Africa-Press – Uganda. Learners are expected to return to school on July 19 to complete the academic year, according to revised calendar released yesterday.
President Museveni on Sunday closed all institutions of learning, less than a month after Senior One and Senior Two learners had reported back to school.
Semi-candidate classes and P.1 to P.3 were slated to return to school on June 7 for their promotional term of the 2020 academic year.
Now the circular by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Mr Alex Kakooza, indicates that they plan to reopen schools for learners who had not completed their 2020 academic year on July 19.
This means that P.1, P.2 and P.3 pupils, who have spent one year and two months at home, are expected to report on July 19 and break off on September 3.
The semi-candidates (P.6, S.3 and S.5) will also report on July 19 and break off on August 3.S.1 and S.2 students are expected to report on July 19 and break off on August 13 and September 3, respectively.
All the students reporting on July 19 will study for about one-and-a-half months, sit for promotional exams and will start the 2021 academic year on September 20 with P.4 and P.5 learners who had completed their promotional exams before schools were closed.
“To ensure equity in the provision of education in the country, no school shall carry out promotions outside the above official timetables on the pretext that some learners attended private lessons and are, therefore, ahead of the rest,” Mr Kakooza said.
He explained that Senior One and Senior Two learners, who had just reported back to schools before the closure, will complete the remaining part of the term without paying additional schools fees in case they had already completed the interrupted term fees.
Mr Kakooza said semi-candidates, who were expected to report on June 7 for a special term, will report and pay fees proportional to the short term.
“For avoidance of doubt, no school should charge more than 60 per cent of the previous terms’ fees for this special term of seven weeks,” Mr Kakooza said, adding that P.1 to P.3 classes will only be required to pay the fees for a normal term when they report back on July 21 for the Academic Year 2020.
