MoES sets 19th July as the re-opening date for schools after 42 days lock down

Ministry of Education and Sports has set 19th July as the opening date for P1, P2, P3, P6, S2,S3, S5 which had not yet accomplished their 2020 academic year. This was issued by the permanent secretary ministry of education and sports in a circular.

Reference is made to H.E. the President’s address to the nation on 6th June 2021 regarding the Covid-19 situation in the country, during which he directed that all education institutions be closed with effect from 7th June 2021. As H.E. the President indicated, the decision to close education institutions was arrived at as the inevitable course of action after exhaustive discussions and strong advice from the National Covid-19 Taskforce, the Scientists and Ministry of Health. Although expected to be short-lived, the closure poses additional challenges to the education sector, especially regarding completion of academic year 2020. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Sports would like to provide the following additional guidance regarding the latest Covid-19 enforced closure of schools and planned reopening. The Government is committed to ensuring that given the progress so far made in recovery of lost learning, the academic year 2020 will be completed and all learners, who will have attended classes as per the official revised school calendar, will be promoted to the next class for academic year 2021. However, this will necessitate further adjustments to the revised school calendar for some classes as tentatively indicated below.

To ensure equity in provision of education in the country, no school shall carry out promotions outside the above official time frames on the pretext that some learners had attended private lessons and are, therefore, ahead of the rest.

Schools warned against recharging school fees

In terms of school fees, the Ministry guides as follows:

1. S1 and S2 learners will report and complete the remaining part of the term without paying additional fees, in case they had already completed the interrupted term’s fees.

2. P6, S3 and S5, who were expected to report on 7th June for a special term, will report and pay fees proportionate to the shorter term. For avoidance of doubt, no school should charge more than 60% of the previous/standard term’s fees for this special term of seven weeks.

3. P1, P2 and P3 will pay the fees for a normal term when they report back for the academic year 2020.

4. P6, S3 and S5, in schools which hosted UNEB Marking and had reported back, will report and complete the remaining part of the term without paying any additional fees.

Government will continue to strengthen home learning by enhanced distribution of self-study materials for all classes.

The Ministry guides universities and other tertiary institutions to strengthen online learning and work closely with National Council for Higher Education to ensure successful completion of ongoing semester programmes. In the intervening period to the reopening of education institutions on 19th July, the Ministry of Education and Sports, in collaboration with Ministry of Health and partners, will embark on strengthening the capacity of education institutions and enforcement structures to effectively implement the Covid- 19 SOPs for safe and sustainable reopening of schools after the six weeks.

Below is the circular

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