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Schooling for semi-candidates resumed on March 1st and is to run for 14 weeks per the earlier ministry program
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Education and Sports has further revised the school calendar to allocate more learning time to semi-candidates in what has been termed as a special term.
Ismael Mulindwa, the director in charge of basic and secondary education says that after several meetings, they have realized that semi-candidates in primary six, senior three, and senior five had been allocated limited time to run through their respective class syllabus before they can be promoted to candidate classes.
According to the school calendar released in February, semi candidates were allocated 14-weeks of study starting March 1, 2021, running up to May 21 for them to break off and create room for another group of learners to join the school. The calendar had given the learners an 11-week holiday before they could return for a new academic year which starts in August.
However under the new arrangement, the group will have a small holiday of two weeks and return for a special term covering eight weeks before they are covered for promotion. Mulindwa who also doubles as the chairperson of the COVID-19 education response committee announced the development on Wednesday afternoon while addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on the staggered re-opening for non-candidates.
In the said arrangement, candidates will report on June 7, 2021, together with lower primary pupils in P1, P.2, and P.3. This means that primary schools will for two months operate with four classes on campus. At the secondary level, the semi-candidates in senior three and five will at one moment be at school together with senior one and two’s.
Mulindwa explains that when the ministry reviewed the content needed to be covered in primary seven and the limited available time of 12 weeks allocated to each term in the next academic year, they realized that semi-candidates might fail to recover the lost time before starting the primary seven syllabus.
He adds that although other classes have time to recover the lost time and content in the next classes, semi-candidates don’t have much time as they will be moving to the final year of study at their respective levels of education.
“We have seen that other classes still have time in their respective education cycles to recover the lost time over two to three years and will eventually acquire desired competence. However, such time is not available for semi-candidates, yet we want them to acquire all the required learning outcomes before proceeding to the next level,” says Mulindwa.
The redesigned calendar answers educationists and teachers who have been wondering how semi candidates would cover class content in 14-weeks and proceed to a candidate class.
For instance senior five students spent a few weeks in the class before school closures. A section of learners in the same class had not been admitted to any school which means they had covered totally nothing on the class syllabus.
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