi C/U from 2011 to 2018.
While at Kijabwemi C/U, he studied a Bachelor’s in Primary Education at Uganda Martyrs University from 2009 and graduated in 2012 before joining Walsh University of Ohio from 2013 for a Master’s in Education Leadership and Management to 2015 when he graduated.
In February 2019, Sigenda was transferred to Masaka Police Children School where he is serving to date. Sigenda prides in having dialogue with pupils and paying attention to their needs as one of the skills which has seen him succeed in his teaching journey. He advises his fellow teachers to take primary pupils seriously and interact more with them. He also calls upon teachers to see themselves as servants.

Brief bio
Sigenda, who has been a head teacher for 20 years, was born in Nkozi village, Mpigi District on January 8, 1970 to Salongo Mesulamu Kato and Nalongo Rosemary Nakanjako. He started school at Nkozi Demonstration School in 1976. After Primary Seven in 1984, he joined St Mary’s Nkozi for O-Level before transferring to Kasaka Secondary School in Gomba District. He completed O-Level from in 1988.