By Kabuye Ronald
Cabinet on Monday made recommendations for reopening of semi candidate classes in order to complete the academic year and ensure progression.
The communication has been revealed by Denis Katungi on behalf of the executive director of Uganda Media Centre Ofwono Opondo.
He said that given that PLE will be completed on 31st March, 2021 and UCE on 6th April, 2021, there will be more space in schools, when candidates leave, to enable the other classes report back and study to complement home schooling.
“In order to complete the academic year and ensure progression, the semi-candidate classes (P6, S3 and S5) should report back to school in the short term and study (in shifts where necessary) with the Candidate classes.” Said Katungi
Cabinet also recommended for reopening of The Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions, Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs) and National Teachers’ Colleges (NTCs) should also open in the short term provided they are able to observe the SOPs.
Cabinet asserts that Primary Teachers’ Colleges and National Teachers’ Colleges have the infrastructure capacity for the number of students enrolled to observe the social distancing requirement.
Promotion to the next class will be based on attendance and continuous assessment of class work and assignments.
Meanwhile cabinet objected to the re-opening of pre-primary schools saying that they cannot observe SOPS.
“the pre-primary schools should not be re-opened because Learners in this category cannot observe the SOPs and are prone to respiratory infections including COVID-19 and in addition, most of the pre-primary schools are day and therefore, there is a lot of interface between the Learners, Teachers and Parents hence increasing the risk of infection.
(iii) The Leadership of the Ministries of: Education and Sports; and Health will undertake a countrywide tour of schools and Institutions to ascertain their preparedness to reopen for non-candidate classes.” Said Katungi
However cabinet remained mute on recommending the dates for reopening.
