Museveni Makes U-turn on Re-opening of Schools

President Yoweri Museveni has made a U-turn on re-opening of institutions of learning as he had earlier on announced. Final year students and candidates were to return to classrooms on Thursday, June, 4 according to earlier projections.

However, after painstakingly deciphering the idea of resuming of schools for final year and candidate students, the government has decided to stay the return for one more month from June, 1.

“We have further studied this idea with our scientists. The eventual opinion is that we better act cautiously on the issue of our grandchildren and children in the educational system. This is because there are still very many risks,” President Museveni said.

The president also maintained that the different total of finalists and candidates are a total of 1.4 million students all together arguing that the government was not yet in position to test these numbers of children after every two weeks given the limited number of testing kits in the country.

“We have the machines for testing. The problem is the re-agents. There is a global shortage of supply because the demand is too big. Everybody in the world is trying to test,” President Museveni said.

Ostensibly, the president added that even if the country could test all the finalists, there would still be the issue of the day scholars that oscillate between the schools and homes every day.

“There are a lot of risks in that exercise. Even for the boarding schools, there are workers and teachers who will not stay in the school compound. They oscillate from school to home thus causing a high risk. We have, therefore, decided that we should not bite too much at a time. “Enkoko eshonda kyera miire” the hen peaks what it can swallow,” President Museveni explained.

Similarly, the president also noted that the opening of private and company cars even with restrictions had already unleashed a big number of people who have started moving around.

“Let us first see the impact of that before we add on the learners. We have, therefore, decided to postpone the opening of schools for another one month as we prepare more and study more the situation,” Museveni remarked.

In light of the new guidelines, President Museveni reasoned that students must continue studying through distance learning by radio and television(TV).

What then would be the fate of thousands of pupils without access to radio and television stations?

The president noted that the cabinet was carefully but steadily thinking about the idea of giving out two television sets per village across the country. This, he said, will be in order to enable continuity of distance learning.

The president’s U-turn comes at the peak of looming suspicion between the teachers.

Early this week, teachers under their umbrella body the Uganda national teachers association (UNATU) had raised a number of issues as final year students and candidates prepared to return to classrooms.

The teachers were worried about a plethora of issues that is to say, their safety, marking of books, access to free medication in case one contracts the virus, compensation in event of death and risk allowance assuming they had returned to classrooms.

Relatedly, some teachers were also worried about adjusting to the new normal that is, wearing of face masks for more than 45 minutes while conducting lessons.

Kleive Calvin