Govt bars students from reporting with sanitisers

The Ministry of Education has said parents should not pack sanitisers for their children who are reporting back to school on Thursday, saying it could breed drug abuse. 
Mr Benson Kule, the commissioner at directorate of education standards, said their guidance to schools is to ensure that there is water and soap at strategic positions for children to wash their hands frequently as one of the measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

“Sanitisers can be used for offices and teachers alone and not for learners. The alcohol content is very high. Learners are young people. They should be protected. Some will be carrying waragi (gin) saying it is a sanitiser and you will not be able to tell. You will end up with a drunk school,” Mr Kule said in an interview yesterday.  
The Ministry of Health advised manufacturers to make sanitisers with at least 70 per cent alcohol content in order for them to be effective enough to kill the virus that has become a global problem.

In addition to misuse, Mr Kule said it is likely to be expensive for the schools to buy, which cost can be shifted to the parents. 
Mr Hassadu Kirabira, the national private educational institutions association, Kampala chairperson, said the ongoing inspection should enable schools without standard operating procedures (SOPs) to reorganise themselves and put in place what is missing. 

For instance, he advised those institutions which will find it difficult to maintain the candidate classes because of fewer numbers to give them to neighbouring schools. 
“They have first inspected schools with centre numbers before they look at those without. In the event schools do not have halls and sitting centres and if you cannot manage the cost, pass them (candidates) over to neighbouring schools. It is expensive to have few numbers. But we need to start,” Mr Kirabira said.
Mr Kirabira added that their attention as school owners is mainly on ensuring that there is social distancing among learners, each student should have facemasks, water and soap to keep hygiene.

For schools planning to increase tuition, he asked them to invite parents for meetings to agree on what to do.
“If there are any challenges, schools will be closed. Parents will always complain even if Covid-19 was not there,” Mr Kirabira said.
He added: “I would urge schools not to increase fees and if they have to, they should go through the board of governors. Some parents might want to have better conditions compared to what schools have organised. There are some people who take themselves as high class.” 

Mr Kule said the districts had started debriefing on the outcome from inspection except for Mukono, Wakiso and Kampala districts with the biggest number of schools. 
“We have a backlog with Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso but we have added them inspectors. Schools which will be cleared will immediately be given a certificate of compliance to reopen,” Mr Kule said.
President Museveni cleared finalists at different education levels to report to school on October 15 after six months in lockdown. The government will monitor the performance of the phased reopening before other classes are allowed to join in.