School reopening spoils Xmas, New Year fete plot

The government yesterday announced that all schools countrywide will reopen on January 10, 2022, sparking excitement for learners, anxiety for parents and dilemma for proprietors.

Uganda National Teachers Union (Unatu), the umbrella organisation of teachers, said public schools will be under-prepared to resume teaching unless the government urgently disburses capital grant.

With three weeks remaining, and high-expenditure Christmas and New Year festivities in between, some school heads yesterday asked parents to lower impulsive spending and save for tuition.

Sr Gladys Kachope, the head teacher of Immaculate Heart Girls’ School in Rukungiri District, said the time the Ministry of Education has given them to prepare is not enough, but added that they are going to try their level best to put all the necessities in place.

She said schools may tolerate learners whose parents clear at least half of the tuition, but not those who show up with no payment at all.

Her prescription of frugality is what Ms Agnes Kaddu, a teacher, and her husband plan in order to take three of their four children back to school.

“A simple meal is enough on that day (Christmas) as we intend to save most of the money for fees,” she said.

Ms Resty Kabasambu, a mother of two girls aged 14 and 16, said news of schools’ reopening was a relief to her because it is a tough job supervising her daughters at home.

“There was a time I saw one of them walking with a boy and my heart dropped,” she said, summing worries of hundreds of parents whose daughters, according to government and Unicef reports, have eloped during the two-year study hiatus.

The Education ministry yesterday admitted that the epidemic of teenage pregnancy was a national crisis, with the ministry spokesperson, Mr Dennis Mugimba, saying the government would like the affected girls back in class as soon as it is feasible.

“But the responsibility is with the parent to encourage their daughters to not give up,” he said.

Except for short-lived staggered reopening this year, which remained incomplete, educational institutions will next January be resuming full board for the first time in almost two years, the longest closure in the world over Covid-19.

Up until yesterday, the actual reopening calendar remained a speculation and Education minister Janet Kataha Museveni’s confirmation meant parents have just 21 days within which to muster resources to send their children back to school.

Ms Museveni, also the First Lady, announced that there will be automatic promotion by a class for all learners and asked individual schools to readjust the teaching to cover lost time.

Two education experts, one a retired commissioner and the other a high-level government employee, yesterday voiced alarm and disapproval over the discretionary powers granted to schools to choose what to teach and exclude.

“This means different schools could end up teaching different things yet at the end of the year, Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) will examine the learners according to the same standard,” one of the two experts said, asking not to be named for fear of reprimand.

Another educationist said they saw bigger trouble for the lower primary, classes 1 to 3, who have been home longest yet teaching at those levels is thematic, meaning different things learned should cluster about the same thing, which is problematic if teachers are at liberty to choose what to teach and how.

The government failed to prepare an abridged curriculum, which would have standardised stop-gap measures to cover lost time and condensed version of lesson for new classes, after the parent Education ministry failed to bankroll the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) to produce one.

Nonetheless, the educational institutions will reopen on January 10, officials said.

President Museveni imposed a nationwide lockdown and closed schools on March 18, 2020, sending home about 15 million pupils and students, two days before Uganda registered its index Covid case.

Whereas medical students, and broadly those in tertiary institutions have studied for longer periods, the reopening of secondary and primary schools ended abruptly when a second lockdown was imposed on June 18 amid a spike in the pandemic infections and deaths.

News that classes are resuming spread optimism and excitement for students.

One of them Joshua Muraya, 16, who at the time of the schools’ closure was in first term of Senior Two at Seeta High School-Mbalala campus, said he had been studying online.

Muraya said he could not wait to return to school next year because staying and studying virtually at home was difficult.

“Sometimes the Internet was not stable, hence disrupting lessons,” he said.

Upon hearing about the release of the school academic calendar yesterday, Maria Namaganda, a secondary school student, began worrying about where her mother, who was restructured from her hotel job, would get money for tuition from.

Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA), said they have started approaching various embassies to help private schools put in place the required standard operating procedures (SOPs) before reopening because private schools have since run bankrupt.

 “We have asked the banks to give start-up capital to schools willing to repay when parents pay schools fees. This will help us put in place the required SOPs before reopening,” Mr Hasadu said.

Many schools have either collapsed, been sold or converted by owners to other uses, including rentals, after bank loans and dried income combined with their long closures eroded base finances.

Ms Museveni yesterday said the government would not bail out private schools, as pleaded by owners, and pointed them to tap into government’s existing stimulus packages arrangements.

In an interview last night, Mr Martin Okiria, the national chairperson of Secondary Schools’ Head Teachers’ Association, said some chief administrative officers (CAO) have not yet disbursed 50 percent of the capitation grants, contrary to the Education ministry’s directive. He said this will see heads of schools go for festive seasons before preparing schools.

School owners and heads say they need money to revamp structures, stock food and buy furniture, as well as temperature guns, hand-washing facilities and hire health professionals to monitor returning students full time for Covid.

While closing a two-day education review workshop at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala yesterday, Ms Museveni said the first academic term will open on January 10, 2022 and run until April 15. Then, the second-term will start on May 9 and end on August 12. Third-term will commence on September 5 and will proceed to December 9.

“Only learners who are at least six years of age shall be allowed to join primary one,” she said.

While disclosing that Uneb will release the timetable for registering candidate classes in due course, the Education minister added: “Remedial lessons shall be provided for these classes during the first term to help them cover critical content for the previous class.”

Education officials yesterday asked schools not to increase fees and not charge fresh tuition on students who had already paid up before schools were closed again in June.

Kigezi High School head teacher John Bosco Kato separately told this newspaper that apart from the SOPs in place before the second closure of schools, they do not have money to add anything new.

Unlike urban schools that conducted virtual classes, he said, rural pupils and students living upcountry were totally locked out of formal education for the entire period of closure.

“We do not know how we are going to recover the lost time. We are not even sure if these learners will return to school or not, because some lost morale,” Mr Kato said.

Besides uncertainty about learners’ return to school, thousands of teachers, according to various studies, are unlikely to return to the classroom because they have since drifted into other higher-paying jobs.

Mr Filbert Baguma, the Unatu secretary general, said if the government does not release the capitation grants for universal primary and secondary schools on time, schools will not be ready come January.

“Schools will not be ready due to the government’s laxity in releasing the capitation grants to enable them prepare in advance. Schools are bushy, have developed anthills and have had some equipment vandalised. All these need to be worked upon,” he said.

Ms Museveni yesterday said the government had already released Shs107b to facilitate schools’ reopening, but many head teachers said the money has not yet been credited on the accounts of their schools.

Iganga Girls SS head teacher Aidah Balina said they have put in place basic SOPs, but won’t manage to seat learners two metres apart as required under Covid-19 prevention protocols.

Mr Mugimba yesterday reiterated that no unvaccinated staff will be allowed at reopened schools.

What they say...

Sr Gladys Kachope, head teacher, Immaculate Heart Girls’ School in Rukungiri District.  The parents should try their level best to ensure as they spend money during this festive season, school fees for their children is a priority. Schools may tolerate learners whose parents clear at least half of the tuition.

Hasadu Kirabira, chairperson, National Private Educational Institutions Association. We do not have money now despite the fact that our schools have developed cracks and anthills. The government has, however, been very silent on us but we shall have to improvise.

Martin Okiria, national chairperson, Secondary Schools’ Head Teachers’ Association.  The challenges schools, both government and private are likely to face are enormous, but the major one is finance. Some government schools are not ready to reopen because heads of schools have not been facilitated.

Filbert Baguma, Unatu secretary general. Schools will not be ready due to the government’s laxity in releasing the capitation grants to enable them prepare in advance. Schools are bushy, have developed anthills and have had some equipment vandalised. All these need to be worked upon.