Schools should not focus on term system as non-candidates return- Ministry

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT  | The Ministry of Education and Sports has said that as schools reopen for Non-Candidates, the main focus will be put on covering the required content and syllabus for different classes rather than tracing the lost calendar.   

The Ministry was responding to concerns raised earlier by parents, many of whom thought that learners will be starting from term two, enable them to recover the time they lost in the calendar year 2020 when schools were indefinitely closed to forestall the spread of coronavirus disease. By the time the schools were closed, learners had only covered less than half of the school term.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Alex Kakooza, notes that given the fact that the existing situation is not normal, the sector has to come up with appropriate responses in the way things should be done.   

Under the new arrangement, learners in non-candidate, classes have a period of five months to cover their respective syllabi, acquire the required competencies before they are promoted to the next class in the 2021 academic year which will begin in July. However, Kakooza says that learners will not be at school for the entire five months. 

Speaking during a press conference held at Nakasero statehouse on Friday afternoon, the education minister Janet Kataha Museveni noted the ministry is currently developing appropriate strategies for accelerated learning to ensure that all the time lost is recovered.   

Mrs Museveni says that other than the semi-candidates, other learners still have time in their respective education cycles to recover the lost time over two to three years and will eventually, acquire desired competence.   

Meanwhile, the education minister says they will soon issue a detailed school calendar, indicating when each class will report and break off. She, however, points out that the semi candidate classes are most likely to spend at school for 12 weeks which means that they will break off on May 21, 2021.       

The government has since allowed non-candidates to resume learning with the semi-candidates (P6, S.3, and S.5) reporting on March 1, 2021. Other classes including primary four and five and senior one and two are also scheduled to report when P7s and S4s complete their Primary Leaving Examination and Uganda Certificate of Education Examinations respectively.      

The minister emphasized that pre-primary schools (nursery and kindergarten) shall not be reopened for the time being. in the same development, the ministry has not yet decided on the fate of learners in lower primary (Primary one, two, and three).

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