Our Guest of Honour/ Main Celebrant, Rt. Rev. Christopher Kakooza; the Bishop of Lugazi Diocese,
The Vicar General of Lugazi Diocese / Chairman Board of Governors; Dr. Msgr. Richard Kayondo,
The Diocesan Education Secretary; Rev. Fr. Gerald Bwenvu,
Members of the Board of Governors and Parents Teachers Association,
The Dean of Naggalama Deanery and our Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Ignatius Ndawula.
Rev. Fathers and other Religious Persons present,
The President of Naggalama Old Students Association; Her Worship Naome Sikhoya,
Staff members,
The Parents,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“OH LORD LET ME SEE AGAIN”, TO APPRECIATE YOUR BOUNDLESS BLESSINGS.

My Lord Bishop Christopher Kakooza, the Ordinary of Lugazi Diocese, and all our invited and distinguished guests. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our Patron Saint’s day celebrations of the year 2025 in which we are giving thanks to God and celebrating a litany of major milestones in all areas of the school activities guided by the theme “Oh Lord, let me see again”, …………………………

I feel greatly privileged and humbled to share with you our heartfelt boundless joy resulting from the countless blessings from God manifested in our exceptional excellent performance in the U.C.E and U.A.C.E examinations of 2024. We are grateful to God for having granted us such a wonderful and stunning gift of merit on the 58^th Anniversary of our school’s existence which also doubles as the celebration for the exceptional results of our pioneer candidates of the Competency Based Curriculum who sat for 2024 U.C.E. examinations.

Today, we are celebrating a special event; our Patron Saint’s Day.  On this occasion, we would like to appreciate God for recognising our consistent effort and commitment to transform St. Joseph’s Senior Secondary School Naggalama into a national academic giant. This has been achieved gradually over the years through the strategic direction we have been pursuing to ensure the realisation of our dream, enshrined in our approved strategic plan; “The Naggalama we want”.

We feel this major milestone is an extraordinary feat hence our overwhelming happiness as we celebrate and enjoy the moment.  We thank God Almighty for having made it possible for us to get to this stage, it has been indeed a long bumpy journey and all stakeholders can testify to this fact.

We owe our renowned academic strides, first of all to God Almighty for having propelled us to stellar performance. We believe that without Him, we would not have reached this far.

We also thank the Board of Governors who set high academic targets that the students and staff endeavoured to achieve. To God Be the Glory!

May I use this opportunity to welcome the new family members of S.1 and S.5 classes. Please feel at home.

A highlight of our profound academic achievement is here below:

(a)       U.C.E. RESULTS 2024

The 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (U.C.E.) examinations results for the first cohort of the New Lower Secondary Curriculum were exceptionally excellent. We presented 372 candidates and they all excelled with the lowest score being C. Among the 110 academic giants, we are the only school with no candidate that scored D in any of the subjects. We thank God Almighty for this profound academic milestone.

Both New Vision and Daily Monitor newspapers of Wednesday 12^th February 2025, ranked our school the 2^nd best Academic Giant in the country in view of the schools that posted big numbers of students who scored As. We are also the 2^nd nationally basing on the percentage calculations of the best scores.

In a special way, we recognise the eleven students whoscored the much coveted maximum 9’As in the 9 best done subjects. This is a rare achievement!!  In addition, thirty nine candidates scored 8A’s in the 9 done subjects.  We congratulate and commend them as they appear in the table below.

