For Ms Anna Grace Zalwango, teaching was never about standing before learners, dictating notes and marking books. It was a calling.
That calling took her from a humble primary school, deep in a village in Bukomansimbi District, where children sat on wooden chairs after residents cleared a bush for a classroom, to some of the country’s leading schools and teacher-training institutions.
It took her to St Cecilia Boarding Primary School, Buyamba in Rakai District, where she became known among pupils and colleagues as an exceptional teacher of English.
More than three decades later, some of the pupils Ms Zalwango taught, still remember her lessons, wise counsel and her emphasis on using proper English.
To them, Ms Zalwango was that teacher who gave them confidence that children from remote villages can comfortably compete with pupils from Kampala’s top schools.
Her first teaching appointment was at Bukulula Girls Primary School, followed by St Theresa Bwanda Girls Primary School-both located in Kalungu District. But Zalwango was not content with her first qualification.
In 1980, she returned to school and enrolled for a Diploma in Education at Makerere University. She and other students were later transferred to Kyambogo, where she completed her course.
By 1989, she had taught in Mugwanya Preparatory School, Kabojja, in Kampala, while also working as a tutor at Nkozi Teachers Training College in Mpigi District.
The transition
During her time in Kabojja, an opportunity came that would change the direction of her career. Mr Joseph Muwonge, then headteacher of St Cecilia Boarding Primary School, Buyamba, approached her.
‘He asked me to join him. They had started a new school and he insisted that I teach there,’ Ms Zalwango reminiscences.
The highest class in the new school was Primary Four. She joined the school and started teaching, although transitioning from a relatively comfortable town environment was not easy.
At the time, much of the area was still rural, roads were in a sorry state, there was no electricity and access to clean safe water was difficult.
For a teacher accustomed to working in urban schools, the move appeared like a step backwards.
For Zalwango, however, this was an opportunity to serve. ‘I taught under difficult conditions, but I felt that I was in the right place.’
Her commitment started bearing fruits. In 1992, St Cecilia Boarding Primary School registered its first Primary Seven candidates for Uneb. Out of the 27 candidates who sat the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), 10 obtained Aggregate Four, while only two got Aggregate Nine. The remaining pupils scored aggregates ranging from five to eight.
For a school deep in Rakai, these results attracted attention of many parents. However, producing such results required sacrifices from teachers.
Zalwango remembers one occasion when she travelled to Kyotera, about 25 kilometres away, to do shopping. She had a lesson scheduled for 8pm. Transport was unreliable and the cars available at the time were Land Rover pick-up trucks.
After waiting unsuccessfully for a car, she decided to use a bicycle boda boda so she could be in time to teach.
Confidence-building
For Ms Zalwango, teaching did not end when the official school day ended. She and her colleagues treated their pupils as their own children.
‘We taught those pupils. We loved them, corrected them and punished them whenever they errored. I am happy that even after punishing them, they continued to love me,’ she says.
During the 15 years she taught English at St Cecilia, Ms Zalwango recalls only six pupils who obtained Credit Four in English in PLE, while the majority achieved distinctions and Credits One to Three.
Her former pupils say her impact went far beyond examination results.
Mr Yasin Matovu, one of the school’s pioneers, who sat PLE in 1992, says Ms Zalwango gave rural children the confidence to compete with pupils from prestigious schools in urban areas.
‘She must be one of the best teachers of English in the country,’ Mr Matovu says. ‘We came from deep in Rakai, but the English we learnt during our times has taken us far. Many people wonder where we studied from because they think we went to the best schools in Kampala,’ he adds.
The school also attracted pupils from the border with Tanzania because parents were impressed with its academic performance.
But St Cecilia Boarding Primary School’s success was not built on examination performance alone.
The school also made education accessible to children from peasant families. Some parents paid school fees through agricultural produce. Matooke, beans and cattle could be accepted and converted into money to meet school fees costs.
It was a practical response to the realities of rural life.
Ms Zalwango says the school also placed emphasis on three principles: discipline, academics and religion. The intention, she says, was to prepare learners to become responsible citizens.
She says at the time, teacher recruitment was taken very seriously. School administrators visited teacher-training colleges, identified exceptional graduates and encouraged them to join the school. In 1994, Ms Zalwango was promoted to deputy headteacher and also served as a dean of studies.
How has education evolved?
Having experienced Uganda’s education system from the 1950s to the present, Ms Zalwango has strong views about how learning has changed.
She believes today’s children are exposed to too much academic work at an early age, something she says exerts unnecessary pressure on learners. She particularly questions the emphasis placed on English at nursery level.
In her early years, she recalls children starting primary school without attending nursery and still developed strong reading skills.
‘By the time they were promoted to Primary Two, children could ably read words in both English and Luganda,’ she says.
Today, she observes, some children begin speaking English at nursery level without necessarily understanding the language deeply.
‘Pupils in Baby Class are already speaking English, but cannot comprehend some things. It is better for a child to first learn in their mother tongue and later learn it in English,’ she says.
Her preferred sequence is simple: a child should first listen, then speak, read and finally write. She does not believe in the pressure teachers put on children to write before they have developed adequate language and reading skills.
‘What is a child in Baby Class really going to write when they haven’t learnt how to speak and read?’ she wonders.
Her concerns come at a time when Uganda’s education system is considerably evolving from the one she is accustomed to.
According to Mr Alexander Lule, a lawyer and a representative of the central region at Uganda Law Society, the National Teachers Act, 2026, has strengthened regulation of the teaching profession, including ethical standards, professional development and career development for teachers.
Ms Zalwango strongly believes some of the old values should not disappear in the name of modern education. She is particularly critical of examination malpractice, which she believes has harmed the quality of education.
She argues that when schools rely on cheating to produce impressive results, learners eventually struggle when they join higher institutions or enter the workplace.
For Mr Peter Ssennono, a teacher who worked very closely with Ms Zalwango, her greatest legacy was not only her ability to teach English, but her attitude towards the profession.
‘She taught us how to love our job and make sacrifices for our learners,’ he says.
Valid dreams and aspirations
Mr Ssennono recalls that Ms Zalwango had motherly attributes. ‘We learnt a lot from her.’
Zalwango’s story offers a glimpse into an education system that has come a long way.
She started learning in a school without proper buildings, later taught children in a remote area, where transport and basic services were scarce, and helped pupils from rural Rakai compete academically with children from Uganda’s most prestigious schools.
Her experience also raises a question for today’s education system: as access, technology, curriculum and regulation continue to expand, can schools retain the discipline, sacrifice and teacher-pupil relationship that she believes made education meaningful then?
Zalwango’s pupils may have forgotten some of the lessons written on the chalkboard decades ago, but they have not forgotten the teacher who made them believe that a village did not mean their dreams and aspirations were not valid. That is the legacy of Zalwango’s teaching career.