Prime
Government revises school calendar to 2023
A parent and his children after shopping school requirements on Ben Kiwanuka Street in Kampala at the weekend. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The Education ministry has proposed a special term to enable the semi-candidates cover the syllabus while other classes will study for only eight weeks.
Government yesterday released a revised school timetable showing it will take three years before they stabilise the academic calendar and return to the status that existed before the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year when all education institutions were closed.
While other classes will study only one term to conclude the 2020 academic year in July, the Ministry of Education has given special consideration to sub-candidate classes of Primary Six, Senior Three and Senior Five who will break off for two weeks on May 21 and return June 7 for a special term to cover the content that could not be studied during the lockdown. Thereafter, they will sit exams for promotion to the candidate classes.
The semi-candidates reported to their respective schools this week. The revised timetable released yesterday indicates that the 2020 academic year will close on July 24, 2021, with learners of specific classes reporting at different intervals to allow the required spacing between learners and teachers at the school.
The first term of 2021 academic year will begin on August 9 and the children will study for 12 weeks, breaking off on October 29. The students will then come back on November 15 for the Second Term and study for another 12 weeks which will spill over into next year and close the term on February 4, 2022. The Third Term will start on February 21, 2022 and end on May 2, 2022.
The 2022 academic year will then start on May 16, 2022 and end on August 5, 2022. Students will then report back for Second Term on August 22, 2022 and break off on November 16, 2022. The Third Term will start on January 2, 2023 and stop on March 24, 2023.
For 2023 calendar, April 10, 2023, will be the reopening date for schools for First Term, which will end on June 30, 2023.
Second Term will start on July 17, 2023, and end on October 6, 2023. Third Term will be shorter compared to the other terms with eight weeks starting from November 23, 2023, and closing on December 22, 2023.
Here, the Ministry of Education hopes to have recovered the content missed in the 2020 academic year when schools abruptly closed over the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Alex Kakooza, the ministry’s permanent secretary, warned education institutions to strictly follow the revised academic calendar with special needs schools allowed to fully operate for as long as they have facilities that can accommodate their enrolment with the recommended two-metre social distance between learners.
“We may recover part of what we lose in the curriculum at the next cycle,” Mr Kakooza told journalists at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala. “We expect that they won’t lose out. We shall make sure that the critical concepts are covered,” he added.
Mr Ismail Mulindwa, the basic education director and the ministry’s Covid-19 taskforce chairperson, said they have proposed a special term to enable the semi-candidates cover the syllabus. He said other classes will study for only eight weeks while the semi-candidates will stay at school for 14 weeks.
Mr Kakooza also revealed that they had received a request from Ministry of Health to submit a list of teachers who will benefit from the government’s First Phase vaccination plan against Covid-19.
In a separate interview, Mr Mulindwa told Daily Monitor that they are targeting about 550,000 teachers and warned that only those who are in active service will be vaccinated. He, however, didn’t say how the eligible teachers will be selected since the first Covid-19 vaccine doses will be administered on Monday and cannot cover all the teachers at once.
Mr Kakooza asked schools to engage with the parents for the tuition repayment schedule after it was reported that many institutions are denying learners access to school premises before clearing outstanding fees.
“Education institutions shall not increase fees from what was charged for first term 2020. Review annual work plans and budgets to realign them with changing programmes and priorities. Schools should avoid implementing major infrastructure development and asset acquisition budgets that are funded from parents’ contributions,” Mr Kakooza said.
He asked the public to report any school which does not comply with the guidelines. On schools which have asked parents of children in lower classes to send them before their scheduled time, Mr Kakooza said it is illegal but did not specify the sanctions against them.
School surveillance has been emphasised in this phased reopening with heads of schools asked to report updates on Covid-19 to their respective districts daily.
Sops Dilema
As schools reopened, owners and administrators warned that the Covid-19 preventive measures set by the government have proved difficult to implement.
This came as schools received semi-candidate classes on Monday after a year of closure.
A Daily Monitor survey of some school in Kampala and across the country reveals that a number of schools are unable to implement the Ministry of Health recommended Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), especially the two-metre social distancing in classrooms and dormitories.
Sources, who declined to be named, said during their meetings, the head teachers agreed to continue operating normally once they are reopened because government’s demands required recruiting more teachers and constructing more buildings.
