St. Maria Goretti Girls' Senior Secondary School is a girls’ School privately owned by Fort Portal Diocese. It is found in Kabarole District one and a half kilometer (1.5 km) off Fort Portal – Kasese road.

The school was founded in 1954 by the white sisters from Europe and Canada with the aim of offering vocational education to the women population. It was then opened as a junior school known as St. Ann’s. The head teachers then for the vocational and the junior school were Sr. Cephas and Sr. Mary respectively. In 1960, other subjects with emphasis on teaching art subjects were incorporated in the curriculum.

In 1967, the school attained a senior secondary school status and acquired the current name; Saint Maria Goretti Girls’ senior secondary school under the administration of the sisters of the Holy Cross from United States of America. The first Holy Cross headmistress was Sr. Catherine de Ricci. She was followed by Sr. Mary luise CSC. This was before the sisters from the indigenous congregations had attained sufficient education to head such a school.

In 1977, the Holy Cross sisters handed over the administration of the school to the congregation of the daughters’ of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus (DST) (Banyatereza). Sr. Immaculate was the first Munyatereza to head the school.

It was registered with the ministry of Education and Sports in 1981 (no. PSS/S.6) and has a UNEB centre number U0191. In 1985 the school attained High school certificate status. Teaching sciences at ‘A’ level started in 2001.

Sr. Immaculate Atwooki was succeeded by Sr. Petronella Banura in 1980. Under her leadership the school grew in both enrollment and infrastructure.

In 1985 Sr. Margaret Aliganyira took over administration from her. She handed over the mantle to Sr. Tereza Byaruhanga in 1987. The soft spoken sister of God saw the school organizing the first fund-raising to improve infrastructure. She served diligently and in 1993 handed over to Sr. Redempta Asabaheebwa. She worked hard to maintain the discipline and academic performance. It was during her term of office when the disastrous earthquake hit Kabarole District. St. Maria Goretti being one of the institutions hit most, she also contributed greatly towards the re construction of the infrastructure. She was succeeded by Sr. Seraphine Kaitesirwa in 1999. During her time, the school attained great heights in academics and spirituality. Sr. Rose Kemigisa took over the administration from Sr. Seraphine in 2006. She also built on the foundation of her predecessors, maintained the values and introduced many innovations. In August 2007, Sr. Lutigard Komulembe was given the responsibility of heading the school until Jan 2008. Sr. Paula Kunihira took over the responsibility in 2008. Like her predecessors, she worked very hard to maintain the academics, discipline, and improved the enrollment of the school greatly. It was during her administration that school celebrated its silver jubilee. Therefore, the construction of a new chapel was began as a memorial for the silver jubilee. She also spearheaded the buying of the School Bus.

The school trains girls to be academically, morally and spiritually upright. The girls of St. Maria Goretti are known for being God fearing and disciplined. It has trained many girls some of whom are important people in Government, Doctors, Nurses, Administrators, Lawyers, Teachers and in other offices.

St. Maria Goretti is a home of academic excellence, discipline and morals. These are the values that form a girl of St. Maria Goretti.

The girls of St. Maria Goretti are healthy. The secret behind their health is that they do co-curricular activities especially games and sports. The school has had the strongest football team in the district for the last five years. Alongside Netball, volleyball was brought on board. They also show their talents through music, dance and drama.

We are grateful to the Late Bishop Vincent McCauley for establishing this school and enlightening the girl child in Tooro and beyond.

Currently, the school has a teaching staff of 35 qualified teachers. Sr. Kyomukama Mary is the Head teacher, Sr. Mbabazi Theopista Deputy 1 and Mr. Ngonzi Adolf Deputy 2/ DOS.