Crash programme on to inspect Wakiso’s 3,000 schools by Thursday

Wakiso, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |   Wakiso district educationists office has deployed a big task of inspecting a total of 3187 primary and secondary schools before they resume studies come Thursday this week. Each government (UPE) school is also receiving 1.5 million shillings cash to purchase specific requirements.

The Wakiso district education officer Fredrick Kiyingi  Kinobe has issued a stern warning that any head teacher who diverts from the listed items in spending the sh1.5million will “this time” be automatically prosecuted.

President Yoweri Museveni has given a greenlight to schools to reopen for candidate classes as  partial relaxation of the lockdown which resulted into the closure of education institutions earlier this year to prevent the spread of covid-19 pandemic.

As teachers, parents, education administrators and pupils have all been looking forward to seeing the schools reopen, the preconditions to open gates for learners include putting in place a number of standard operating procedures set by the ministry of health to ensure that there is limited spread of the pandemic when an estimated 1.5m learners return for studies.

Wakiso district education department like other districts is therefore  inspecting all the schools to ensure that the standard operating procedures (SOPs) which include ensuring social distancing both in classes and dormitories, having sanitizers, handwashing facilities around the schools and pinning messages about covid-19 in all corners of the schools among other things are put in place.

However, the district is having surmount the huddle to inspect 2346 private and 258 government primary schools together with 550 private and 33 government secondary schools which should be given certificates confirming that they have implemented the SOPs required of them to open up and readmit learners. The schools are diverse in character ranging from a primary school in a Nansana informal settlement to well established ‘A Class’ ones like St Mary’s Kisubi and Gayaza High School as well as private high cost ones like Taibah in Bwebajja.

The district education officer Fredrick Kiyingi  Kinobe who is heading a team of school inspectors within Wakiso has instructed each member of his team to work alone instead of inspecting the schools in groups to speed up the exercise. He says that much as many schools will have been inspected by Thursday, again many will not have been visited yet. But he insists that the exercise will not miss any school. 

Meanwhile, the schools which have so far been inspected have been allowed to receive the learners after proving their readiness to resume studies.

At Hormisdallen School Gayaza which has over 420 candidates, the head teacher Kalyango Nickson says that although the number of classrooms and dormitories for his pupils has increased by more than double with each having 20 and 30 respectively, he has enough capacity to contain the number.

Robinah Kizito the head teacher for Gayaza High School on other hand is skeptical that enforcing social distancing among the 402 candidates in both O and A level may not be an easy task since they have taken long while away from one  another.

She prays hard that all of them return for their final year since some of them may opt for schools nearer to their homes.

********

URN