One of the most asked questions is that what is the meaning of the infrastructure of school and why is it important for the school to have good infrastructure.
The answer to those questions is quite simple. The term “school infrastructure” refers to school buildings, playgrounds, public amenities and other facilities. Infrastructure contributes to a positive learning environment to a student.
Infrastructure as a sector in the school, it also has its own history.
For this section we are going to be talking about mainly the history of the “mighty” NABISUNSA GIRLS’ history especially in the sector of its infrastructure.
Nabisunsa is an all girl boarding school that was founded in 1954 by Prince Badru Kakungulu a Buganda royal to offer post primary education to a girl child. Back to the infrastructure background of Nabisunsa where you find every building painted blue and white.
Nabisunsa has made a substantial progress of its infrastructure agenda in the recent year.
It is found in banda Jinja road. It was built by 3arms. This is where the government, the Buganda kingdom and the moslems contributed land to Nabisunsa. It is found on a hill but some eye company happened to have covered it. It started with two classrooms where one room was for the primary section while the other was the secondary section apart from A level because those years Nabisunsa never had A level. But it was still under construction with the help of a white volunteer Miss Dimblebee and other four dark skinned female teachers.
In 1959, additional dormitory blocks were added, the dining hall was enlarged and the mother classroom was built making a total of four class rooms owing to lack of sufficient funds. In the same year nabisunsa had plans of constructing two more classrooms, a library and an assembly hall which was so expensive that could not do all that that year. But still in the same year, the government, Buganda ministry of education and the East African Muslim Welfare Society contributed and some of the buildings were constructed . The school was then comprised of four classes p.5,p.6, junior senior one and junior senior two.
In 1961 p.5 was later dropped in favour of junior senior 3.
In 1964 the senior class was started. There was no classroom available so a partition was put up in the dining room to make one. Equipment of various kinds was needed but the Ministry of Education, government of Buganda, gave a grant to help meet the cost. The home economics college sold us a second hand furniture for the classroom.
Later in the same year, building of two new staff houses was began.
About the school fence, some of the eucalyptus trees were cut down and made into posts to replace the fence.
In 1967, the International Development Aid project was begun. On 9th November Mr De Sauza met the chairman of the board of governers of Nabisunsa to discuss the use of Nabisunsa and the adjacent land for the IDA project of expanding the school. The out come was that the school should be developed but it was a struggle to acquire more land. But later the development of making Nabisunsa a 3-stream secondary school to school certificate was approved. That’s how Nabisunsa ended up into a full secondary school. They also built the western dorms, some teacher’s houses in the eastern, the staffroom and old administration block.
Some of the infrastructure from 1954 to 1964.
Infrastructure from 1985 to date.
According to Hajjat Simple, by the time she came, she found improved infrastructure compared to the previous years . By that time Nabisunsa was divided into two wings: the western wing which was comprised of dormitories like green west, yellow west, pink west( where she is the dorm mother ), blue west and green west. Other buildings were; Some teacher’s houses, the sickbay, Haji Kimera’s house, the old administration block which is currently the Director of studies’ office, home economics block and the fine art room.
For the eastern wing, there were buildings like the main eastern houses, classes which are currently Pink East rooms, musical classes which are currently Annex M room1 and 2, a library currently Annex L. The A levels were residing in pink east but later they built two blocks in the western wing, block A and B that were named “White Hall”. Shockingly, there was no mosque despite the fact that it’s a muslim founded school. This is because by the time it begun, it had few studens where by a quarter of them were moslems. But later the current pink east was made a mosque where the few moslems had there prayers from.
Some of the teachers’ houses were there by the time she came. they were about 8 houses for teachers.
Some of the teacher’s houses are currently the mosque toilets.
On the side of the roads, the roads in Nabisunsa were tarmac but had no pavements and slabs like the current. Nabisunsa’s mainhall was in the place where the science labs are found right now but then it later burnt down.
In some year Nabisunsa got donations from a group of people called the muslim umma. This group was made up of parents and Arabs. This group happened to donate some buildings like;
The current senior two block, the senior one theology room, the f.6 block and the old mainhall which was burnt.
During Mr Mbazira’s regime, he started the project of constructing the White Hall which is the HAC’s dormitories which was in two blocks; A and B but after some time the children kept on increasing and more dormitories and classrooms were needed. in 1992, he started constructing the current mainhall but he was transferred to another school having started on the foundation and Hajjat Aisha who was the Deputy head teacher had to continue with the project when she was appointed as the new head teacher.
In 2000 hajjat Lubega Aisha, the former headteacher built some other buildings for example the; kakungulu block, Aisha flats, the science block etc.
The latest buildings to be built are the ; administration block, mainhall and the rich library were built by the ADB firm.
In Hajjat Zulaika’s regime, the parents and some Arab wellwishers happened to contribute some dontions and the annex block was built.
Opinion Poll
According to Mr Nagaba Danson, he says that by the time he came to Nabisunsa in 2007 , he found most of the new buildings built by the former head teacher Mrs Lubega Aisha.
These include; the new Mainhall, the administration block, Kangulu block, white hall, the library and science labs.
We happen to have interviewed some OGs and this some of the informationwe collected.
Itogot Amy lawyer Legal mark Advocates:
She is a lawyer by profession, she was at Nabisunsa during her A level in 2007 to 2008. She says that her life at Nabisunsa was really amazing and the infrastructure was really good. She coutinued to say that her best buildings were;
A very big computerlab with a enough laptops. She says that Nabisunsa gave her a chance to use email and to learn how to use a computer.
A rich library with enough books like encyclopedias, textbooks of every subject in many editions, newspapers of every day, date and year and novels which helps to improve learning and reading skills.
A very good basketball court where the basketballers used to train from and also other schools used to come for competitions. Other buildings she liked were the Whitehall and dininghall.
Compiled by Ninsiima Christine and Nanyondo Shamim