Is Uganda ready to pay the price of continued lockdown on schools?
With the expanding figures of teenage pregnancies, the increasing numbers of child abuse all over the country you must be asking questions about what will happen next? The notion of teachers who have diversified and crossed into other paths of career and income, Uganda should be worried about new student enrollment and teachers turn up whether schools open soon or later.
COVID-19 has indeed come with devastating effects on education. In addition to the already stifling challenges, the education system has been battling with, for example, huge enrollment numbers; we have been grappling with the quality of learning. As a country, we are struggling with the question of how we can improve the quality of education such that students learn. Reports from Uwezo and the ministry of education still affirm that over 50% of pupils in primary can’t read their grade-level storybook and comprehend neither can they add a two-digit number. This situation has seen many educational partners such as Teach for Uganda Through its (Teaching as leadership program), USAID led Response to Instruction(RTI) through learning and retention activity (LARA), TaRL, etc come on board to supplement government effort of ensuring that there is learning happening in school.
However, this is just like a drop in an ocean of learning gaps present in almost all rural schools which are also the host of the majority school-going population.
The question is: Do you think all pupils are going to return to school when the lockdown is lifted? Is there any infrastructure that the government has put in place to ensure social distancing in schools when they open? Do you think it will be right to pick up from where the learners ended well aware that a majority of them under normal school circumstances have been behind by either four or two classes? If we have had 42% of children drop out of school every year without a crisis like Covid-19 how many more are going to drop out of school with this current pandemic? Where are our teachers left in this equation? Are they going through any CPDs? Will, they still remember their infamous checks for understanding questions like: “Are we together? Do you understand me? Do you have any questions? Do you get me?… “ have we prepared and occupied them during this lockdown to effectively adapt to the present educational challenges? Have we in any way supported them during this crisis?
What is the government going to do if schools open up and there are no teachers in school? What is the government going to do if schools open up and there are no pupils because their parents can’t afford to buy for them facemasks in addition to the challenges of buying scholastics and paying off school dues as a result of poverty?
Let us open up schools and resort to two study shifts-Morning and afternoon. This will ensure that we maximize the available infrastructure and space in all schools to oblige to the SOPs available to guarantee the safety of our children and teachers while in schools.
Lets trace for the education COVID-19 funds such that they are put to good use to ensure that the PPEs are procured and distributed to all schools.
Let’s arrest and charge culprits of mismanagement of educational COVID-19 funds with attempted murder until they refund the money and also get rehabilitated from the prisons.
Or else let’s look and find a priest and a team of eulogists who will help us pay the last respects to our education system or get ready to pay the price…
