After being closed for 83 weeks (about 1 and a half years) Uganda has made the decision to open its schools back up.
In Uganda’s capital Kampala, traffic has become congested because of students traveling to school carrying mattresses, a back-to-boarding school phenomenon. The shutdown impacted more than 10 million students (about half the population of New York), and U.N. has labeled it the world’s longest disruption. Uganda first shut down shortly after the first coronavirus case was confirmed on the continent in Mar. 2020. Classes reopened in Feb. 2021, but a lockdown was mandated again in June due to the number of rising cases.
Returning students are believed to have had little to no help during the shutdown, and their schools were unable to offer virtual schooling. Many critics have stated that the government of President Yoweri Museveni did little to support at-home learning. President Museveni justified the lockdown because he believed that infected students were a danger to others.
To make it a smooth transition, authorities have waived COVID testing requirements, and a condensed curriculum has also been approved under an arrangement to automatically promote students to the next grade level. The U.N. children’s agency as well as the U.K. and Ireland have announced their financial support that focuses on virus surveillance and the mental health of students and teachers.
