General
JNLC Hosts Youth Leadership Training for Secondary School Student Leaders
The Julius Nyerere Leadership Center (JNLC) recently concluded a transformative three-day Youth Leadership Training program for secondary school student leaders. Held at Makerere University, the program brought together young leaders from six schools to build leadership competencies and instill core values inspired by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s principles.
Facilitators and Participating Schools
The program featured renowned facilitators, including Dr. Gardner Rwakiseta, Mr. David Nyaribi, Mr. Henry Kasacca, Mr. Saazi Ronald, Ms. Allen Baguma, Ivan Sabastian Ssegawa and Ms. Gloria Jombwe. The schools represented at the training included Kitante Hill School, Taibah International School, St. Mary’s College Kisubi, Luzira Secondary School, King’s College Budo, and Makerere College School. Each school sent a delegation of at least five student leaders, such as head prefects, speakers, and other prefects.
Program Highlights
Over the course of three days, participants engaged in interactive sessions on decision-making, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and servant leadership. These sessions were designed to challenge the students while cultivating a mindset centered on integrity, purpose-driven leadership, and service to others.
Widening the Scope of Leadership Training
Dr. Nansozi Muwanga, Executive Director of the JNLC, emphasized the Center’s mission to groom young leaders for societal transformation. “Since our inception, we have trained university leaders from across Uganda and received positive feedback. This success motivated us to extend our training to secondary schools,” she said. The initiative reflects the values of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, including Pan-Africanism, accountability, and transparency.
Dr. Muwanga highlighted that this program was a pilot initiative aimed at assessing its effectiveness in secondary schools. “After three years of training university student leaders and supporting Makerere University during guild leader inductions, we felt it was time to cascade these efforts to younger students,” she explained.
JNLC’s Legacy and Objectives
Founded in 2018 on the initiative of His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the JNLC aims to honor and preserve Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s legacy. The center focuses on:
- Conducting policy-relevant research to bridge gaps between academia and practical policies.
- Fostering cross-generational dialogues on African history, Pan-Africanism, peace and security, and revolutionary movements.
- Training youth and emerging leaders.
Dr. Muwanga emphasized the importance of equipping young leaders with moral integrity and a service-oriented mindset. “Our youth program addresses leadership skill gaps while integrating emerging issues such as social media, digital literacy, mental health and well-being,” she said.
Empowering Young Leaders
With 78% of Uganda’s population under 30, the center’s programs aim to prepare young people to drive national progress. “You are not only the leaders of tomorrow but the influencers of today,” Dr. Muwanga told participants. She underscored the importance of ethical leadership, which fosters teamwork and reduces corruption.
Ms. Gloria Jombwe highlighted the inclusion of topics like financial literacy and emotional intelligence in the training to ensure holistic development. “Leadership intersects with various life spheres, and understanding these connections helps leaders to serve effectively,” she said.
Insights on Leadership and Resilience
During his session, Dr. Gardner Rwakiseta stressed resilience as a key leadership trait. The need for resilience is key regardless of the situation that you are going through. “As a leader you need to be resilient, but how do you build resilience so that you maneuver the storm? One, you need to have values that are aiming for success, and then equip yourself with the skills to accompany your values,” he guided. In sum, “resilience equips leaders to navigate challenges effectively. It stems from strong values and practical skills,” he noted, drawing inspiration from President Museveni’s steadfastness in the face of criticism and ridicule on social media.
Mr. Ssazi Ronald encouraged participants to adopt servant leadership. “True leaders focus on lifting others. Leadership is not about self-interest but about guiding people toward collective success,” he said. He also disclosed plans to expand the program to more schools in future editions, aiming to create ambassadors within participating schools.
Reflections from Participants
Tabitha Nakayenze, Head Prefect of Luzira Secondary School, expressed a renewed commitment to servant leadership. “This training has inspired me to prioritize the needs of others, just as Mwalimu Nyerere did. I hope to demonstrate unity and equality in my leadership,” she shared. She believes many leaders today are self-centered, which hinders service delivery, but, trainings like this inspire young people to emulate leaders like Mwalimu Nyerere, who prioritized the greater good.
“Before coming here, I only knew Nyerere as the first president of Tanzania, and one of the people who fought for freedom of other people. Today, I have learnt many things about Julius Nyerere including the principles of pan Africanism, equality, and unity, and I hope to demonstrate these to my fellows,” she said.
Goodluck Kia Omondi echoed similar sentiments, highlighting the significance of servant leadership. “Learning about Nyerere’s life has taught me that leadership is about service. This training has been eye-opening,” he said.
“I am delighted to be part of this training. When you get exposed to Mwalimu Nyerere’s life, you see a person who dedicated his life to impact other people’s life through servant leadership. From the training so far, I have learnt that leadership is about service to others. Many people who get to office are self-centered, but I have realized that service is key to leadership,” Omondi said.
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere: A Brief Legacy
Born on April 13, 1922, in Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania), Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a teacher and Pan-Africanist who later became the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Educated at Makerere College in Uganda and the University of Edinburgh, he championed values of equality, unity, and freedom. His leadership principles continue to inspire generations across Africa.
