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A new schedule for next year's school calendar is out. 

It shows that schools will start on Monday February 5, 2024, and carry on with studies until May 3, 2024, lasting 89 days.

Term II will commence on May 27, 2024, also lasting 89 days, ending on August 23, 2024.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sports, term III will commence September 16, 2024, and end December 6, 2024.

The ministry's spokesperson, Denis Mugimba, said the schedule released will affect basic and secondary education levels, as well as technical and vocational education training institutions and community polytechnics.

The schedules show that learners will be in school for a total of 260 days, a record length, as the country's education system works to recover from COVID-19 that caused schools to close for more than a year and a half, paralysing learning. 

The academic year 2020 was cut short when President Yoweri Museveni announced a total lockdown in March 2020. Schools remained closed until October when the government allowed finalists at institutions of higher learning and learners in candidate classes to reopen.

Subsequently, a new calendar was issued and schedules for other classes to return to school in a staggered manner were made.

However, in April 2021, the country was hit by a second wave of infections leading to a second closure.

Uganda is the only country in Africa where schools remained fully closed for close to two years.

Data collected from UNICEF shows that Uganda closed schools longest in the world followed by Nepal, and Bolivia.