SIRONKO – Right, so after many years, Masaba secondary school old students went back home on 1 June.
This is home. Yes, their old home termed school in Sironko, Budadiri, at the slopes of Mt Elgon.
It was a re-union organised by Masaba senior secondary school Alumni [MASSA] with a mission of awakening this old academic giant that has recently gone into oblivion.
True, a visit to the school on 1 June revealed that this former academic giant is on its knees.
And like other old students, I thought great I can finally see my old teachers and rub it in their face as to how successful I have become.
But unfortunately nothing had prepared me how different Masaba SS would look in my eyes after many years. Everything seemed to have moved on without me.
Even as the excitement that came with visiting our old school-Masaba SS fades away, I feel duty bound to shed light on our experiences while at this old school
Just as I entered the compound, I was met by an old classmate for a quick tour of the school.
Like other old students, our specific memories were conjured but small, vivid details jumped out, that gave us that extremely high, dream-like feeling.
The tour of this old school was strange – like being in a waking dream, where everything is familiar but slightly displaced, and the way it so often is in dreams.
Although this OB said he was used to the situation of the school, the over 500-yard stares from the old students had, the strange things that made them stop during their tour of the school.
They had a fleeting haunted look that passed across their no-longer-young faces and occasionally saw many strange things-the sight of their old buildings, the stench smell of something from some dormitories was strange.
The tour revealed that the former academic giant was actually on its knees.
“Girls in grey skirts and white blouses, sitting in green grass while the boys in grey trousers standing spoke volumes about the school,” said Ms Sandra Nakayenze the MASSA treasurer.
True in about 30 years, the changes were evident — and we changed a lot too. More state-of-the-art facilities were installed, waiting sheds were converted into covered parking lots, the sports ground was transformed into an impressive sports ground. It made us proud. It made us look back and appreciate.
Yes, the visit was a mixture of emotions. Every corner of the school compound, call it campus unfurled memories, experiences worth remembering.
The sickbay that offered treatment and first aid to sick students looked abandoned, there were no beds, there was no nurse, it looked bushy with everything gone rusty.
Actually, Dr Jonathan Wangisi, the chairman Massa organising committee who doubles as District Health Officer for Mbale dstrict described the sickbay as “ too sick to offer treatment to the students,”
And my dormitory, Bulago House and another, Zesui house that used to be the pride of the school looked ghost houses, abandoned with their leaking ceilings carved in and the sewerage system cut off for lack of water.
In the computer Laboratory, only seven computers were working and yet in the heyday, the school boasted of the best facilities across the country.
The old students’ specific memories were conjured but small, vivid details jumped out, that gave them that extremely high, dream-like feeling.
There was the undercroft and the canteen – and on that dry day I could remember from decades ago when I entered the dining hall.
The canteen was old and shuttered but still standing near the door, I remembered how we ate Hajji’s ripe Bananas.
This feeling of it came flooding back. It was a feeling of being trapped, hostage to Hajji’s canteen.
And now, walking past a classroom, the door hanging open, my eyes were drawn to the windows, as they had been for all those years.
I was standing there before the bell went, staring at things long gone.
And once or twice I came across a teacher who had taught English. What was he doing here? Surely he had died? After all, he was old then.
I couldn’t bring myself to call him by his first name, and around him I felt a shyness that I hadn’t experienced since the first day of school.
The dream state could be extended, I just had to say the word “ Long live Masaba SS.
Yet I didn’t like the dream state. It was unsettling and I had the sensation of erasing everything that occurred in the intervening decades.
It had thrown me back to my teenage years as swiftly as if I had been shot through.
But suddenly I was jolted back into the present. At the new science laboratories, my OB was showing me what could only be described as a “an Art of science”. They are massive. Thanks to government.
There were several other additions to the school many of us couldn’t easily recognise, including a new A’level block.
But something magic and strange had happened back there on the tour, things that may happen only once or twice in your life.
An extended sensation of being dropped back in the past and the feeling that all that existed between the moments was gone, or didn’t matter or never occurred in the first place.
TEACHERS
It seems like they move on for me, I had some favourite teachers in the school like “Bihogo, the beloved cow” Mr Mugonyi. A man who changed a stamp immediately he was appointed director of studies to ‘DIRECTORS OF STUDY’ and then there was this historian Mr Gizaza who taught us about the ‘Batu’ of South Africa instead of the Bantu e e e e.
