COVID-19: Gov’t set to reopen schools in February 2021

After nearly a year of a Covid-19 induced shutdown of much of Uganda’s education system, all signs and indications are that government has resolved to reopen schools this February.

All primary and secondary schools, universities and other institutions of learning were closed on President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s orders, starting Friday, March 20, 2020. Although there has been some partial reopening of some candidate classes, much of the over 15 million of Uganda’s learners remained home.

The closure, although believed to have stemmed the quick spread of Covid-19, has caused untold misery to the education sector- for especially the thousands of employees of the schools, as well as for the owners of the private schools.

The Education sector in Uganda accounts for about 5% of the country’s GDP.

According to media sources and other sources within Uganda’s Education ministry ahead of the reopening, the government has released some UGX23 billion to prepare schools for the reopening.

The media have quoted a Mr Ismail Mulindwa, the Director of Basic Education saying that there are ongoing consultations with the national task force on Covid-19 to agree on the modalities and the dates for the reopening. 

“We have not yet decided the exact date on when they will return. But its next month. We are still in discussions with health authorities,” Mr Mulindwa is quoted as saying. 

Just the other day, Makerere University, Uganda’s largest and publicly owned University has asked those admitted to the University to start picking their admission letters ahead of reporting on Saturday 30th January. The rest of the university shall reopen on 6th February 2021. 

The Ministry of Education has set standards that schools must meet before they can admit students, most of whom could remain at home until as late as this year.

Schools must have enough hand-washing stations and enough room in classrooms and dorms for social distancing.

Results of COVID-19 tests done on 21 January 2021 confirmed 129 new cases, bringing the cumulative confirmed cases to 38,935.

There was one reported death, bringing total Covid-19 deaths to 317.