Mengo Senior School
| Mengo Senior School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
|
Kampala, Central Region Uganda |
|
| Coordinates | 00°19′14″N 32°33′42″E / 0.32056°N 32.56167°ECoordinates: 00°19′14″N 32°33′42″E / 0.32056°N 32.56167°E |
| Information | |
| Type | Public middle school and high school (8-13) |
| Motto | Akwana Akira Ayomba (Make friends and never foes) |
| Established | 1895 |
| Principal | Mr. John Fred Kazibwe |
| Number of students | c. 3700 |
| Slogan | Fearing God, Integrity and Respect of persons and property |
| Athletics | Soccer, netball, rugby, volleyball, and basketball |
| Publication | The Mengo Star |
| Website | www |
Mengo Senior School, also known as Mengo SS, is a comprehensive, mixed day school in Kampala. As of December 2014[update], it had 3,716 students, 144 teachers, 28 technical staff, and more than 30 support staff.
Mengo SS is located on Namirembe Hill, along Hoima Road in Lubaga Division, in the north-western part of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The coordinates of the school are 0°19'14.0"N, 32°33'42.0"E (Latitude:0.320556; Longitude:32.561667).
Having been founded in 1895 by the Church Missionary Society, the school is the oldest school in Uganda. According to the school magazine, Akwana, the school complex started as an informal home school where a missionary, Miss Chadwick, taught reading and writing. Her students were mainly youth who came to her house for prayers every afternoon.
Most of the boys Chadwick taught were houseboys of the missionaries. After a while, she began sending them to chiefs, asking that the latter send their children to her for lessons. Soon, the potential of her efforts began to be noticed. As the number of Chadwick's learners grew, it was realised that her house was no longer sufficient to serve as a school. The missionaries, eager to use formal education to fuel their religious work, established a standard formal school on Chadwick's foundation.
In 1895, an elementary mixed school known as Kayanja was founded at Mengo, making it one of the first standard formal schools in Uganda. The school's location and appearance are thus described by A. K. Sempa in his 1941 article African Schools. The first school building was a reed-walled structure, with a grass-thatched roof.
The magazine points out that most of the first students who enrolled in the first Mengo School (Kayanja) became school masters posted by Church Councils to rural areas. Many became clerks and chiefs. The number of learners attending the school grew. It soon became necessary to house the learners in a boarding school. The Prime Minister of Buganda (Katikkiro), Apollo Kaggwa, gave them his house on Namirembe Hill, which they used for nine years.
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Wikipedia