By Begumisa Aksam
Uganda’s Education and sports Ministry is embarking on a nationwide programme to inspect all schools beginning this week to assess their readiness to reopen for the remaining classes.
The government in September allowed candidates and finalists to resume classes following a seven-month closure of schools in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Information obtained by The Homeland Newspaper indicates that during the inspection, ministry officials will focus on the schools’ observance of standard operating procedures (SoPs) and their capacity to manage more classes.
“We are going to do an inspection and the results of the inspection will inform our decision on whether other classes should reopen or not. We are also going to do an assessment to know how ready the schools are in terms of adding more classes,” Mr. Ismail Mulindwa, the director for basic and secondary education noted.
Asked how the ministry will handle social distancing, Mr. Mulindwa said they are working within the existing facilities.
“We are making an assessment of the available resources to see if we can add more classes. For example, the sub-candidates may be Primary Six and Senior Five or Three. While we have already opened candidate classes, our assumption is that we still have space to add more classes, but that will be informed by the report of the inspection which will start very soon,” he said.
Head teachers welcomed the exercise, saying they are preparing for the full reopening.
Mr. Martine Okiria Obore, the national chairperson of the Association of Secondary School Headteachers of Uganda, said schools are already putting in place facilities to accommodate the extra learners.