No.	Name	8’As in best 8	9’As in 9	PLE
1.	ACEN VIVIAN PEREPETRA	8	9	7
2.	ATUHEIRE EDGAR	8	9	8
3.	NABUNYA CLAIRE	8	9	9
4.	MUTESI MARY RINNAH	8	9	6
5.	AINEBYOONA  NATASHA	8	9	6
6.	KISULE MARK	8	9	8
7.	WERE OWEN GRAHAM	8	9	6
8.	MIREMBE PATRICIA GERTRUDE	8	9	6
9.	KYOLABA MARY GORRET	8	9	10
10.	TEKIBA DIVINE	8	9	8
11.	ANZOA  PEACE AKILE	8	9	7
12.	WOMUHAYI CONRAD LEONARD	8	8	6
13.	MIIRO EDWIN	8	8	8
14.	NDIMUKIKA EMMANUEL MUKISA	8	8	9
15.	NANNYONGA JULIAN JOY	8	8	10
16.	BASEMERA PAULINE	8	8	8
17.	KATUMBA PATRICK	8	8	8
18.	KISAAKYE CATHERINE NAMAGANDA	8	8	7
19.	AKOL EMMANUEL STEPHEN	8	8	7
20.	OCHWO SAUL ABSALOM	8	8	8
21.	NAMPIINA LYNNETTE BYANSI	8	8	6
22.	KAVUMA HAKIM	8	8	7
23.	NALUBEGA LORINE DRUCILLA	8	8	8
24.	MONGO JOSEPHINE	8	8	6
25.	OKANYA PATRICK FELIX	8	8	8
26.	MASABA ISAAC ROGERS	8	8	5
27.	KIRABO MARTHA	8	8	6
28.	ABALO HOPE CONDOLEEZZA	8	8	6
29.	AYEBALE NICOLE	8	8	7
30.	KIRABO CANDACE LWETABE	8	8	8
31.	NAKAYE RIHANA IRENE	8	8	6
32.	PIMUNGU MARIANA LAURA	8	8	7
33.	KWAGALA JENOVAH GENAVIEVE	8	8	6
34.	ENYUK SILVANA	8	8	7
35.	NAKALUNGI TEDDY	8	8	9
36.	AYEBARE JOSEPH KATO	8	8	9
37.	NAMAGEMBE ETHEL	8	8	8
38.	MATOVU JEREMIAH	8	8	10
39.	NALUKWAGO BETTY	8	8	6
40.	NDIBALEKERA CATHERINE SHALOM	8	8	8
41.	AACA DANIELLA ONGELECH	8	8	9
42.	ASIIMWE JOSELYN JOSEPHINE	8	8	6
43.	KAGOYA   DANIELLA	8	8	8
44.	KAWUMA NICOLE OLIVIA	8	8	7
45.	AWORI LETICIA HANNAH	8	8	9
46.	NAMBUYA ESTHER	8	8	8
47.	ANYANZO  EMMANUEL	8	8	5
48.	NAMBOZO FLAVIA	8	8	7
49.	MUGAGGA JEREMIAH NZALAMBI	8	8	9
50.	KALUNGI NICHOLAS	8	8	5

We wish to congratulate and thank our candidates of 2024 upon performing outstandingly well as reflected in the summary in the table below.

SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE IN THE U.C.E. RESULTS OF 2024

AGGREGATES RANGE	NUMBER OF STUDENTS
9A’s in 9	11
8A’s in 9	39
7A’s in 9	50
6A’s in 9	52
5A’s in 9	61
4A’s in 9	59
3A’s in 9	42
2A’s in 9	34
1A in 9	12
No A in 9	12

2024 National rankings by subject

No.	Subject	2024 results
1.	Mathematics	1st
2.	Agriculture	1st
3.	ICT	1st
4.	Geography	2nd
5.	English Language	2nd
6.	C.R.E	2nd
7.	Literature in English	3rd
8.	Biology	3rd
9.	Chemistry	3rd
10.	Physics	3rd
11.	History	5th

(b)       U.A.C.E. RESULTS 2024

We are equally thankful to God for the 2023 U.A.C.E. results which are also excellent.  We presented 192 candidates and six of our candidatesscored the much coveted maximum 20 points!  In addition, sixteen candidates scored nineteen points.  The Daily of Friday March 2024, ranked our school the 10^th best Academic Giant in the country premised on the schools which scored most principal As. This too is a remarkable achievement.

High value addition

It is worth observing that our excellent performance is an outcome of the dedication and assiduousness demonstrated by our staff over the years. Indeed they are a winning team. A candid and detailed analysis of the U.C.E. and U.A.C.E performance of 2023, compared with the candidates’ P.L.E. and U.A.C.E entry results clearly indicates that the school has continued to be a leading ‘high-value-addition’ institution. This has been the trend over the years. 

