{"id":44764,"date":"2021-01-27T13:43:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=44764"},"modified":"2021-01-27T14:39:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T11:39:42","slug":"govt-yet-to-agree-on-school-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/govt-yet-to-agree-on-school-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt yet to agree on school reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"author noprint\"><strong>By Patience Ahimbisibwe<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>The Ministry of Education is stuck on when to reopen schools for other classes because the majority of the institutions lack space, \u00a0which scientists have emphasized is key in controlling the spread of coronavirus.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>The proposals from both the inspection team and scientists will be discussed today by the sector\u2019s top management before a decision is reached in tomorrow\u2019s meeting that will be chaired by Education Minister Janet Museveni at State House, Entebbe.<\/p>\n<p>Sources, who preferred anonymity because they are not the sector\u2019s Covid-19 taskforce committee spokesperson, say they agreed to reopen schools to all learners in early January, and tasked the committee chairperson, Mr Ismail Mulindwa, to manage the processes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe position is that learners should go back to school this term to avoid a dead year. The only concern the meeting observed was adherence on wearing masks consistently and washing hands with soap,\u201d the source, who attended the ministry\u2019s meeting said.<br \/>\nHowever, another source said scientists have remained uncomfortable with some proposals, insisting that social distancing of two metres must be maintained.<br \/>\nIn some discussions, the source added that they had suggested to reduce the distance to one metre considering that many institutions are struggling with space and classes are congested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at a school, can the learners fit in? These other issues such as handwashing and masks can be sorted. But if you want to create space for everybody, you will need days to construct. We should be able to manage the issue of space within the available structures. That is a huddle we are discussing now,\u201d the source said.<br \/>\nIt is also a dilemma for the ministry to limit teachers\u2019 movement once the schools fully reopen with fear that they can infect the learners.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Filbert Baguma, Uganda National Teachers\u2019 Union general secretary yesterday said it will be impossible since many schools do not have staff houses.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is difficult managing teachers\u2019 movement. In some areas, there are no houses at all. They have to commute. Some proposals can\u2019t fit in all circumstances,\u201d Mr Baguma said.<br \/>\nThere are already reports that some schools have started allowing in learners in other classes in addition to candidates who were officially cleared last year to report to complete their studies.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/uganda\/news\/national\/govt-yet-to-agree-on-school-reopening-3270364\">https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/uganda\/news\/national\/govt-yet-to-agree-on-school-reopening-3270364<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patience Ahimbisibwe The Ministry of Education is stuck on when to reopen schools for other classes because the majority of the institutions lack space, \u00a0which scientists have emphasized is key in controlling the spread of coronavirus. The proposals from both the inspection team and scientists will be discussed today by the sector\u2019s top management before a decision is reached in tomorrow\u2019s meeting that will be chaired by Education Minister Janet Museveni at State House, Entebbe. Sources, who preferred anonymity because they are not the sector\u2019s Covid-19 taskforce committee spokesperson, say they agreed to reopen schools to all learners in early January, and tasked the committee chairperson, Mr Ismail Mulindwa, to manage the processes. \u201cThe position is that learners should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":44772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}