President Yoweri Museveni has announced that schools shall re-open for none candidate classes using a staggered approach, to avoid over-crowding that may result into the spread of COVID-19.
While addressing the country last night, the President noted that the 2020 academic year will end in July 2021, and by this time all learners will have returned to school but in a staggered manner.
This was announced on Thursday evening by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni during his address on covid-19 pandemic and school reopening.
The end of the academic year means that learners at different levels will now be moving to the next levels or classes on the ladder of education.
In Uganda, the academic year runs from late January to early December with three terms covering 260 days of curricula and co-curricular activities, assessment, and national examinations.
However, in 2020, the academic year was interrupted by the covid-19 pandemic which forced the government to close down all educational institutions.
At that time of the closure, the idea was that learners could report back to school after 32 days. But, eleven months down the road, a few learners in candidate classes and higher education finalists have been able to resume teaching and learning activities.
President Museveni also announced the re-opening dates for semi-candidates, universities and tertiary institutions. The announcement comes at a backdrop of a cabinet decision which gave a green light for semi candidates to resume learning.
According to the President, learners in Primary Six, S3 and S5 will resume classes on March 1, 2021, and will study in a staggered system where different groups of learners will be reporting to school on different days as decided by the ministry or school authorities.
While addressing the nation on Thursday night, Mr. Museveni noted that P6, S.3 and S.5 (Semi-candidate) classes shall resume immediately after the candidates have finished their final examinations.
"We have now decided to open for the semi-candidate classes, because the other ones (P7s) are going to finish in March and go home and then the S.4s will finish on the 6th of April. So we thought it was wise for the next candidate classes to come in now and we have decided that they report on the 1st of March 2021" President Museveni said.
For the other classes, the president said they will have to wait for vaccination to start so as to safely return to school. These will stay home and continue with online classes and when it is time for them to return, opening will be done in a staggered way.
