By Stuart Bogere Oswald

KIU, Main Campus - The Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Education, has announced that schools will reopen early next month after about two years of closure due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This was revealed by Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni, Minister of Education and Sports, on Wednesday 15th December, 2021. She said that pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools shall re-open on 10th January, 2022.

According to the calendar, primary, secondary, technical and community polytechnics will open and start operations on 10th January, 2022 for a 14-week first term.

The second term will begin on 9th May, 2022 and will run up to 12th August, 2022 while the third term is set for 5th September, 2022 to 9th December, 2022.

The students will also get a three-week holiday period between the first and second terms, and a seven-week holiday between the third term and 2023’s first term.

The Minister further announced that all learners of 2020 who were not in candidate classes will be automatically promoted to the next class. 

“Remedial classes will be offered to them in the first term to help them catch up,” she said.

She also clarified that parents of Senior Two students who had fully paid school fees before the second lockdown will not pay fees for the first term.

The government closed schools after some learners tested positive for COVID-19. The government argued that keeping schools open would expose the caretakers of the learners to the deadly virus.

After the closure of the schools, the government embarked on the vaccination of teachers.

President Yoweri Museveni also recently announced that the country would fully reopen the economy next month whether the targeted five million people are vaccinated or not.

Ministry of Health figures as of 13th December, 2022 show that over 7.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered since the exercise started in March 2021.