Schools will pick up from where they stopped when they were closed over coronavrius outbreak last month, ministry of Education and Sports has said.
The school term was prematurely cut short on March 19, 2020 as a precautionary measure to forestall the spread of COVID-19. At the time of the closure, President Yoweri Museveni observed that it was paramount to protect the more than 15 million learners enrolled in schools at different education levels.
Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni announced that schools will tentatively reopen on April 27, 2020 and pick up from where they stopped before the school term was cut short.
Initially, the first term was supposed to close on May 1, 2020. However with the new changes, the first term will end on June 12, 2020.
“When the school term opens, the first term will continue. No extra fees should be charged when schools reopen,” Ms Museveni said.
The second term will then open on June 22 and close on September 4 while the third term will consequently start on September 21 and close on December, 19 as opposed to earlier set dates.
Due to the changes in the school calendar, Ms Museveni says that schools are banned from giving candidates several mock examinations as is the normal practice.
“All schools are banned from engaging students from extra sets of mocks this year to ensure that the syllabus recovery term is not misused. All learners will sit for one set of internal mock examinations at the end of the second term,” she said.
She encouraged teachers to use this time away from classrooms to prepare lesson plans that will enable proper syllabus coverage.
“Teachers are encouraged to prepare all lesson for the remaining part of the term before school reopens,” Ms Museveni said.
As learners wait for the school term to open, the ministry is going to provide learning material that can be accessed on both radio and television to keep them busy.
“To ensure that children are learning during this time of school closure, the ministry under the guidance of NCDC standardises self study packages in all the core subjects,” Ms Museveni added.
Teachers identified by school inspectors and district education officers will out broadcasted lessons at different times. The plans announced by the ministry are part of Education Response Plan to COVID-19.
So far, Uganda has 48 confirmed cases of the disease. No deaths or recoveries have yet been reported.
Source:observer.ug