Educationalists maintain pre-school is critical in children’s physical, mental and psycho-social development Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | How do you home-school a three year old without going nuts? Maximum respect to kindergarten teachers,” a young Ugandan mother posted on her Facebook page on Feb.11. Thousands of Ugandan parents have …
Read More »More learners allowed back to school in March
Why not all of them, parents ask Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | How to take back Uganda’s 15 million learners back to school safely amidst a rampaging COVID-19 pandemic? That continues to be a sensitive subject for the government, parents, learners and health experts. Almost one year on since …
Read More »UNATU raises concern over safety of teachers when schools re-open
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda National Teacher Union has said that the Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs that were released by the education and health ministries to guide the re-opening of schools raise more questions regarding the safety of learners and teachers. Last week, President Okayed the reopening of …
Read More »Mental health challenge for re-opening school
Students, teachers return with post-COVID lockdown problems Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Schools are scheduled to re-open on Oct. 15, for some 1.2 million learners who are in their final year of their respective levels of formal education. But as school administrators and parents continue mulling over how to …
Read More »Teachers Union faults gov’t approach to opening schools
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) has criticized the government schools re-opening programme saying it has serious loopholes. UNATU secretary general Filbert Baguma says that the manner in which government has handled the situation is likely to disturb the education structure noting that there …
Read More »The real thieves of teachers’ money
THE LAST WORD: The real story of how teachers’ money was stolen and how the wrong guys were framed and jailed THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On September 9, all major news outlets in Uganda ran a screaming headline: `Microfinance Support Centre officials charged with embezzlement’. It …
Read More »Schools re-opening
SCHOOLS RE-OPENING: The tough decisions to be made Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | On Aug. 26, news reports emerged that GEMS Cambridge International School in Kampala was set to close by December. The Uganda Radio Network, a syndicated news provider, called it “yet another non-medical causality of the COVID-19 …
Read More »Constitutional court drops UNATU’s petition against KCCA
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Constitutional Court has dropped a petition by Uganda National Teacher’s Union-UNATU against Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA for denying teachers representation in the council just like other professional bodies. The five member panel of the Constitutional Court justices led by Kenneth Kakuru dropped the petition …
Read More »Schools to open or not to open
COVID-19 Crisis exposes government weakness Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | June 22 should have seen the re-opening of schools across the country for the start of second term if a programme announced by the Minister of Education and Sports, First Lady Janet Museveni, was being followed. But schools are …
Read More »Private school teachers surviving on handouts from parents
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A number of private school teachers are surviving on handouts from sympathetic parents as school proprietors are unable to pay them because of the lockdown. Private schools are majorly dependent on tuition paid by learners to finance their operations. The abrupt closure of the …
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