Heads of Private, Gov’t Schools Join Hands to Demand For Reopening

Government aided schools head teachers and private school owners have met to join their hands in negotiations to convince government to reopen education institutions.

During a joint meeting, government schools headteachers under their umbrella body, Association of Secondary School Headteachers of Uganda (ASSHU) agreed with their private school counterparts, the Federation of Non-State Education Institutions (FeNEI) that at least candidate classes should be allowed to report as earlier arranged. This they say would enable schools test their capacity to control the spread of coronavirus before the rest of the learners join them.

FeNEI was then scheduled to meet the First Lady and Minister of Education, Ms Janet Museveni, to share their position in a meeting which has been scheduled for Friday 24th July.

“We agreed in principle that schools should at least reopen. We are ready to follow the standard operating procedures. But the government should communicate if we are not going to open. Anxiety is a disease. When you leave people anxious, including adults, you are not helping society,” Mr Patrick Kaboyo, the FeNEI National Secretary said

Mr Ismail Mulindwa, the Director of Basic and Secondary education in Ministry of Education, who also chairs the ministry’s Covid-19 taskforce, said the meeting with the Education Minister will take place this week.

Mr Kaboyo also added that their teachers have not been paid salaries since March when schools were closed because there is no revenue being collected from learners as fees. However, their counterparts in government schools continue to receive their salaries.