Africa-Press – Uganda. With only two months left to the set deadline, about half of the private secondary schools in Luweero District have not been registered.
Under the new guidelines for licensing and registration of private schools, the government will issue an operational licence renewable after five years, unlike in the past when the registration was done once. The gazettement deadline for names of duly registered secondary schools has been fixed for June 31, 2023.
Mr George Mutekanga, the assistant commissioner in-charge of private schools in the Ministry of Education, said 57 of the 107 private secondary schools in Luweero are duly registered.
“We expect all private secondary schools to have the new registration certificates that have the names of the proprietors attached to the certificate. Possession of a land title is among the other key requirements,” he said.
Mr Mutekanga said the government will only bring on board the gazetted secondary schools for the different educational activities and official programmes after June 18.
“You have up to June 31 to ensure that your respective schools get the new registration certificates in preparation for gazettement,” he told proprietors and head teachers of private schools during a meeting in Luweero Town Council on Tuesday.
Mr Enoch Kiyemba, the Luweero District senior education officer, said 97 private secondary schools have provisional operational licences.
“We have communicated to the proprietors of the schools that registration is mandatory ,” he said.
Recently, the government directed all private schools to register afresh, a process that will be revisited after every five years of operation.
The Ministry of Education said some schools are non-complaint because the current registration certificates do not have expiry dates and that there is a need to update its database.
The ministry said several schools are reported to have closed and been turned into other businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Available statistics indicate that the country has 17,858 private schools.
The ongoing registration is capturing five important features including ownership instead of focusing on the name of the school, board of governors approved by the ministry, ownership with a land title, and the list of teachers employed by the school.
But Mr Daniel Ssajjabi, the chairperson of Luweero Private Schools Proprietors Association, said many schools in the district and other parts of the country experienced a big setback during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and are just reorganising for fresh registration.
“We have little time left for particular schools that are yet to register, but the registration is for our own good. We should ensure that our respective schools operate under the official set guidelines by the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, some private school proprietors want the government to hire at least two science teachers for each private school.
“We are almost failing to attract science teachers in private schools because the science teachers are demanding higher salaries to match the enhanced salary for science teachers in government schools. It is our prayer that the government considers the plight of the private schools,” Mr Ssajjabi, who is also the director of Destiny High School, said.
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