St. Peter’s College Tororo Old Boys Association (SPECTOBA)

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Unveiling The Annual Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Award

Greetings from the fraternity of the Old Boys of St. Peter’s College Tororo.

St. Peter’s College Tororo Old Boys Association (SPECTOBA) has initiated the Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Award for outstanding students at Ordinary and Advanced Secondary education. The proposed awards are in memory and honor of the late Bernard Onyango (1930–2013) a long serving and exemplary public servant in tertiary administration.

Bernard Onyango as you may recall was a renowned academician, best remembered for his consistent support to higher education. Bernard Onyango was a man of many firsts: The first African Academic Registrar at the East African University; pioneer Academic Registrar at Makerere University and pioneer Academic Registrar at Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi. He was also the founding Board Chairman at Tororo Girls School, and also served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Bank of Uganda.

As pioneer Academic Registrar when Makerere University became a fully-fledged University in 1970 he held forte in office until 1992 leaving behind an impeccable record of distinguished service. The late Bernard Onyango was later to play a significant role in the establishment of another tertiary academic success story - Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, serving as academic registrar until he retired in December 2000.Students who studied at Makerere University between 1970 and 1992 during the term system will all recall and relate to the ‘Onyango Disco’ which was the popular reference for the end of year promotional examinations. Getting ready for the Onyango Disco meant doing serious preparatory work if one did not want to be invited for the ‘August Conference’ as re-sits were then known as.

Bernard Onyango attended St. Peter’s College Tororo between 1945 and 1950. In 1951, he enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology at Makerere University and later a one-year diploma in Education, launching his long career in academics and administration. In 1956, he started working as a teacher at his former school, St. Peter’s College Tororo for two and half years, leaving a dormitory named after him.

During his time at St. Peter’s College Tororo Bernard Onyango passed his exams with flying colors scoring 8 for 8 in 1948 at O’Level before proceeding to Makerere 1 | P a g e

where he was an outstanding student before embarking on a distinguished career as Academic Registrar.

As a motivation to those who came after him at St. Peter’s College Tororo, Bernard challenged any student who would match his performance with a reward of a Mercedes Benz. By the time of his death none had accomplished his feat and sadly Bernard departed before he could pass on the mantle of this academic excellence.

While the late Bernard Onyango can no longer honor his pledge, the fraternity of St. Peter’s College Tororo and the family of the late Bernard Onyango have taken up the challenge and responsibility of keeping his dreams alive by launching this Award – The Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Awards - in his memory.

Against this background, St. Peter’s College Tororo Old Boys Association (SPECTOBA) is spearheading an initiative to launch the Inaugural Bernard Onyango Memorial Lecture and thereafter the Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Awards. The Memorial Lecture and Academic Excellence Awards will be held annually starting this year.

The first recipients of the award will be two young men - Munno Isaac who sat the 2013 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations at St. Peter’s College Tororo, emerging one of the best students in the country with the coveted 8 for 8 aggregates, and Wandera Simon who sat the 2013 Uganda Advanced Certificate in Education (UACE) at St. Peter’s College Tororo, and emerged among the best students in the country with a maximum score of AAA in PEM and a subsidiary pass in General Paper.

We are grateful to the family of the late Bernard Onyango for joining the community of St. Peter’s College Tororo in initiating this noble cause in memory of the icon that Bernard Onyango was. We call upon all Ugandans of good will to join in at the inaugural Bernard Onyango Memorial Lecture to be held at Makerere University Main Hall on Friday, 30th May 2014 starting at 2:30 pm. The Key Note Speaker will be the Rt. Hon. Prof. Apolo Nsibambi (Former Prime Minister of Uganda).

Guests will thereafter be hosted at Silver Springs Hotel for a Dinner and official unveiling of the Bernard Onyango Excellence Awards from 6:00pm

We look forward to your presence.

Wilbrod Humphreys Owor Robert Odedo Onapito EkomoloitChairperson - SPECTOBA Treasurer Chair - BOAE Awards0776-479363 0772-402145 0772-503521

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