A huge cloud of uncertainty looms over the education sector in Uganda as the schools reopening date remains unclear.
According to reports, all schools in Uganda were supposed to reopen in early September specifically around 9th but this has been trashed by government who say these are just dates made up by the media.
Mr. Denis Mugimba, spokesperson Ministry of Education categorically told media last week that all the dates going around on school opening were false and aren't coming from the government of Uganda.
So is there a plan to Reopen the schools anyway
In the end, the schools cannot remain closed forever and definitely there is an impending plan to open them up.
But the plan has to be rolled out at a slow rate since there is an estimated 15 million learners in the country, a number that can surely impact the spread of the Covid-19 disease in terms of causing high transmission rates.
Priority after schools reopening will be put on learners in classes, P1 to P3 , S1 to S2 who have barely stepped in class since last year in March. The two groups were supposed to report back this year in June after UNEB exams had been concluded but as soon as they throught of reporting, schools were locked once more.
Janet Museveni speaks on reopening
The wife to president Museveni and education minsiter, Janet Museveni recently, two weeks ago during the release of the 2020 UACE results talked about when schools would reopen.
She said cabinet would decide on when the exact date of opening would be and it will release a revised calender for schools allover the country that will open in a phased manner.
Her junior, John Chrysestom Muyingo, the State Minister of Higher Education in Uganda last week also hinted on schools reopening saying him and his team at the education ministry are stuck and currently don't have a formular to follow on how to get the schools open.
He said, at the education ministry, they are deep in consultation with all concerned parties with the latest being school owners they met last week. The meeting between the owners and the ministry was centered around which group of students would report first and this is where it was suggested that classes that had the least time at school since last year e.g P1 to P3 and S1 to S2 should be given priority.
Just open the schools
Other people like Besigye have ordered the government to just reopen schools because it looks like they don't have a plan at the moment.
Considering the fact that young children are the least affected age group in terms of severity of the Covid-19 disease, Besigye recommended that this group should be allowed to go back to school with immediate effect.
The former presidential candidate cited a future problem that will arise from students being home for a long time and said many of them will become wasted and destabilise the country since they make up tomorrow's Uganda.
Besigye's fellow opposition member, Kampala Lord mayor, Erias Lukwago also advised the government to reopen the schools because personally he has not heard of any young student dying from the Covid-19 disease.
He said the young ones have immunity that is strong enough to withstand a covid infection meaning many of them will get infected but will heal perfectly without knowing they ever got infected.
Museveni Blasts Besigye and other people who are in a rush
Museveni who was quick to thank Besigye in a sarcastic way said "Okay thank you very much Dr Besigye" but quickly rubbished his comments saying that the Doctor wishes bad for Ugandans.
He said Besigye doesn't know what he is talking about because opening schools will be an equivalent of infecting the entire country with Corona.
This is mainly because of the day-scholars who must move from home to school and school to home on a daily basis.
The president said day schools cause the biggest threat because if all schools were boarding then it would be easy to open all education institutions without thinking twice.
The president further said that the logic of vaccinating all teachers only works if the learners are in boarding school.
This indirectly means that it's no longer about vaccinating teachers but schools will finally reopen when Uganda vaccinates its target population of 21.9 million people.
