The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ministry of Education says plans are in place to let learners have interfaces with their teachers at school in a phased arrangement after the distribution of the second round of home learning material.
According to the Director Basic and secondary education Ismael Mulindwa the move to allow learners have face to face sessions with their teachers will be guided by the ministry of health to ensure that the SOPs are observed and at the same time learners have a complete learning session.
Mulindwa adds that the material to be distributed and this round will be targeting classes from primary four to primary six and from senior one to senior three as a continuation of their syllabus that will need the learner to have some sessions with the teacher to explain in details .
Mulindwa explains that the study material is now at printing level and yet to be distributed within a period of three weeks from today to enable learners complete the syllabus and later to be assessed depending on what they have covered.
He notes that the first round of learning material that was distributed covered only 25% due to financial constraints and it was for revision purposes and also the main target was those that could not access radio and television learning sessions.
Mulindwa who hesitated to reveal how much money they have put in the process noted that this time round they have a target of reaching out to all learners that are over ten million minus the candidates whose number is not established already.
He also notes that lower classes will be considered at a later stageMulindwa says that they will use radios and television sessions more for the lower classes.
According to Mulindwa the distribution of learning material that was introduced by government after closing of schools in March due to the COVID 19 pandemic has had several challenges, citing financial constraints and lack of preparedness .
However, according to Mulindwa plans are under way to ensure that the process is efficient to benefit the learners and enable them be assessed to move on and this is why the teacher factor has been introduced.
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The ministry of education and sports should consider learners in lower classes like s1-s3 and p4-6 meet teachers in their residential villages than crossing villages to search for their original schools. This is because, almost every village in Uganda either has a vast play ground or a spacious place owned by an independent resident who can be willing to render it for communal education for Ugandan children for a given period. Please, employ teachers from their residential villages because many of them are either still free or unwilling to go back to their previous schools. children identified with Covid19 cases van easily be handled from their residential localities.
Government please better declare a dead year to non candidates and let us settle for next year .coz we village learners are not benefiting from the learning materials due to poor services(ABNER FROM NAMISINDWA)
A different approach for ensuring continuity of learning for primary school learner during Covid-19 lock down in Uganda.
By: Issa Ndungo, Mountains of the Moon University.
The whole world and Uganda in particular were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the Corona virus at the end of 2019. Many countries adopted a number of measures to control and stop the spread of the disease.
The President of Uganda consequently suspended all public gatherings, closed schools, markets, prayer places, and public and private transport. This affected all sectors of the economy; however, the education sector was greatly affected since it involves gathering of learners at schools, in classes, hostels and during cocurricular activities.
This directive took effect from 20th March 2020, since then there have been easing of the lockdown for other sectors of the economy but the education institutions have not been allowed to open full; the non-candidate leaners are still at home. The ministry of education made an attempt to develop learning materials for primary and secondary school learners, some learning is being done on televisions and radio stations.
However, all these attempts are not benefiting all the pupils/learners across the country. These methods for example do not allow feedback and pupils-teacher interactions, also most pupils from the village setting do not access televisions or radios.
Most learners, especially in villages have never been attended too and some have resorted to engage in non-academic activities that are mainly dominated by play and movement from one place to another. This is associated with many challenges that affect the learners. Eventually the dropout rate will rise, since some learners are taken up into other life activities such as busines, farming, marriages and other unpleasant activities.
Since all schools are closed for non-candidate classes, all teachers from private and government schools are free from work and are scattered all over the country. These could be put to use to provide home to home teaching through providing questions/content to learners from different subjects.
In a bid to solve the existing problem, home2home learning consult intends to provide education learning support to pupils in primary schools during this lockdown. The activities will include the following:
1) Mobilizing subject experts in mathematics, English, science, social studies and literacy that will participate in the activity.
2) Registering pupils from different villages and mapping their respective locations.
3) Setting questions from each subject following the syllabus for each class.
4) Deliver question papers to pupils homes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
5) Collect the answered questions from pupils and marking them.
6) Supplying the marked scripts to pupils and interact with individual pupils that need special assistance.
Each pupil should be required to pay a minimal fee per set of question/content paper supplied. This money should be used to pay for setting, printing, marking and distributing the question papers to pupils’ homes. It is anticipated that this exercise will help the learners to keep focused to their learning and also benefit from the teacher-pupil interaction that will be provided.
During this exercise the standard operating procedures (SOP) such as social distance, masking, washing hands/sanitizing have to be obeyed. In particular, each pupil should be found at his/her home, all the teachers should put on face masks and move along with personal sanitizers. The interaction should be by pupil at their homes and the teachers involved should work individually at all time.