But now I find my perceptions of them have changed and I don’t really like them anymore.
My friend Tom Etonu had come in the school with the old this year. He made a lot of noise to be recognised sine he was back home after a couple of decades. But he didn’t have as much purpose in 21st-century teaching.
Etonu used to make a lot of sense then as he was the sage on the stage with his music and goal keeping antics.
But as the 90s gave way to a new millennium, the course of education slowly changed. Rows bunched into groups of desks which in turn morphed into flexible seating.
And lecturing from books gave way to learning from computers; demonstrating turned into experimenting, which Etonu hates and says “I hear them talking about PDF, sheets in computers, what is this, I don’t want to disturb my brain now. I am analogy, I will remain analogue and my children should learn that” says Etonu.
The likes of Etonu who lived in analogue have forgotten that in the new era, technology helps. Students collaborate from across the room through shared Google Docs and Slides, they check Google Classroom for web links and YouTube videos I’ve posted to them to do research.
Dr Kosia Wambaka, the key guest speaker at the MASS reunion said COVID-19 and the shutdown of schools, had brought in physical distancing, sanitizing, and individual materials as the new buzzwords in education which we must obey.
“No longer can children put their heads together over a single book. No longer may they pass colored blocks from hand-to-hand as they solve a math problem. Desks are no longer in rows but circular with students facing each other, and the teacher presents from the front as a guide, it is learner-centered, this is the way to go,” said Dr Wambaka [Phd].
While giving himself as an example, Dr Wambaka encouraged students to learn more under the new curriculum to be job creators not job seekers.
Dr Jonathan Wangisi, the chairman steering committee for MASSA reunion said It took a pandemic to join the best ideas of the previous century with the best of 21st century teaching.
“And to bring Masaba back to an academic giant today will take time as long as the students don’t adapt to the new ideas of the 21st century including computer. Our analogue ideas must be left in the past and we adopt news ones to take our students in front,” said Dr Wangisi
He revealed that many of the things we had in the past don’t have much purpose in 21st-century teaching practices.
Mr Katondo, the new head teacher of the school emphaised cooperation as a key ingredient of developing Masaba SS.
“We need cooperation; we need constant visits from you as OBs of the school to inspire students. Today our students can design science experiments to be conducted outside on a nice day; they may not share materials but they can share ideas, you could also share your ideas with us,” said Mr Katonda.
EXCITEMENT
One of the most enjoyable parts was tracking down classmates for the reunion.
At the school, I had a chance to talk to classmates that I had not spoken to in about thirty years.
Although our appearance seemed to have changed, our voices had not. The school reunion transformed all of us from 1950s to 2000s back to 18-year-olds- having fun with other teenagers.
We were able to find about 60% of a class of nearly 700 of the old students from 1950s led by Prof Timothy Wangusa and Mr Erinayo Kibooli Wolala through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
The reunion attracted about 40% of the surviving members.
Our venue had a sound system to broadcast old music; just to remind ourselves of MasaBuda [Masaba Budadiri girls secondary school] and MasaBulo [Masaba-Bubulo girls high school].
But even then, there were classmates who just wanted to talk to each other and after a few, the sound of the conversations drowned out the music. The crowd lingered for an hour after the scheduled end of music.
Time had taken a toll on waistlines and hairlines but the girls seemed to have fared better than the boys. The prettiest girl in the class was still stunning. Confessions of teenage crushes were common.
Searching for classmates revealed some unpleasant findings as well like MC Paul Masaba said.
Although many OBs and OGs living in Diaspora attended on-line, roughly 20% of the classmates were found to be deceased.
Some of our classmates had led troubled lives afflicted by drugs and alcohol and run-ins with the law.
When you are from a small town and you still live in that small town it is just another day. But when you have been away for years it is wonderful.
We were all so excited to see everyone. We knew everyone and yes you know everyone’s business but this was home-the home that made you. At times we may say we hate being in a rural school but we need to look back and appreciate it every day of your life in this school.
And we are due for another reunion 1 June 2025. I wouldn’t miss it.
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