President Museveni has considered the reopening of educational institutions, giving a ray of hope to the struggling teachers to better their financial needs.
The president directed the Covid-19 National Taskforce to discuss reopening of schools across the country in a phased manner starting with candidate classes.
Frustrated teachers had resorted to informal jobs to make ends meet such as bricklaying, Boba Boda riding, pottery, and washing cars.
According to the twitter handle of the Minister of ICT, Ms Judith Nabakooba, the task force will provide a comprehensive report to the President this week.
The President will then make a final decision to determine the fate of students this year.
Here are the Standard Operating Procedures to be followed as schools prepare to reopen in order to stem coronavirus infections
- Committee with seven members who write a report to the district task force daily. - Each class is to have a student leader, specifically for Covid-19. - District education officer to lead the district task force. - District Health Officer to train teachers, health workers and non-teaching staff on the preventive measures.
- Each school is to recruit a health assistant. The district task force is to disinfect all institutions which were used as quarantine centres.
- Compulsory wearing of masks and handwashing. - Full time trained personnel to do temperature screening.
- A well-calibrated working temperature gun at each entrance and exit from the dormitory. - The school should have an isolation room to accommodate suspected cases. - Learners with flu-like symptoms will be sent home. - A foot-operated handwashing facility with water provided at all times.
- At least five-litre liquid soap available all time. - Water waste disposed of in a constructed soak pit of 4 metres depth with hardcore stones. - All learners keep a social distance of two metres. - Assembly discouraged.
- Restrict community access. - Supervise learners washing hands. - Supervise break periods and scatter releasing students for breaks, lunch and going home to limit interaction.
- Four square metres per student per class, from the one-metre square, are required to achieve the two-metre distance between learners. Only 10 and 15 students can be accommodated in a standard classroom for primary and secondary and tertiary institutions respectively. - Additional streams and new infrastructure requirements or modification may be required to accommodate the other students.
The COVID-19 lockdown has caused so many undeniable changes. Students have also become parents.
According to the research carried out throughout the country, more than 2,300 girls have conceived and other have produced babies during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Boys have resorted to drugs due to idleness and bad peer groups. Most of them have lost morale in reading their books.
Parents are also stressed up in their own way. They are hustling for food and other essentials for the children.
Most of them complain about the increasing food costs yet times are hard financially. They are also finding it hard to cater for their children in this long holiday, uncertain when it will end.
When President Museveni ordered the partial reopening of businesses such as public transport, schools were not considered, owing to their popuolated nature.
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