Minister JC Muyingo commissioning the school on Wednesday this week
A row has emerged between Luwero district and Uganda Muslim Supreme Council over the renaming of the newly commissioned school in Katikamu sub county.
On Wednesday this week, the State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysostom Muyingo commissioned a 2.3 billion Shillings Seed Secondary School constructed at Luwube village in Luwero district. The school has 407 students.
Muyingo made it clear that he had commissioned Katikamu Muslim Seed Secondary School which is a community school and was named after the sub-county where it was constructed.
The school property which includes desks and computers among others was embossed by Katikamu Muslim Seed Secondary School. The signpost of the contractor Techno Three company also had Katikamu Muslim Secondary School as the project.
But Sheikh Ramadhan Mulindwa the Luwero District Kadhi says that the school is known as Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School and they have never consented to rename it to something else.
Mulindwa said that the government took over Luwube Muslim Secondary School which was already in existence and they agreed that it turns into a seed school but not rename it.
Mulindwa added that the school has Old Boys and Girls who will be affected if they change its name.
“I think the Minister and District Education Officer were misled but the school is known as Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School” Mulindwa emphasized.
The school occupies eight out of the 12 acres of land owned donated by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council land. The land also hosts Luwube UMEA Primary School and Luwube Mosque.
Yasin Muwonge the headteacher of the Seed School says that the Ministry of Education and Sports also coded the school as Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School and the salaries of teachers are paid are under the name.
But Luwero District Education Officer Florence Bbosa has ordered the headteacher to change the signpost of the school from Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School to Katikamu Muslim Seed Secondary School with immediate effect.
Bbosa explains that it’s a government policy that every seed secondary school is named by sub-county name and in this case its Katikamu.
She adds that the Chief Administrative Officer has already written to the Ministry of Education and Sports asking it to change the code name in their system to Katikamu Muslim Seed Secondary School because that is what is also known in the district records.
“The contention was the exclusion of the word ‘Muslim’ from school name which we agreed upon and later included it. The name Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School stopped to exist and that is general practice everywhere the Ministry constructs the seed schools,” Bbosa said.
Ashiraf Zziwa the Spokesperson of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council insists that they still stand by the Memorandum of Understanding they signed with the Ministry of Education that the school shall be called Luwube Muslim Seed Secondary School.
“ We need our school name to be preserved since they found it there and this was agreed upon in the MOU,”Zziwa said. “We don’t know the basis on which they want it changed. The school is located in Katikamu sub county and there was no need to change its name.”
In December ,2019, the Secretary-General of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council Ramathan Mugalu wrote to the Ministry of Education demanding a halt of the construction works of the school.
Mugalu explained that it was erroneous to rename the school without consulting the supreme council which was the foundation body.
-URN
