Written By | Alex Mbamanya
Puritazio Musisi, lifts her daughter Patricia Asiimwe as they cerebrate her UACE success. Asiimwe scored 20 ponts in HEG
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Mbarara
Patricia Asiimwe, a former student of St Elizabeth Girls Secondary School, Mbarara, was among the top performers in the 2025 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations whose results were released by UNEB on Friday.
The 19-year-old scored 20 points in History, Entrepreneurship and Geography (HEG), with credit 3 in General Paper and credit 5 in ICT.
Like many students in Uganda who face challenges in their pursuit of academic success, Asiimwe says that if it were not for the motherly support of her former head teacher, the late Sarah Nakkazi, her education might have taken a different path, especially because her father does not have a stable source of income.
“It has been a big struggle for me to stay in school because my father’s source of income could not meet the demands. If it were not for her (Nakkazi’s) motherly support, I would not have remained in school. That is why I dedicate this achievement to her. May her soul rest in peace,” an emotional Asiimwe said.
Nakkazi was the pioneer head teacher of St Elizabeth Girls Secondary School in 2017 before she passed away in 2024 while still serving in the same position.
Asiimwe’s father, Puritazio Musisi, is a barber in Mbarara City, a job he started in 1999 after he had dropped out of school due to failure to raise school fees.
Musisi, an orphan whose parents both passed away while he was still in Primary Four in the early 1990s, was forced to relocate to Mbarara town in search of survival.
A native of Omukatafari Village in Bugarama, Bisheshe Sub-county in Ibanda District, Musisi started a hair salon in what was then Mbarara town before later diversifying into property brokerage. The two ventures remain his main sources of income.
He says his barbering work connected him to Nakkazi when she was still serving at St Mary’s Girls Secondary School, Mbarara, where he used to provide hair trimming services to students under a school contract.
When Nakkazi later transferred to St Elizabeth Girls Secondary School, Musisi continued offering the same services there, which eventually made it easier for his daughter to join Senior One in 2020.
Despite the family’s financial challenges, Musisi says Nakkazi remained supportive throughout his daughter’s time at the school.
“If it were not for her kindness, I would not have managed to keep my daughter in school. She allowed me to pay any amount in instalments until I cleared the school fees balances throughout the five years she was head teacher. I also dedicate my daughter’s success to her. May her soul continue resting in peace,” Musisi said.
Asiimwe, who scored 19 aggregates at Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) and 20 points at UACE, says she dedicated herself to hard work and concentration while at school in order to repay the sacrifices made by her father and teachers.
She says she hopes to pursue a course related to Entrepreneurship, which she developed a strong interest in during her studies.
Among the programmes she is considering are Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Procurement and Logistics Management, or Human Resource Management.
Torch Media Africa
