A student waiting for transportation after schools were closed due to COVID surge (PHOTO /Courtesy).
School owners under their umbrella association of Proprietors of Private Educational Institutions Association in Uganda (PPEIAU) have urged government to release the school reopening roadmap as soon as possible.
Mike Kironde, the national chairperson PPEIAU said that government “has left them in the dark” because they have no guidelines to work with to prepare for reopening in January 2022.
Kironde made these remarks while appearing on NBS Morning Breeze, Monday.
“We are appealing to the government to release the school calendar as early as today. The government is very slow,” Kironde said.
Kironde said that all private school owners are waiting on government to roll out the roadmap so they can plan on how they will handle the reopening process, but government seems unresponsive with just a month and a half left. He urged that government gets “a little bit faster.”
“We understand there are bureaucracies in place. We are humbly requesting that the government gets a little bit faster in how they are managing the reopening process,” Kironde added.
Dr. Kedrees Turyagyenda, who is the Director Education standards, at the Ministry of Education however said that government is not being slow, but rather careful to make sure that schools reopen safely and sustainably.
Dr Turyagyenda said that the Education Ministry has its teams in the field to pick information on how schools are readying themselves for reopening and this will inform government’s roadmap.
“The roadmap for reopening will be made available to the public soon. We still have some time to January, and we shall have the roadmap available as soon as possible,” Dr Turyagyenda said.
She added that, We have been able to meet and consult various people. We have come up with strategies that I think will enable us to reopen once and for all.”
Schools in the country have been closed since June 18, 2021, but some lower classes have not attended class since 2020 when the pandemic first hit.
Dr. Turyagyenda said that the Education Ministry is now putting much emphasis on these lower classes so that they can catch up as soon as soon as possible.