Crack the whip on early and late night classes

The Minister of Education and Sports, Ms Janet Museveni, early this year asked schools to stop teaching children as early as 6am or beyond the mandatory 5pm.
However, going by what this newspaper reported on Sunday, schools either did not understand her directive or simply ignored the minister’s call altogether.

According to assistant commissioner for primary education in the Education ministry, Dr Tony Mukasa Lukambu, even when the Education Act is very clear on the teaching time table, many educationists still go ahead to teach children in the wee hours of the morning or late even after 5pm.
And as a result, he says, some children have lost sight because of their classrooms that are poorly lit. Yet to some, most mornings are cold and this presents to them different ailments.

That is not all, in urban settings such as Kampala, many children who are not in boarding school reach home late due to the chaotic city traffic. They struggle to do the tedious homework and go to bed as late as 11pm. By 5am, they are thrust out of their beds for one or two reasons - to beat the traffic jam or be at school and attend the early morning lessons, which sometimes start as early as 6am.

The routine goes on, and for infants, this lifestyle only brews fatigue.
For those that are not lucky enough to have parents who have a vehicle or cannot afford school shuttles, as happens with many upcountry schools, they have to trek to school at dawn. This not only exposes the children to harmful situations, but also doesn’t give them enough time to rest.
The adamancy schools exhibit by drawing up their own schedules goes against the aims of Primary school curriculum set by the National Curriculum Development Centre.

For instance, the curriculum advocates for the use of friendly child-centred methods and approaches where learners must participate in their learning activities in order to make reasonable learning achievements.
Pumping learners with class work violates the need to give them friendly methods of teaching. Children should ideally be taught for at least seven hours a day with breaks in between. They should also be given ample time for co-curricular activities and entertainment, among others.
Much as parents have no option, but to do as schools demand, the authorities shouldn’t merely offer lip-service to a growing cancer.

The ministry has the mandate and resources to enforce the set rules and regulations. What are the district education officers doing? What are the school inspectors across the country doing? The government shouldn’t just lament, but act on schools failure to adhere to the set rules.