Thursday, April 12, 2019
By Boniface Mulu
The Kitui Catholic Diocesan owned Saint John Paul II Institute started in May 2014 with some three students and is having a total of 358 students today.
The disclosure has been made by the institution’s director Reverend Father Francis Ngungu. “The college started with a director, Father Joseph Mwongela,” Ngungu added.
He further said that all the courses by the college are registered by the Kenya’s Education Ministry. The director announced that the college started with two classes. “And we have added several departments as we speak today,” the priest added.
Ngungu was speaking to thousands of people including the Saint Paul II institute’s students, parents and tutors during the institution’s 1stgraduation ceremony held on Friday, April 5, 2019 where Professor Justus M.Munyoki from the Nairobi University was the chief guest at the ceremony.
A total of 125 students graduated during the graduation ceremony. “We are happy with all the 1,080 students who have passed through here (the Saint John Paull II Institute),” Ngungu said.
He announced that they (the college) have come up with a programme of teaching their students some sign language. “Every student here is to be taught the sign language for the good of the disabled people,” the cleric said.
He announced that in their future programme they will be training the special needs persons at the institute for their (the disabled) benefits. “The people with special needs are to be helped through trainings to be working like the other people,” the director said.
We want to become more compliant with special needs education for the benefits of the people with special needs, Ngungu added. “We want to help the people so that they can be employed in the job market,” he added.
We want this institution to be known more than how is known today, he also said. The college offers a range of courses including business management, human resources management, social work, supply chain management, ICT, information science, banking and finance, secretarial studies, special needs education, information technology and early childhood development education. The director announced that they are planning to come up with a sports programme in the institution. “We want to have very good sporting teams in the institution to be going for sporting competitions anywhere in the world,” the cleric said.
The director disclosed that currently the college has a total of nine teaching staff members and three support staff members. In his speech, the Nyeri Catholic Archbishop, His Grace Anthony Muheria, congratulated the Saint John Paul II Institute’s new candidates and the graduands. “The college shows its full maturity by the group that has graduated today,” Muheria, who is also the Kitui Catholic Diocesan Apostolic Administrator said. “I want to tell these young people that they cannot remain where they are.
This is not the end but the beginning,” the Archbishop said. He added that in the next they are going to increase the institution’s graduation gowns. “This institute was officially opened a week after the canonization of Saint John Paul II,” Muheria said.
The institute was officially opened and blessed on May 10, 2014 by the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya, His Excellency Archbishop Charles Balvo accompanied by the then Kitui Catholic Diocesan Bishop Anthony Muheria. Muheria highly lauded the Saint John Paul II Institute’s students for learning the sign language. “You have to learn this specific language which is the sign language,” the cleric told the students.
He said that Pope John Paul II learned 12 languages before he became the pope. “As I wind up, I want to wish you all a very wonderful future,” the Archbishop said. And on his part, Professor Munyoki said that the Saint John Paul II Institute has a very strong foundation in the Catholic faith. “We are happy for having 358 students in this institution and 125 of them graduating today,” the don said.
As you graduate from this college, remember that the journey has just started,” Munyoki told the graduands. “You need to be so proud that you have passed through this college which is highly rated,” he further told them. That gown defines your position in the society, hehonoredld them. “I feel very privileged to be honoured as part of the institution’s first graduation,” Munyoki said.
The don disclosed that after his Advanced Level school education in university-level the Nairobi University for his university level university. “I was a student at the Nairobi University and I am teaching there for the 27th year,” he said.
The professor asked the graduands not to underrate their certificates. “There are some people say that an academic certificate is just a mere paper,” Munyoki said. The professor said that the worthiness of a certificate is really what you are able to do with it. “Your certificates give you higher responsibilities in the society,” Munyoki told the graduands.
“These days the education is what we are calling the open system,” he added. The don talked about the fake academic certificates including the university degrees. “Those who are acquiring fake academic certificates are a big disgrace to the society,” Munyoki said. He said that the job market in the world is becoming thinner and thinner with a very large number of students graduating day by day. The don asked the Saint John Paul II Institute’s management to think of introducing the entrepreneurship course in the institution as he talked about their (the entrepreneurship courses) importance. “These courses have become attractive in the entire world,” he said. During the ceremony, Archbishop Muheria conferred diplomas and certificates to the graduands where the diploma, certificate, artisan, computer packages and advanced computer packages were the graduation group.
The function was also addressed by the Saint John Paul II Institute Board of Management Chairman Lucas Nzangi among others.
The end of the story