Public University Admissions on National Merit 2023/2024

Makerere University admitted 32 of our students on government sponsorship to do professional courses while 11 students were admitted in other public universities on national merit.  The admission of these 43 students made the school to be ranked the 7^th overall in the whole country.  See details in the order of Mass booklet.

Profound milestone to become a Science based school 

We thank God for our improvement trajectory of transforming our school from being predominantly Arts based to a Science oriented one, which had always been our dream. This has enabled us to attract students with very good grades who want to excel so as to do professional courses in the Science field at the University.  We thank God for having given us this break-through. The evidence is tabulated below:

Year	No. of Students	Arts	Science
2020	167	33	134
2022	204	35	169
2023	193	46	147
2024	372

This table also clearly indicates the improvement trend of our ‘A’ level enrolment hence realising one of our strategic objectives of expanding our ‘A’ level in terms of numbers.

Human Formation

We are also celebrating a remarkable improvement in the discipline of our students and staff. Deliberate programmes and activities are put in place to ensure that our school nurtures students into responsible and holistic citizens with a refined character.

We thank God that we have a niche in this area and our students reflect this moral aptitude and proper grooming. We therefore commend them for accepting to be formed morally and informed academically as a consequence of our unreserved and relentless effort.

We noted with concern that many parents abdicate their responsibility of nurturing their children to the teachers which makes the affected children unable to survive amidst hardships in life. If we raise our children the way our parents raised us, they would find a lot of difficulty in fitting into the current cruel world. Our parents raised us for the world which no longer exists. For this matter therefore, we design new strategies and ways of catching up with the current demands. For example, during our time of growing up, there was no moral decadence and crazy vices like homosexuality and lesbianism. We therefore call upon parents to cooperate with us to achieve the desirable results of raising up responsible citizens of refined character.

I am happy to inform you that our school has a fully-fledged counselling department under the stewardship of Mrs. Josephine Akellot Ocama with three resident counsellors. These handle students with psycho-social and psychiatric needs ranging from stress to severe depression. This is a unique arrangement of our school that was adopted after a realisation that the contemporary adolescents need some special treatment in a way of counselling beyond teaching.

We wish to acknowledge the spiritual nourishment, moral guidance and exceptional dedication of our chaplain; Rev. Fr. Vincent Wasswa. His love, efforts and principles serve as invaluable assets in shaping the character of our students and staff in school. We congratulate him upon making 40 years in priesthood.

Virtual Parents’ Meeting

We conducted a successful virtual conferencing meeting with parents on Saturday 7^th October 2023. The topic of discussion was “The responsibilities and challenges of parenting the current children”.  We thank Professor Anthony Mugagga Muwanga who ably handled this topic.  We are grateful to the parents for having attended this meeting virtually in large numbers and for their prudent ideas during the discussion. The parents requested us to conduct these meetings regularly.

The Annual Academic Conference 2023

We successfully held our Annual Academic Conference on Thursday 4^th July 2024.  The main objective of this conference was to come up with ways of excelling in the Competency Based Curriculum introduced by the Ministry of Education and Sports in 2020, and to candidly and objectively analyse our U.C.E and U.A.C.E performance of 2023.

Parents-Teachers’ Association Annual General Meeting

We held a fruitful Parents-Teachers’ Association Annual General Meeting on Sunday 21^st July 2024.

We thank you dear parents for having turned up in big numbers and deliberated exhaustively and fruitfully.  We thank Mrs. Josephine Akellot Ocama for having chaired this meeting very well.  We wish to assure you that all the concerns and issues raised during the meeting were taken note of and are being addressed.

Corporate Social Responsibility

We dedicate resources to assisting the community around us to benefit from the school’s existence in form of enhancement of Corporate Social Responsibility. Our church harvest was used to construct a security perimeter wall fence around Loreto House at St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish Naggalama.

In addition, the students mobilise money from their pocket money to educate a seminarian in St. Mary’s Seminary Ggaba Major Seminary. Likewise, our students have contributed to mobilise money to pay school fees for their classmates whose parents are financially incapacitated.

Our S.6 Parents of 2023, old students, and the current students as well as the entire St. Joseph’s family, contributed enormously to over 12 million shillings towards the treatment of Nakawuki Bangi Anisha. She would have been now in S.4 class but was diagnosed with kidney failure and is treated on dialysis twice a week.  Nakawuki’s family is very appreciative of this charitable gesture.

