“I so much commend you for choosing education as your investment venture, you would have gone into other lucrative ventures. I pray that God who directed you well shall also guide you and make this school triumph in all aspects,” Bp. Luzinda.
The retired bishop of Mukono diocese, Elia Paul Luzinda Kizito has commended the former New Vision’s managing editor Ben Opolot for his decision to invest and boost the education sector instead of any other form of investment.
Bp. Luzinda said that Ugandans and government are fond of praising foreign investors forgetting the local investors who struggle so hard to raise money to meet their preferred investment dreams.
“Education is one of the most fragile forms of investment which is getting a lot of people who only build schools to make money. When we get people like Opolot and his wife Elizabeth, given his background as a professional teacher and as one of the long serving editors in the New Vision, we are sure that he will give time to our children not only to make them pass exams, but also to mould them into responsible citizens,” he said.
He added; “I so much commend you for choosing education as your investment venture, you would have gone into other lucrative ventures. I pray that God who directed you well shall also guide you and make this school triumph in all aspects.”
The bishop made the above remarks while blessing Primary Seven candidates of Preparatory School Kazinga located in Goma Division, Mukono Municipality. The school was founded by Ben Opolot after going into early retirement from Vision Group, where he last served as the Managing Editor.
On the side of the candidates, Bp. Luzinda asked them to thank God who has been there for them until now saying many of their colleagues with whom they started education have not been lucky enough to even reach Primary Seven.
“I am praying to God to avoid any obstructions that would deter you from doing your exams safely. Just like me, on the day we sat for our Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), we experienced heavy downpour in the morning. Myself, I got a banana leaf which acted as an umbrella as I ran to school, reaching there when I was completely wet. Many of my colleagues did not make it just because of that,” he said, adding that despite that obstruction, exams came out when he had passed very well and he got enrolled to Mengo Senior School, which groomed him into a person he became.
Opolot said that as a son to a professional teacher who also did education and practiced journalism for many years, he got a dream of starting a school so that he could do what he had realised was not going well in the sector.
“Imagine a professional teacher who ended up practising journalism. I observed a lot of things which were not going on well and I believe if I try my best to put them right, any single stone I put on this institution will be counted,” he said.
Opolot however showed dismay to the current generation who dream of becoming rich at their first salary, something which forces them into stealing and corruption.
“You can imagine, after getting this dream in my youthful age, together with my wife we started saving 30 years ago. We first bought one acre of land and kept on adding until now. We started the construction two years ago, after getting an early retirement,” he said.
Bp. Luzinda blessed and dedicated the candidates who are sitting for their PLE UNEB exams tomorrow.
They will start with a Mathematics paper in the morning and Social Studies in the evening. On Thursday, it will be Integrated Science in the morning and English in the evening.
According to UNEB, a total of 749,347 candidates are registered to sit for PLE tomorrow November 8, 2023.
The UNEB Executive Director, Dan Odongo says out of the 749,347 candidates, 2,380 are registered under the Special Needs Education (SNE).
Odongo said this year’s number of SNE candidates is slightly higher compared to last year’s 2,316.
“These SNE learners will be given the necessary support. UNEB will avail braille question papers and answer sheets for the blind, large print question papers for those with low vision, sign language interpreters for the deaf, and transcribers for learners with dyslexia and those with severe physical impairments (reading and writing challenges),” the UNEB ED said in a press briefing.
He added that the SNE candidates will be allowed 45 extra minutes for each paper. UNEB has also prepared a total of 769 SNE personnel who are already deployed to provide the required support.