Uganda’s ancient education centre
One of the oldest classroom blocks at St. Francis Xavier’s Villa Maria Primary School, that requires renovation. Photos BY MARTINS E. SSEKWEYAMA
The visual impression one gets on arrival at St. Francis Xavier’s Villa Maria Primary School, is enough to paint a true picture of an institution that has stood the test of time.
Could it be by any coincidence that the administration has preserved these old structures to clearly portray the school’s true age and reputable significance in the country’s education circles or is it advancing towards extinction?
Its founding body, the Roman Catholic Missionaries, chose a unique motto, extracted from Latin; “Oraet Labora Cum Domino”, loosely translated, “Pray and work with the Lord” that has been preserved to date.
Bro Damentious Taika, the current head teacher, says the school walls were initially of reeds and the roof was grass-thatched until the White fathers conceived the idea of setting up permanent structures.
A pride of the community
In the school compound is an old brick-built cliff in which the church bells hung earlier.
Bro Taika, however, adds that even with its visible old structure, this historical school continues to give pride to the community it serves and the Catholic Church.
Started in the 1895 by the White Fathers, led by the famous Bishop Heinrich Stretcher, St Francis Xavier’s Villa Maria Primary School, stands to be among, if not the first school to begin offering western education in Uganda.
Bro Taika explains that although there are some contradictions about the real date the school was established, due to absence of documents which were lost in times of political insurgencies, there is oral literature by some old students that tell it all.
Msgr Victor Mukasa, the first African priest South of the Sahara (ordained in 1913), in his book, Sixty years in priesthood, clears part of the doubt about this school’s history when he says he attended his first formal classes of education at the institution in 1895, slightly before Mengo Junior School was started in the same year.
However, by then it had not adopted the name St. Francis as they still operated it as a centre for teaching, reading and writing mainly for the youth who came for prayers in the afternoon hours.
The Roman Catholic Literature attests that wherever these White Fathers went, they could immediately set up educational centres to hasten their ambition of converting more people into the Catholic faith, something that necessitated teaching, reading and writing skills for easy dissemination of the Gospel.
Having arrived at Villa Maria in 1892, Bishop Stretcher along with other White Fathers are said to have undertaken the task of setting up the school, which is adjacent to the historical Villa Maria Cathedral, one of the oldest brick structures in the country.
Need for facelift
Known for their rare architectural works, the White Fathers built the school with non-baked clay bricks, out of which they made very thick walls, roofed with the traditional asbestos sheets that have kept the structures standing for all these years.
“But the structures are in dire need of major renovations which we cannot afford now. We are reaching out to the former students and other well-wishers to fund the project,” Brother Taika said during a recent interview.
The school has a population of 210 pupils, but Brother Taika says there is hope the enrollment will go up upon completion of major renovations that still require a lot of funds.
“I think we have every justification that would require the school rehabilitation project to be funded by the central government given its significance,” he adds.
Kalungu West MP and renowned teacher, Joseph Ssewungu, is one of the old students of the school.
He recently revealed that he is working on a petition to ask government to take up major renovations of this historical institution and other old schools across the country.
“As old boys, we are trying on a fundraiser to ensure that we renovate the school and preserve it, but the works require huge sums of money government should provide because of the school’s significance,” Ssewungu says, adding that the school is a source of pride to whoever went through it.
Asked about any other plans by the church to preserve this education heritage, Rev Fr Joseph Kasangaki, the Masaka Diocesan spokesperson, says the school is one of the institutions within the historical Villa Maria Parish, which the Catholic Church looks forward to preserving with their due dignity.
