Katale Ka Messe Secondary School
Katale Kamesse Secondary School is being supported in Mara Foundation’s Charity Date Auction on 8th June. It is a partner school of ‘Next Generation Schools’, an independent NGO founded by Mara Foundation. This post was written by Asha Najjuuko, who heads Next Generation Schools.
Taking a walk in Katale ka Messe village (meaning “market for rats” in Luganda), one can expect to see two or three huge rats crossing the footpaths from and to nowhere after the population has grown and people have started encroaching on these creatures homes.
As told by one of the teachers in Katale ka Messe Secondary School, the rats are seen day by day because people are becoming more every day that passes. “I had never seen such huge and many rats my entire life until I came to teach here.”
In 2009 when President Yoweri Museveni visited Katale ka Messe village, he was moved by the efforts of the community to educate their students up to secondary level. Parents told him that previously, after completion of primary level, their children trekked long distances to attend a better secondary school. So in 2006, the parents in the community of Katale ka Messe founded a new secondary school which had only one teacher teaching all the subjects.
The president donated 50 million shillings to improve the new found school. The money was used to start on the construction of the current incomplete structures which can be seen on the school compound.
Located deep in Nakaseke District, Katale ka Messe is a mixed day government-aided Universal Secondary School. The school was registered in 2009 and is in the process of getting an exam centre number. However, the Head Teacher of the school is confident that the process will be made easier when the incomplete block which will include an examination hall is completed. This will also favour his dream of changing the school name to Katale Modern Secondary School, which will attract more students; of course no one would wish to have their certificate bearing the name “Katale ka Messe”, forever to be associated with rats!
The school has an incomplete but roofed 3 classroom block and a small 2 roomed office with walls not plastered and floors not cemented. One room serves as the Head Teacher’s office and the other as the staffroom. The teachers however also use the tree shades in the school compound since the rooms are too small to accommodate all of them in a gathering. The school has another incomplete four classroom block within which 2 classrooms double as a hall. Currently S.4 students sit in an outside shade which means they can’t study if it rains. The school does not have any laboratory; it has a makeshift kitchen and canteen which are seldom opened.
The school has 10 acres of land although it is currently using only 2 acres; it has no leveled play ground, and has a small compound area. On half an acre the school is doing mixed crop farming and has planted maize, matooke, beans and cassava. The school has the capacity to utilise more land for increased income.
The school shares a water source – a valley dam – with the community and it is 2kms away from the school.
You may help to support the development of Katale Kamesse Secondary School by getting involved in our Charity Date Auction on 8th June. Check it out on Facebook.
Mara Foundation 