EDUCATION | COVID-19 | SCHOOLS

0n March 18, 2020, over 15 million learners were sent home when schools and the country shut down to slow the spread of coronavirus.  

It seemed like a temporary inconvenience, but for almost two years now, schools remain closed with no clear date set for reopening.  

“When lockdown happened, we were waiting for schools to open, counting days on calendar, then we realised it was going to take a while,” says Diana Sekaggya a parent, economist and education expert.  

It has been nearly two years now of learning loss, and confusion for the children. Under lockdown poverty, sex abuse and teenage pregnancy skyrocketed.  

According to a UNICEF report, between March 2020 and June 2021, 98,810 girls aged 10 to 24 years came seeking their first antenatal care.  

However, the number could be much higher. There are likely more girls who did not seek care, and whose details were not captured in the reports.  

The pregnant teens are all at risk of dropping out of school without skill, and getting abandoned to live a life of hopelessness and in poverty with their children and household members. 

Other children are unsafe on the streets vending different merchandise to be able to financially support their parents who perhaps lost a source of income under the pandemic.  

At home, some children are not learning at all despite government interventions to provide printed home learning materials, learning via radio, television and online platforms.  

Some homes do not have radios or televisions, and some parents cannot access or afford to get them printed learning materials for their children to continue learning at home.  

Some schools transferred classes online. But some parents could not afford the cost of internet and online learning gadgets such as computers, laptops, phone tablets and smartphones for their children.  

Teachers not spared  

Teachers are very resilient people, amidst the school’s closure, those with other skills have put it to work, says Victoria Kisarale an Educationist, Teacher, Former Headmistress Gayaza High School and Headmistress Viva College.  

“Teachers have ventured into different businesses from which they are getting more than income compared to the teaching profession. Some are not returning to the classrooms,” says Kiserale.  

However, some teachers have not been able to survive the brunt of school closure, and have been left struggling financially and emotionally drained. 

“We even had cases where teachers committed suicide,” said Kisarale.  

For example, in Bududa it is reported a teacher committed suicide during the pandemic. Other suicide cases were among other were reported in Wakiso, Kamuli and Jinja districts.  

Where did we go wrong?  

Most people assume the responsibility of learner attaining education, is with government but parents are critical in this process, says Sekaggya.  

The Director Basic and Secondary Education in the Ministry of Education and Sports Ismael Mulindwa says: “It was saddening to hear parents crying for the re-opening of schools, and stating that they are fed up of having children at home.  

“How do you get fed up with your own children?” For long, parents accused teachers of mistreating children, the pressure was high but they refuse to take responsibility for them while at home.”  

“Parents should take responsibly for their children, learning does not take place in a four-corner classroom block alone but anywhere,” says Mulindwa.  

He says the decision taken by the President to shut down schools in March 2020 was timely. ‘It saved many of our children from the pandemic.”  

Mulindwa, Sekaggya and Kisarale were members of a panel that discussed on Tuesday, the fate of Education in the country and how best to catch up, during a virtual meeting organised by the Chevening Alumni Association of Uganda.   

Did our best  

When school closure happened, we did not fold our hands, we moved fast and came up with the Preparedness and Response Plan, the first of its kind, says Mulindwa.  

“The Plan was clear, we knew children had gone home. The bigger question was, what happens to them, do we leave them with parents? no one knew when they would come back and teachers would be challenged,” he explains.  

The first objective was to ensure continuity of learning at home.  

“Furthermore, we had to prepare the education sector for resumption, and finally we had to build the education sector to recover and to become resilient post-COVID-19 period,” says Mulindwa. 

The bigger part of 2020 focused largely on continuity of learning.  

“If we had left children at large, many pressures would have swallowed them. Even the percentage of teenage pregnancy we are recording would have been higher,” states Mulindwa.  

“To ensure continuity of learning we introduced radio and TV programs, and printed home study packages.”  

“We have been condemned, about the home study materials, some people claim their entire district received just one copy, some did not get. But we didn’t have a budget.”  

He explains the pandemic that happened in the middle of the financial year.  

“We had not prepared. With the difficulty, we also introduced radio and TV lessons. But some families do not have these gadgets.”  

Home study packages were targeting learners in rural and vulnerable areas that could not access radio and TV.  

“We provided home study packages for 25% (3, 750,000) of 15 million learners with instructions to local governments to identify the most vulnerable but it didn’t work out as expected.”  

“But we got the experience, if another pandemic happens now, we can at least handle it fairly well,” says Mulindwa.