Congratulations to Bishop Christopher Kakooza upon 40 years in Priesthood and 25 years in Episcopate

We are happy to be part of the family to congratulate you my Lord upon having made 40 years in priesthood and 25 years in episcopate. Congratulations my Lord Bishop upon this remarkable attainment!  We are direct beneficiaries of your religious life and good governance. Thank you for being a real parent who loves his children regardless of their status, background, age etc.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank you for helping many young, intelligent, disadvantaged and vulnerable children to receive quality education. We are impressed with your passion and dedication in developing the musical talents of these young ones.

Naggalama Old Students Association (NOSA)

We successfully held the Naggalama Old Students Annual General Meeting on 18^th November 2023. Among the business of the day was the election of the new executive. These include:

1. Council Naume Sikhoya         –         President
2. Dr. Nunda  Ezra Kibirango     –         Vice President
3. Dr. Ntege                           –         Secretary
4. Mr. Lukabwe Daniel              –         Treasurer
5. Mr. Denis Bwanika               –         Publicity Secretary
6. Mr. Kutosi Micheal                –         Academic Secretary

We thank Her Worship, Nalongo Naume Sikhoya for having registered NOSA as a legal entity and the NOSA Constitution with the registrar of Companies. Since the old students define our brand, we shall continue to work with them and also maintain our close relationship with them so as to benefit from each other.

Infrastructural development

We are happy to inform you that the school has just completed a massive project of constructing a five storeyed girls’ dormitory which will accommodate almost all the girls. The construction commenced on 8^th August 2022, and was completed in January 2025. This State of The Art dormitory will be commissioned on 15^th March 2025, by Rt. Rev. Christopher Kakooza, the Bishop of Lugazi Diocese.

Lower Secondary Curriculum

Our pioneer candidates of the Competency Based Curriculum will sit for U.C.E. examinations this year. Efforts are being made to prepare them for outstanding performance so as to remain a national academic giant.

Challenges

• Misuse and uncontrolled use of electronic media which has negatively impacted on and eroded the innocence of some of our children has promoted moral decay.  We request parents to be mindful of how the children use phones and other electronic gadgets while at home.

• As a school we are seriously challenged by the intermittent power supply from UMEME Uganda Limited. We experience daily power outrage and when it comes back it is either in low or high voltage which destroys property and disrupts our normal operation. We request for help.

Appreciation:

It is very rewarding to work under a profound result-oriented leader; Rt. Reverend Christopher Kakooza.  He inspires us to work diligently for the school to excel in all its domains.  We thank His Lordship for giving us our jobs and providing an enabling environment for us to work peacefully. We appreciate him in a special way for his invaluable role in the growth of the school’s physical infrastructure. His input has helped us to undertake the construction of the massive and magnificent new girls’ dormitory which is going to be the state-of-the-art.  Your Lordship, we pledge to reciprocate your love by continuing to excel so as to take Naggalama to greater heights.  We thank you Bishop Christopher Kakooza for presiding over this year’s St. Joseph’s Day celebrations and for the spiritually enriching homily.

Our success and steady growth as a school is partially attributed to the Very Reverend Msgr. Richard Kayondo, who steers an effective, committed, competent and devoted Board of Governors.  We thank this Board for their commendable governance work, meticulous planning and monitoring as well as facilitating the implementation of the decisions they make.  This propels us to work to produce stellar results. 

In a special way we thank the following stakeholders for their contribution towards the success of the school: the staff, for their commitment, being team players and the winning team. The NOSA members, for their love and involvement in the activities of the school.  The students, for their exemplary discipline, passion to excel, hardwork and for accepting to be formed in an integral manner.  Our parents, for the support they give to us through prompt payment of school fees and the general goodwill besides the positive attitude toward the school.  We are grateful to all of you for sparing your precious time to attend our Patron Saints Day celebrations.  We equally thank all the service providers for ensuring the success of the day.

I wish you blessed celebrations.  May St. Joseph, our Patron Saint intercede for us.

“Disciplined we Succeed”

“For God and My Country”

Agnes Nsubuga (Mrs.)

Headmistress