By; Francis Lubega and Ben Musanje

14th Sept. 2020

 

The deputy chairperson of the Education committee of Parliament John Twesigye Ntamuhiira says any plan to reopen schools this year is misguided.

Twesigye says the academic year should be cancelled in order to give parents enough time to come up with finances to pay school dues for a new academic year in 2021.

Despite no clear direction being offered by the ministry of Education on when or if schools will be reopened there is widespread speculation that schools will be allowed to reopen in a phased manner this month starting with candidate classes.

Twesigye however says it would be ideal for the schools to remain shut during the election period and only reopen next year after the polls

His view is supported by the Serere County MP Patrick Okabe who says the recent NRM primaries which were characterized by large crowds and gatherings with no respect for COVID-19 preventive guidelines is going to lead to a massive spike in infections.

Okabe says it would be ill advised to reopen schools at this time.

This comes as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the country, over 92 children have been infected according to the ministry of health. This is about 2 percent of the total cases in the country which are nearing 5,000.

 

Dr Charles Olaro, the director of clinical services at the ministry of health the infected children are aged between 0 and 12 years. All of them have been asymptomatic with very mild symptoms of the disease, according to health ministry officials. As of September 11, 2020 43 of the children were females while 49 were male.

He says majority of the children who have tested positive are contacts who have picked the disease from either parents or guardians who have tested positive. He says Parents need to make sure that their children wash their hands and use masks.

The national tally on the pandemic stands at 4,799 cases with 55 deaths, 948 active cases and 2,256 recoveries..

 


Monday 14th September 2020 07:42:28 PM