Varsities reopen today for learners
Minister of Education Janet Museveni (in hat) tours Mary Stuart Hall of residence at Makerere University to assess compliance with Covid-19 guidelines on January 29. PHOTO / PPU
What you need to know:
- The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) last month issued guidelines for reopening and stated that the institutions should reopen in a staggered manner while prioritising first year students.
Universities and other tertiary institutions are set to reopen today after students spent at least four months at home following their closure by the government over Covid-19.
The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) last month issued guidelines for reopening and stated that the institutions should reopen in a staggered manner while prioritising first year students.
As a result, a number of institutions have come up with reopening programmes, indicating which category of students will report today physically on campus, and which group will continue studying online.
Majority of the universities are today expected to receive only students offering science-related courses. This is because they have a lot of practical work that requires their presence in person.
Those offering arts courses will continue with open distance e-learning (ODEL), according to managers of various universities.
The Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Prof Celestino Obua, yesterday said students from the faculties of applied science, computing and sciences will report today.
He said other students offering business management and inter-disciplinary courses will continue studying online and only report on campus to sit for exams.
“Whereas we only have a population of about 5,000 students, we shall bring them in phases as guided by the government. Students with a lot of practical work will report physically on campus. Those in Humanities will continue online,” Prof Obua said.
Similarly, the managements of Makerere and Kyambogo universities, said they will only allow students offering science courses physically at their institutions while those offering Humanities and Social Sciences will continue with their lessons online.
They further said the students offering arts courses will only report on campus physically to sit for their exams.
Another group of students to report today are those in primary and national teachers colleges.
Addressing journalists at Media Centre in Kampala last Friday, the acting commissioner for Teacher Education Training, Ms Annet Mugisha, said the first year students and second year students in Primary and National Teachers College who joined the institutions for the 2019/2020 cohort will report today.
She said second year students in primary teachers colleges who did not conduct their school practice in lower primary will not report today because primary schools will still remain closed.
These will only report when Primary One to Three classes reopen.
Students in Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions are also slated to report on campus today.
According to the November guidelines from the executive director of NCHE, Prof Mary Okwakol, all institutions should submit to the council, their phased reopening programme.
Background
President Museveni closed all institutions of learners in June for the second-year following the increase in Covid-19 cases.
In August, he only cleared institutions teaching medical students to reopen in September and later announced reopening of tertiary institutions today.
