Students making a victory chant after the training
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I All Senior Six vacists in Uganda will undergo patriotism training at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi, under a renewed government programme aimed at promoting discipline, patriotism, national identity and responsibility among young people.
The Commissioner of the National Secretariat for Patriotism Corps (NSPC), Hellen Seku, said the programme will begin this year, with the vacists expected to spend about six months at Kyankwanzi.
Seku made the announcement today at Immaculate Heart Girls’ Secondary School Nyakibale in Rukungiri District, where more than 1,700 students from four institutions completed a week-long patriotism training programme.
“I can assure you, head teacher, we are going to begin this year. So, this year we agreed with Jaaja (President Museveni) that all Senior Six vacists are going to Kyankwanzi. You’re going to go for about six months,” she said.
She said patrons, coordinators, teachers and head teachers who have not undergone patriotism training will also be required to undertake refresher courses.
“All patrons and coordinators are going to do a refresher course, including teachers and head teachers who have not yet trained, even those who have taken long. We want everybody to undergo the training,” she said.
The announcement marks a revival of a programme that previously brought students and other Ugandans together at Kyankwanzi for ideological and patriotism training.
Commissioner Seku addressing the students
One of the head teachers who attended the event, Gadgar Kibayo Arinitwe of Makobore High School, recalled undergoing a similar programme at Kyankwanzi in 1993 after completing Senior Six.
He said the lessons acquired during the training continued to influence his outlook on life decades later.
“We were at Kyankwanzi for two months, but I must confess that the values we acquired then have kept shaping our outlook on life,” Mr. Kibayo said.
He recalled being taught what he described as the “10 Commandments of a gun”, including a rule against taking alcohol while in possession of a rifle.
The students who completed the programme were drawn from Immaculate Heart Girls’ Secondary School Nyakibale, Karoli Lwanga Institute of Health Sciences, Kinyasano Girls’ High School and Makobore High School.
They underwent ideology sessions facilitated by various trainers, alongside early morning drills and parades.
The training is intended to inculcate good norms and values among learners while extending patriotism education beyond schools to other sections of society.
Seku said the NSPC had also been mandated to reach students in higher institutions of learning and young people working in the informal sector.
“That’s what we are doing here, and we want to thank His Excellency once again, for he has now given us the mandate to go to higher institutions, to go to all the youth in the informal sector. That’s why you saw us taking boda boda men to Kaweweta for training,” Ms. Seku said.
She also cited the training of Ugandans returning from South Africa as part of the wider effort to expose citizens to ideological and patriotism training.
“So, we want every Ugandan to get a dose of ideology. This is the time when this country needs an ideological direction for everybody,” she said.
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