Allow semi-candidate learners to resume, schools urge govt

Owners of private academic institutions have asked the government to allow students in semi-candidate classes to return to school.

The semi-candidate classes include Primary Six, Senior Three and Senior Five.

Through their umbrella body, the Proprietors of Private Education Institutions' Association in Uganda (PPIEAU), the school owners said this is intended to enable them to prepare the learners for the next class.

Michael Kironde, the chairperson of PPIEAU, said these classes are critical and that students need more attention from teachers to qualify to the next classes.

For instance, he said, the Senior Five science students hardly had a month in school before the schools were closed, and yet they have to comprehend the technicalities in biology, physics, mathematics, and chemistry on their own.

CRITICAL

Under the humanities, Kironde said, there are topics in geography, history and other subjects which require a teacher to explain for a student to understand them.

"The content taught in these classes can only be explained by a teacher," he said. Kironde added: "P6, S3 and S5 are critical classes.

For a child to excel through the candidate classes, they must have gone through nurturing at the previous class.

These students need to be in school as soon as possible," he said. Studying from home on their own, he said, will cripple them and that a number of them will not be able to comprehend what they studied on their own.

Kironde said they have also discovered from the candidates that most of them did not study while in lockdown, and, therefore, they have had to start over again.

He made the remarks at the launch of the PPIEAU and their SACCOS. The event was graced by several stakeholders, including Dr John Chrysestom Muyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education.

It is about three weeks since schools and higher institutions of learning were opened to candidates and final year students. However, Hasadu Kirabira, a proprietor of schools, revealed that they have had to start over again from where they had stopped.

According to him, many students did not study while at home under the homeschooling programmes provided for by the education ministry.

A headteacher from a government-aided primary school said: "Semi-candidates should return to school and we prepare them for the classes ahead." Another headteacher who spoke on anonymity grounds said: "Semi-candidates have had almost eight months without studying. This affects their progression."

MONEY FOR RADIOS

A section of school owners also asked the government to use the money meant for procurement of radios to assist all schools in the country in implementing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). "We have waited for the radios and they are not coming. Many students are not studying.

We, therefore, recommend that these funds be used to buy equipment, such as temperature guns needed in implementing the SOPs," a source said. The education ministry is in the final stages of procuring nine million radios to be distributed to households across the country.

Recently, the education ministry, through the finance ministry, tabled before Parliament a supplementary budget of sh340b to fund the purchase of radios for learners.

The procurement of radios is part of the Framework for provision of continued learning during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.

The framework was developed by the education ministry.

It was also developed to highlight the different modes of lesson delivery to be used for continued learning, guide teachers on how to develop and deliver radio and television lessons for learners at primary and secondary levels during the COVID-19 lockdown.

WAY FORWARD 

Dr J.C Muyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education, said the ministry is discussing possibilities of opening schools for the rest of the students. 

To allow the rest of students return to school, Muyingo said, the ministry is monitoring how schools are handling the set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). 

"We have started receiving reports on how schools are implementing the guidelines on reopening and SOPs. These reports will inform us whether to reopen or not. This is why we are asking schools to follow the precautions," he said.