Unregistered schools will not reopen, says government

KAMPALA. The Ministry of Education and Sports has announced that private secondary schools without licenses will not be allowed to open for the first term unless they put in place the basic requirements as demanded by government.
Mr Ismail Mulindwa, the commissioner in charge of private secondary education, said defiant schools which open for the first term on February 6 will be closed forthwith.

He appealed to parents to crosscheck with the ministry of Education and their respective district education offices to ensure they take their children to the right schools.
“There is no school that is supposed to open for term one if it is not registered. We don’t know them and they are the ones bringing us problems. Many of them are substandard and the quality of education they offer is poor,” Mr Mulindwa said.
However, he admitted that some ministry officials delay the registration process.

“We are partly to blame that some of these schools continue to operate illegally. Someone wants a licence and he is pushed from office to office. If one presents their files with complete information, it should not take more than a day to get a licence,” Mr Mulindwa said.
Private schools under their umbrella National Private Education Institutions Association have blamed the ministry officials for failing to guide them on the registration process yet they fill in the gaps in education where government has failed.
Mr Hassan Kirabira, the association’s research officer, yesterday said while they do not condone illegal schools, he asked government to look at their needs.

“The ministry or even Kampala Capital City Authority don’t follow the procedure. There is this breach which is affecting our education system. When they inspect, they are supposed to write a report and share with the school. Instead, they write back telling the schools that they have closed them without highlighting the problem and giving them time to improve,” Mr Kirabira said.
There are about 3,500 private secondary schools in the country. The ministry estimates that more than 100 non-compliant schools will be affected at the beginning of the term, some districts are already posting bigger numbers. Some of the schools lack qualified teachers, don’t have laboratories and lack latrines.

In Ntungamo District alone, the senior education officer, Mr David Kyahurwa, said more than 250 private primary, secondary and nursery schools have been notified not to open for the new term if they have not registered. He said the school owners were informed at the end of second term and should have registered by now.
“We do not believe in closing schools. We want to give them time to legalise their existence. This is a reason we gave them time to fill forms, get assessed and licensed, but I tell you even those we had licensed earlier, their licences expired and no effort for renewal has been made,” Mr Kyahurwa said.

Affected schools
He added that at least 198 nursery schools, 85 primary schools and 14 secondary schools will not be allowed to open in the district. He said their facilities are poor and the schools do not use the national curriculum.
Mr Kyahurwa said what is more disturbing is that some schools implementing the government’s Universal Primary Education (UPE) have started nursery section with no classrooms and without approval from the ministry.
The ministry has plans to start nursery education at every UPE school, but doesn’t have funds to facilitate the teachers and construct classrooms for this section.
Dr Tony Lusambu, the assistant commissioner for Primary Education, told Daily Monitor that they don’t know when this plan will materialise.

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