The minister of ICT and National Guidance, Judith Nabakooba, has advised education institutions to wait for president Museveni’s communication date for reopening of schools.
Recently government okayed all schools to reopen for candidate classes, universities and other tertiary institutions for all final year students starting September 20.
There has been confusion in the public on whether government has cleared only finalists undertaking medical courses as proposed by the national COVID-19 taskforce a week ago or all candidates in all schools, irrespective of their courses.
However, Senior presidential adviser on epidemics, Dr. Monica Musenero, last week said that the meeting between the national COVID-19 taskforce and President Museveni on September 1, okayed the reopening of schools for all candidates –Primary Seven, Senior Four, Senior Six and finalist students in universities and other tertiary institutions.
From this background, Nabakooba said there has been a number of attempts by different institutions coming out to announce different dates of resuming operations.
Whereas it is not bad for institutions to continue with their planning and preparing for resumption of business, Nabakooba said it is wrong for them to continue announcing dates.
“The President will very soon come out to address the nation on the progress being made and I call upon everyone to remain calm as they wait. In the meantime, I believe our interest should be on how to stay safe from COVID-19 by observing the existing guidelines,” she said.
Equally, Nabakooba asked the public to stop spreading false information about the reopening of these schools.
Speaking to the media in Kampala on Sunday, Nabakooba said speculating on reopening of Institutions will mislead the public by disseminating the information which is inaccurate.
“When it comes to the national COVID-19 response, I want to call upon Ugandans to be calm and ignore some of the speculative messages regarding the reopening of public institutions,” said Nabakooba.
“The mandate to guide the nation on the reopening of schools and other institutions is with His Excellency the President of Uganda,” she added.
When it comes to conducting peaceful and democratic elections, Nabakooba said president Museveni has on several occasions condemned some of the violence witnessed in these elections therefore his message doesn’t only go to the NRM members but to the entire country.
“All Ugandans regardless of our political inclinations have an obligation to work for peace always,” she noted.
She said that the forthcoming national elections should be a moment for peace and reconciliation.
Nabakooba called upon leaders in different capacities to always be champions and beacons of peace.
The call towards political leadership, Nabakooba said should always be informed by the desire to serve the people rather than self and personal gain.
“It is the pursuit of personal gain that pushes people to extreme forms of violence whenever they lose an election. I therefore want to call upon every Ugandan to say never again should this peaceful country be subject to the kind of violence we witnessed in some areas,” said Nabakooba.
As People with Disabilities are going to elect their representatives at the sub county level today while on Wednesday it will be the youth still at the sub county level, Nabakooba urged the participants to learn from previous mistakes and conduct themselves in a peaceful manner.
“All Special Interest Groups under these categories are being called upon to mobilise their members to participate. Every adult Ugandan has a right to exercise their freedom to vote for a person of their choice without any fear or intimidation,” she advised.