President Museveni has said schools would open if all the students were in boarding schools but the most of them are not, something he said is very challenging at the moment because children will get infected and transmit the virus to their parents.
Recently, the former leader of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Dr. Kizza Besigye asked the government to “immediately” reopen schools, arguing that students marooned at home are young and have higher immunity to withstand COVID-19.
According to Besigye, children who constitute Uganda’s future are missing out on education and wasting away, yet many teachers by his estimate are under 40 years and less vulnerable to the virus adding that the closure of education institutions and other prohibitions deployed by Education Ministry in the name of the pandemic, are illogical and unjustified.
“The biggest crime this government has ever done is refusing to reopen schools. There is absolutely no justification for the measures that have been taken in education,” said Besigye.
While presiding over the Youth Day celebrations, Museveni responded to Besigye that the main thing is to survive at the moment because most of the schools are day which is very risky.
“The other day I heard my friend Dr. Besigye talking about the reopening of schools that ‘These people don’t have a plan. The government doesn’t have a plan because if they had immunized the teachers, the schools could be opened because the children even if they get sick, they will recover,” said Museveni quoting Besigye.
Museveni explained that Besigye’s suggestions would work very well if all schools were boarding but, in this case, children will get infected and transmit the virus to their parents questioning whether that is what Besigye wants.
“Ok, thank you very much Dr. Besigye but you have not thought the problem through properly. Actually, the teachers are among our priority lists of immunisation and I think many of the teachers have already been immunized. Even if they are all immunized, the problem is that very few schools are actually boarding schools,” he said.
Museveni said that on the issues regarding COVID-19; “The main point here should be to ensure that Ugandans are protected against the deadly virus,” adding that; “As country, losses will be incurred but when human death is minimized.”
Students in medical schools around the country are set to reopen on August 13, 2021 but tasked to get vaccinated before resuming school.
The Ministry of Health said that they will provide vaccination opportunities to all students in medical schools and urged the students to take up the vaccine.
Officials said that reopening will be in a staggered manner starting with senior classes for each programme and allowing 33% of the student population at the campus.
