It gives me great pleasure to be part of the celebration marking the 10thanniversary of St Mary’s College, Lugazi. Celebrating 10 years of existence of any project has a lot of meaning to the owners and beneficiaries. It a sign of commitment, hard work and perseverance. On the behalf of the Kingdom of Buganda and on my own behalf, I congratulate the fraternity of St Mary’s College, Lugazi upon this achievement.
From what I have learnt about this school, many parents, students, teachers and other stakeholders have benefited a lot in the 10 years. I encourage other of good will to start ventures which directly benefit our people in Buganda, and Uganda in general.
In your theme I picked out “excellence” as the key word. I call upon all of you to appreciate the true meaning of the word. Excellence refers to the situation of being outstanding or extremely good. I personally believe in quality. In my view, for some to be excellent, one has to be rated to be of integrity; to have passion, creativity, natural talent, interest in success; one must be taken about self-awareness, commitment; and one ought to contribute to the overall good of the place or institution where one operates, and most importantly, one must be active and must show up.
It does not matter how you show up; what matters is that you show up. Do not let temporary obstacles keep you from showing up on a day-to-day basis. When you show up, you will gain stability and forward momentum, as you peruse your vision and goals.
For a school, showing up for students means being an active participant in the institution’s programs, be they academic or co-curricular. The teaching staff, the non-teaching staff including the administrators and proprietors, it means being dutiful and responsive to the requirements for the growth of this school.
Many people think excellence is meant for others and they rank themselves at the lower wrung. Excellence calls for contributing our best to the world while evoking others to do the same.
St Mary’s College Lugazi has set the pace for quality secondary school education in Uganda. I have no doubt, by believing in your selves as you have shown in the last 10 years, you will live for generations.