Museveni was presented with a proposal to reopen schools in October, with Saturdays included as school days and only a few courses to be taught.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sports, President Museveni has been presented with a plan for reopening schools for his consideration and direction.

Students have been out of school for a long time, raising concerns about adolescent pregnancies and an overabundance of youngsters of school-going age with nowhere to go.

According to State House sources, the president received the proposal from Ministry of Education officials on Tuesday in State House Entebbe in the presence of the National Covid-19 Task Force.

Members of the Ministry of Health were also present.
Denis Mugimba, the Private Secretary to the Minister of Education, verified the situation.

According to the request, President Museveni was asked to enable schools to open but in a phased or staggered way, rather than allowing pupils to congregate in classrooms all at once.

The program, which was previously implemented, allows only a few classes to alternately be accommodated on school grounds.

“We offered a phased opening in October 2021, and there was agreement that if SOPs were implemented, we would proceed at all levels up to university,” Mugimba explained.

Learners would be accommodated in a staggered way, according to Mugimba, once the phased opening is approved.

“We may say that P1 to P2 report Monday to Wednesday, and the rest of the classes are available until Saturday,” he stated.

Saturday was proposed to help pupils catch up on what they had missed because the school calendar is projected to be more demanding,” he said.

In contrast to prior years, he also stated that pupils will have a much shorter vacation.

“For example, instead of the typical four or three weeks off, we will have one or two weeks off because we need to make the most of the time when things are going well, transmission rates are low, and we can catch up as much as possible,” he explained.

The Ministry’s other appropriate response is to lessen the demands of the curriculum by cutting subjects.

“From P1 to P3, students will not be studying everything they have been studying; we will focus on core topics like numeracy, literacy, and English since these are the fundamentals; we will not cover the entire curriculum,” he stated.

The Ministry aims to cover only what is necessary for students to progress to the next level, and this will apply to all classes, including higher education institutions.

In addition to the recommendations, the ministry stated that Headteachers will be required to be custodians of SOPs, which will include ensuring that only vaccinated teachers are allowed to report to school.

“We vaccinated around 38% of the teachers, or about 209,000 out of a total of 550,000. Our goal is to reach 100%, but we are aware that some professors may have departed the profession, which we will investigate once we have reopened.”

As a result of the suggestion, the Prime Minister will meet with the task force, Ministry of Health officials, and Ministry of Education officials to propose re-opening dates and await Museveni’s instructions.