By Stuart Bogere Oswald

KIU, Main Campus - This week the Education Ministery announced the reopening of schools, two years after they were closed, and indicated that all learners will automatically be promoted to the next class in January 2022.

This opened a room for discussion among stakeholders in the education sector on how this will be effective and how it's going to work.

While appearing on NTV's "Talk to The Nation" on Saturday evening, the Vice Chancellor Kampala International University, Prof. Mouhamed Mpezamihigo, stressed that the fate of automatic promotion is not a new concept and should be embraced.

He said that secondary students and primary pupils really deserve to be promoted especially those that have fulfilled the previous class as it is the normal situation that will help to decongest classes.

Prof. Mpezamihigo added that a reasonable number of students have interacted with learning especially in different ways like studying online and others have made use of the study materials, especially those that had access to them.

He however encouraged schools to develop robastic systems on how this should be done in the most effective way. 

He said that, "Since this is already a government directive, schools should carryout assessment of the students who will be coming back to school so as not to contract the disease." 

He further added that schools should also assess that students match with the classes that they intend to be promoted to. He advised the government to put in place interventional programs to support in the bridging of the remedial gaps especially to those that missed catching up.

According to the Ministry School 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.