Educationist Emmanuel Arinaitwe. PHOTO/ PEREZ RUMANZI.
Managing to pursue a career in eduaction alongside a political career seems darining. However, Mr Emmanuel Mr Arinaitwe proves otherwise.
Well, he rose to become one of the most celebrated secondary school administrators in Western Uganda until he had to retire in July 2024, as head teacher Kyamate Secondary School in Ntungamo District.
His passion to change school infrastructure earned him a name in the schools he headed but also made him an outstanding leader in the community that at his retirement many praised him for his role in promoting education.
Professionally, he trained as a teacher of Agriculture and Geography and he had to juggle his career with being a district councillor representing Bubaare Sub County in Kashari County to Mbarara district council, before full political retirement to serve as an administrator.
He spent 35 years as a teacher with 21 of those as a head teacher and was deployed to almost failing schools and he left those schools with better physical infrastructure such as classrooms, staff houses, and student numbers growing.
“There are many things we are supposed to do as head teachers or teachers whenever we are employed or deployed to a school. You can focus on those targets and spend your years and leave. It is the heart of a leader that you think you must change something. You can build an extra class room, need more students enrolled and retained, that the staff is motivated and the community trusts the school that you head. No one sends you to build a classroom,” Mr Mr Arinaitwe says.
First deployment
He had his first deployment as a teacher at Kashaka Girl’s School in 1989 after qualifying with diploma from National Teacher’s College, Kakoba where he served to 2003 before being elevated to deputy head teacher. At the time, he had short stints at several schools teaching Agriculture as a subject. Many schools he taught in had challenges of numbers and basic infrastructure.
“As a teacher and student, I realised two great drivers to student numbers that is, good feeding for students and basic infrastructure. Parents will always want a school that does not over bill them and they would wish to have adjustable school fees structure. But the greatest of all, there must be good performance of students and discipline,” Mr Arinaitwe says.
The deputy head teacher
Then, his first management job was at Rutooma Secondary School as deputy head teacher in 2003, a school ravaged by strikes. Many parents were avoiding to take their children to the school because key infrastructure had waned. Mr Arinaitwe was concurrently serving as a councillor of Mbarara District where he lobbied for several structures and standard renovation of the school.
He was to be elevated to head teacher five years later and posted to Rwansinga High School and charged with resuscitating the school which had been left with below 200 students then. He left the school in 2014 to head Nombe Secondary School, Mbarara District with more than 800 students and several new classrooms. The ramshackled Nombe rose to be one of the outstanding schools in Mbarara District that in 2018.
Off to Kyamate as headteacher
With Mr George Munywanisa retired as head teacher Kyamate Secondary School, Mr Arinaitwe had to be head hunted by the First Lady to head the school that was at the time undergoing transformation. Ms Janet Museveni who had just been appointed Minister for Education was spearheading redevelopment of Kyamate, a school that had been given many new structures.
“I understood the challenge before me. Imagine this scenario; a school located at the headquarters of the diocese whose Bishop (Nathan Ahimbisibwe) is so passionate about education. The same institution where President Museveni and First lady attained their primary education, also a school that was undergoing transformation and the outgoing head teacher had won trust. Then, I had to come in and pick up on where the previous leadership had stopped. It was a hard task,” Mr Mr Arinaitwe notes.
The school was fast growing with USE and the only government funded secondary in Ntungamo Municipality with many students but without basic infrastructure.
“Many students were day scholars which was hard to control, especially with discipline, more were coming in and we had no space. With aid from parents, we established and constructed new classrooms, and finished the incomplete blocks. With the little school fees the parents pay, I believe schools can develop the way they must, it only depends on the will of school heads and management. I left when most students had joined the boarding section,” he says.
Despite being a head teacher, Mr Arinaitwe never stopped teaching Agriculture. His subject was among the best done at the school.
The school grew from 900 students to 1900 in 2024 with five new classroom blocks, dormitories and other new structures . In his career as a school head, he was faced with one great challenge, in 2023 when students burnt the school dormitory killing one student in a fire.
Others say
Mr Anold Ayebazibwe, the Ntungamo Municipality agriculture officer, one of his former students describes Mr Mr Arinaitwe as a great leader.
“He will never be hated by anyone who went through our school at the time of his leadership, he emphasised discipline and talked to every student he thought was going astray,” Mr Ayebazibwe says.
Mr Mande Mabare, the Kyamate Secondary School PTA chairperson, describes Mr Mr Arinaitwe as special.
“Maybe because he was also a politician, he is one of the great leaders we ever had. He was a planner and an executor; who does his work without being pushed. He is respected by everyone, teachers, parents, students, and group employees but most importantly, he leads a team,” Mr Mabare explains.