The JNLC’s Youth Leadership Training for secondary school leaders marks a significant step in nurturing ethical and capable young leaders to shape future policies in their schools and communities and later in Uganda and beyond.
The Senior Program Director, Higher Education and Research in Africa, International Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prof. Omotade Akin Aina on 23rd May 2025 visited Makerere University during his short trip to Kampala. Prof. Aina was received on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe by Prof. Tony Oyana, Principal of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
During his visit, Prof. Aina met with the Project Implementation Committee, representatives from the Consolidating Early Career Academics Programme (CECAP) phase I Fellowship Cohort, and current Fellows of phase II. The meeting discussed the progress of CECAP II, which focuses on fostering academic development and research among early-career academics.
CECAP II is being implemented by Makerere University in collaboration with four other Ugandan public universities, including; Busitema University, Gulu University, Kyambogo University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza, the Project Principal Investigator was represented at the meeting by the Director of Graduate Training, Prof. Julius Kikooma.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training at Makerere University has equipped several Senior ranking lecturers with expert knowledge in a Training of Trainers’ workshop on “Philosophy of Methods”.
In his remarks at the opening of a 3-day training workshop at Level4 Conference Hall – Senate Building, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “The teaching of Philosophy of Methods gives all participants the fundamentals to extend knowledge to other learners, hence its importance in upholding the Makerere University values.”
Kikooma urged and challenged the participants to also attend and actively participate in the follow up of learners’ training of students, stating that the PhD students need support as the directorate continues to coordinate the curriculum of PhD by-research that was approved by the senate recently.
“To holistically implement the senate approved PhD curriculum, we are coordinating capacity building trainings of all stake holders in a structured approach with the different units of the University. Many more trainings including Training of Trainers in advanced research methods course are on the way.”
He further urged the participants to be intentional in their teaching profession and in whatever they were doing, adding “Apart from focusing on practices as teachers and researchers, we can engage in wider philosophical debates in our research areas so that we are relevant in the society and in the empowerment of PhD research students.”
The participants for the Philosophy of Methods training were from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University Business School among others.
During the same training, Dr. Dickson Kanakulya stressed the need to train senior lecturers in the Philosophy of Methods, saying, “The biggest connection is that societal problems require concrete research to find solutions. Our challenge in Africa is that we employ a short barrow approach to find solutions to problems. This cannot work. We need consistent researchers to solve problems. Lasting solutions to societal issues can only be got through training such as Philosophy of Methods, where researchers come up with new models for societal solutions.”
Dr. Kanakulya said that Makerere University remains the biggest research University in Africa and philosophy of Methods helps to come up with good research tools that produce good research outputs. “Research has shown that the higher the number of PhD researchers in any given country, the higher the levels of development of that country e.g. the USA, China etc., adding that research is not limited to only medicinal or agricultural related issues.”
He said philosophy of methods, encourages philosophical creativity in research, “It is meant to bring out philosophical generation of concepts, theories and ideas. It is meant to encourage students to question the existing philosophical assumptions and status quo in a given field of knowledge such that new philosophical concepts are created.”
For successful rollout of government programs like the National Development Plan 4, Dr. Kanakulya said that Philosophy of Methods training needs to be integrated into such systems. “Philosophy of Methods focuses on ethical thinking aspects. For example, for a better rollout of the Parish Development Model, we need implementers to be ethical.” He added.
Prof. Sulait Tumwiine, the associate Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at MUBS said, “This is a discussion where new ideas are shared to guide and gauge applicability in the current knowledge diversity coupled with lots of technological development including Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT.”
He added, “As professors of Universities, we need to understand how we leverage on what comes up so that it does not take our space, but also appreciate how we can support growth of knowledge. The Philosophy of Methods training is the answer.”
Dr. Jim Spire Ssentongo highlighted that Philosophy uses more of the critical mind than Science. He added that philosophy is more of speculation of the mind.
“Sustainability of philosophy Education encourages us to continue training. Philosophy being the oldest discipline retained special status in the academia as a pinnacle of pursuit of knowledge. All disciplines have major elements of philosophy citing examples in the philosophy of Mathematics and Physics.
Dr. Spire added, “If you do not understand philosophy, you cannot deeply investigate anything because philosophy is the reality of understanding everything. Philosophy is the basis of understanding what knowledge is and how it is arrived at.”
Also participating in the workshop was Prof. Joseph Ntaayi from MUBS, in his remarks he said PhD students need the philosophy of methods training to understand how to best to create knowledge. He added that ontological and epistemological questions that lead to good research design methods can only be answered by this training.
Dr. Robert Kakuru, a Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said that the Philosophy of Methods training is needed by every graduate student as well as supervisors to critically determine the choice of methods to use in academic research. For example, “If one wants to use a questionnaire as an interview approach, one should understand, why that approach and yet without this training, the why cannot be answered.” He added.
The Philosophy of Methods training was organized by Directorate of Graduate Training with funding support from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
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