Without going into details, Nyanja said the surrounding community has expressed appreciation for the school’s moral and academic virtues which he added, has enabled Naggalama SS to contribute to the work force in the public and private sectors in the form of scientists, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs and in other areas.
In the countdown to the 4th anniversary of the founding of the National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA) falling on 22nd October 2025 at Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono and to be presided over by President Yoweri Museveni, KYAGGWE TV brings you the second of a series of presentations of NPEIA member schools highlighting their performance since inception.
This is a presentation by Naggalama Secondary School, located at Bunyiri village, Kyampisi sub-county in Mukono District, in which management gives the school’s journey since its birth way back in 2011 to-date.
The only secondary school in the area, Naggalama SS took off 14 years ago as an eight-man dream with only ten learners and in 2020, most of the founding members fell off on grounds of financial disagreements, leaving it in the hands of one person.
According to the head teacher, William Nyanja who talked to our reporters on Friday September 19, 2025 at the school, he said that before COVID 19 struck the country, Naggalama SS had reached 250 students, the numbers which made the rest of the initiators run mad, hoping for fast profits.
Unfortunately, Nyanja adds that when they realized that this was not the case, they pulled out. And coincidentally, this is the time the COVID-19 pandemic struck, further slicing the school’s population to only three students.
From three students in 2020, Naggalama SS has grown to 800
But because of perseverance Nyanja narrates, today the school is the proud home to 800 learners, 240 boys and 560 girls in both the day and the boarding sections.
“And as luck would have it, today we have students drawn from as far as Mutukula, Gulu, Rakai and elsewhere, thanks to the traditional good performance of our finalists,” he boastfully pointed out.
Without going into details, Nyanja said the surrounding community has expressed appreciation for the school’s moral and academic virtues which he added, has enabled Naggalama SS to contribute to the work force in the public and private sectors in the form of scientists, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs and in other areas.
On how they have managed to get their numbers soar tremendously, the headmaster said, “My role is to ensure we have learners because as a headmaster, I must have people to preside over and this is the reason I frequented places of worship, engaged a door-to-door campaign of soliciting for students and travelled upcountry for the same purposes, and it is the reason we have learners hailing from Gulu and elsewhere.”
What’s the magic behind this success
Nyanja said the school management began by drawing a design emphasizing discipline, and disclosed that despite the government’s policy of no corporal punishment, they are sometimes compelled to discipline their students to naturally acceptable levels.
To ensure the school grooms Ugandans in an all-embracing manner and considering the policy of freedom of worship in place, the school accommodates learners subscribing to all religious affiliations, with an arrangement of respective religious leaders visiting the school to guide them accordingly.
Despite the taxation hardship subjected to the schools, at Naggalama they have resisted the temptation of sending home children who reported for this term without full payment, and instead asked parents to go to school and talk with management on a relaxed payment mode.
However, he lamented that although many parents view the school as a role model in their area, some are not ready to sacrifice to the end, as they withdrew the learners on attainment of S.3 education, and relocated them to other schools after accumulating huge unpaid school fees arrears.
Nyanja sadly noted that the issue of retention has been hit a hard blow by parents who prioritize issues like swimming, entertainment, flashy buildings and other cosmetic provisions, adding however that since all these are not part of the school curriculum, government’s liberalization policy has given a leeway to even schools without these facilities to operate.
“We are now able to offer education to learners, offer jobs to teachers, support staff, transporters who ferry day scholars, and to food vendors who supply us with necessities and to communities around us, this is what matters more than skyscrapers,” he said.
As a piece of advice to prospective education investors, Nyanja said that although partnerships start off with zeal, this thrives for a short period and many begin thinking of reaping in the short term. He said in the case of Naggalama SS, partners were torn apart by greed for money as mistrust crept up.
“Ideally, we could share experience, talents and commitment to develop the school but some used to transfer domestic problems to the school and kept expecting solutions from money collected, not wishing to believe that the money coming in school fees is for students and teachers,” he noted.
On achievements registered, Nyanja said Naggalama SS has grown tremendously in popularity and attributed this development to the fact that they have accepted all parents regardless of their financial stand, and added that this has greatly beaten the drop off rate.
He said today the school employs close to 90 workers including teachers and non-teaching staff, while villagers within the vicinity supply the school with food stuffs. His prayer to the government is a drastic revision of the taxation system to enable private schools to offer more meaningful education to Uganda’s children.
Who is William Nyanja
The 43-year-old head teacher started at Naalya SSS, Namugongo, and Makerere University where he achieved the bachelors and masters education degrees and started teaching in 2005. With a twenty-year teaching experience, Nyanja has taught in schools including Namiryango Senior Secondary School, Our Lady of Africa Senior School, Seeta High School, and later joined Naggalama SS.
Naggalama SS has a record of passing all its candidates, and last year, three out of the 41 S6 candidates passed with 20 points, the performance which left the school ranked among the best performing schools countrywide.
The headteacher appealed to the government to stop considering only schools with candidates passing in high grades, but also consider those that add value to learners, especially those who joined secondary school with weak P7 grades.
What others say about Naggalama SS
The Deputy Headmaster, Kigozi Hamza Nasser was proud that they have managed to instill in their students a high sense of patriotism, hard work, good performance and discipline, adding that they have over years done extraordinarily well in science subjects.
Kigozi said they know the challenges posed by indiscipline in the contemporary world and have done away with any tendencies likely to cause a relapse in indiscipline and associated shortcomings.
The school’s Head Prefect, Mutebi Henry Nsubuga lamented that many parents have the erroneous feeling that it is flashy infrastructure that is best for their children, adding that at Naggalama, they have a system that moulds the learners into admirable values, the traditional buildings in place notwithstanding.
Nsubuga said that they have alumni in big universities like Gulu and Makerere, stressing that what matters is the material imparted to them by teachers and not skyscrapers.
Jaliah Neria, a S4 student, says since she joined the school four years ago in Senior One, she has graduated from a scared young girl to a confident young woman ready, committed and bold enough to take on the world and assured of a shining future.
“Judging from our results and those of our elders who have passed through the school that exhibited our teachers as one of the best in the country, we are assured of excellent performance from UNEB, come January 2026,” she said.
