As the calls among some sections of the public and education, stakeholders continue to mount up, the Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni has come out to issue a statement on the government’s stand on the topic.
Mrs Museveni said that for the past few weeks and months, she’s seen many friends and children asking her why they don’t open up schools and she felt it was necessary to address the issue instead of keeping quiet about it.
The Minister asked the public to first ask themselves why the government has chosen to keep the schools closed?
She then said that teachers in government schools have continued to receive their salaries even as schools continue to be locked.
Therefore the government is not earning anything from this closure adding that it’s only teachers in private schools that have suffered because their pay depends on the availability of learners.
She then wondered if the public has known that the reason government has kept schools closed is for the safety of the learners and their families because of the danger of the deadly COVID 19 disease.
The Minister then said that she has received numerous rude comments from the public but they should think about the repercussions of opening schools now.
“Sometimes I receive very rude insinuations you send to me in our dialogue, like just open schools, etc. Well, when you put a lot of thinking in this puzzle, if it’s even a puzzle at all, you can see that opening schools is the easiest thing to do. After all, that is what many of you seem to really want and I can also understand your thinking. So why then have we kept schools opened,” Part of the First Lady’s statement read.
She then said that they have put a lot of thinking and planning in the activity of reopening schools because they contain 15 million young school population who are the future of this country.
Janet said that if anything was to go wrong, Uganda would be shattered.
“As you know the 15 million young school population hold the future of our country in their hands. If anything were to go wrong, God forbid, Uganda would be shattered. If they, on the other hand, infect their parents, as most of them are day scholars, they would become orphans- just like HIV/AIDS did to many of the families,” Janet’s statement further read.
She then said that these are the considerations they have been battling within their engagements.
Janet added that from this, they decided that patience is the key as they go ahead to vaccinate teachers, learners above 18 and the vulnerable population.
Mrs Museveni then asked people that if at least they have a little faith in their government, they should know that it really cares and has not closed schools to punish them but rather because it cares for them.
