Schools Could Re-open on April 27
Schools will pick up from where they stopped with the first
term of learning after the 30-day school lockdown, according to the
Ministry of Education and sports.
The school term was prematurely cut short on March 19,
2020 as a precautionary measure to forestall the spread of COVID-19. At
the time of the closure, President Yoweri Museveni said the closure was aimed
at protecting the more than 15 million learners that are enrolled in schools at
different education levels.
The Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni
today announced that schools will tentatively open on April 27, 2020
and pick up from where they stopped before the school term was cut short.
Initially the first term was supposed to close on May 1, 2020.
However with the new changes, the first term will end on June 12, 2020.
“When the school term opens, the first term will
continue. No extra fees should be charged when schools reopen,”Mrs
Museveni said.
At the time of the closure of the school term, learners had
another six weeks left to go with the school term. They had only studied for
seven weeks.
The second term will then open on June 22,2020 and close
on September 4,2020 and the third term will consequently start on
September 21 and close on 19 December,2020 as opposed to earlier set dates.
Due to the changes in the school calendar, Mrs Museveni says
that schools are banned from giving candidates several mock examinations as is
the normal practice.
“All schools are banned from engaging students from
extra sets of mocks this year to ensure that syllabus recovery term is not
misused. All learners will sit for one set of internal mock examinations at the
end of second term,” the minister said.
The education minister encouraged teachers to use this time
away from classrooms to prepare lesson plans that will enable proper
syllabus coverage.
“Teachers are
encouraged to prepare all lesson for the remaining part of the term before
school reopens,” Mrs Museveni said.
As learners wait for the school term to open, the education
ministry is going to provide learning material that can be accessed on both
radio and television to keep them busy.
“To ensure that children are learning during this time
of school closure, the ministry under the guidance of NCDC standardises self-study
packages in all the core subjects,” Mrs Museveni said.
Teachers identified by school inspectors and district
education officers will out broadcasted lessons at different located times. The
plans announced by the education ministry are part of Education Response Plan
to COVID-19.
So far, Uganda has 48 confirmed cases of the disease. No
deaths or recoveries have yet been reported.
