“I Wrote on the Floor with My Finger” – Retired Bishop Jackson Matovu Shares His Painful School Journey with Naalya Students
Some lessons are not found in textbooks. They come from the lived struggles of those who walked a rocky path so that today’s children could walk on paved ground. On 11th/04/2026, during his visit to commission the new class block at Naalya Secondary School, Lugazi Campus, Retired Bishop Jackson Matovu gathered students for a rare and moving address. He did not speak about theology or success alone. He spoke about hunger for education – his own hunger – when even a single book was a distant dream.
The elderly Bishop, known for his humility, sat before a hall of wide‑eyed learners and took them back to his childhood. “In those days,” he began, “children studied in schools ran by their religions. There were no schools that enrolled all religions like you have today. We went to church‑based classrooms, but they had almost nothing.”
He paused, then added softly: “I had no book and pen.”
The students fell silent. Bishop Matovu explained that without exercise books or even slates, he would use the dirt floor of the classroom as his page. “I wrote with my finger on the floor. Every letter, every number – traced in the soil.” But there was a problem: other children’s feet or his own movement could erase his work before the teacher saw it. So he developed a habit that showed both his desperation and his determination. “I protected my written words with my hand. I would crouch over them and call the teacher to come and check while I still had the answer on the floor. If the teacher delayed, my lesson would be gone.”
He told the students that many of his classmates gave up. “But I told myself – what I write today, I must remember tomorrow, because the floor will not keep it for me.”
After completing his lower education under those harsh conditions, young Jackson Matovu dreamed of one of Uganda’s finest institutions. “I always admired Makerere University. I wanted to walk through its gates more than anything.” But God, he said, writes a different story for those who trust Him. “God blessed me, not with Makerere, but with a chance to study abroad – in New Zealand.” (He pronounced it as Newsland, and the students smiled at his gentle accent.)
The Bishop quickly added: “Do not misunderstand me. Makerere is a great university, and many of you will go there. But my lesson is this – do not limit God by your own plan. I had no book, no floor that kept my work, and no Makerere. Yet today I stand before you a bishop and an old student who never stopped learning. Your excuse is smaller than my mountain. ”
He challenged the Naalya students to value every book, every pen, and every clean classroom. “You have desks. You have libraries. You have teachers who do not ask you to write on dust. If I could become who I am by writing on the floor with my finger, what is stopping you from becoming greater?”
The speech ended with a prayer, but the students remained seated for a moment, processing the image of a young boy crouched over the earth, guarding his homework with his hand.
As the Public Relations of Naalya Secondary Schools, I share this testimony so that every parent, teacher, and learner who reads our website remembers: struggle is a seed, and gratitude is the harvest.
We thank Retired Bishop Jackson Matovu for not keeping his story to himself. May our students carry his finger‑written words in their hearts.
NSUBUGA ALPHAT GGAYIRA
PUBLIC RELATIONS