The State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysostom Muyingo, has revealed that the final decision on reopening of schools is entirely in the hands of the president.
Minister Muyingo told reports that Education Ministry has already fed the president with the necessary information on COVID-19 preventive measures as schools reopen and he is waiting for verifications by the ministry of health.
“We are waiting for the President. He is the one who announced the closure. We have provided him all the information. He is waiting to get verification from the ministry of health. As long as he gets all the information, he will tell us the next step to take,” Mr Muyingo said.
Parrotsug learned that the ministries of Education and Health have already submitted a report on how schools can reopen under set Standards Operation Procedures to prevent the spread of the infectious coronavirus. Its now upon the president to either allow or disallow schools to reopen this year.
Schools and Education institutions are among other things that received a blow under their belts by the president in March when they were closedown due to COVID-19 pandemic. Learners have since resorted to attending Lessons via Radios, Televisions, and the internet.
In his last nation address on corona virus updates, President Museveni pledged to announce on government’s position to reopen schools.
“And for schools, I am going to make a ” Big Decision ” before September,” louder Museveni pledged.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of Health told reports on Wedbesday that Health and Education ministries in coordinations with the National Covid-19 Taskforce developed standard operating procedures which government has released to ensure the learners and staff are safe when the schools reopen. These includes among others:
-Committee with seven members who write a report to the district taskforce daily.
-Each class to have a student leader specifically for Covid-19.
-District Education officer to lead the district taskforce.
-District Health Officer to train teachers, heath workers and non-teaching staff on the control measures.
-Each school to recruit health assistant.
Dr Aceng added that Education ministry has been in regular contact with school owners about the update on considerations for reopening.
Courtesy pix.
