All Senior Six vacists will spend about six months in patriotism training at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi, starting this year, the government has announced.
Hellen Seku, Commissioner of the National Secretariat for Patriotism Corps (NSPC), made the announcement on Sunday in Rukungiri District. She said the plan had been agreed with President Yoweri Museveni.
“You’re going to go for about six months,” Seku told students.
She was speaking at Immaculate Heart Girls’ Secondary School Nyakibale, where more than 1,700 students from four schools passed out after a week-long patriotism course. The course covered national identity, discipline, Pan-Africanism, political history and security.
Seku said the programme aims to instil discipline, patriotism and a sense of national identity and responsibility in young people.
She also announced refresher training for school patriotism patrons and coordinators, as well as for teachers and head teachers who have never been trained or were trained long ago.
Makobore High School head teacher Gadgar Kibayo Arinitwe, who attended the event, said he spent two months at Kyankwanzi after completing Senior Six in 1993, and that the values he gained there have stayed with him.
Seku did not say when the training will begin, whether it will be compulsory, who will meet the costs, or how it will fit with university admissions and reporting dates for this year’s UACE candidates.
In 2024, she made a similar announcement at a Gayaza High School pass-out, saying all S6 leavers would undergo at least three months of compulsory training at Kyankwanzi from that year. It is unclear whether that plan was implemented.
CampusBee has contacted the NSPC and the Ministry of Education and Sports for details and will update this story.
