(This article was first published in the New Vision on July 28, 2021)
By Conan Busingye
Education institutions in Uganda have been have been affected by COVID-19-induced lockdowns since March 2020, owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 last year. However, this has not stopped school owners from helping the Government in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease, Conan Businge brings you the details
Private schools’ owners, under their umbrella association have asked the Government to allow them to directly assist in the fight against COVID-19, especially in the ongoing lockdown.
Their appeal comes at the tail-end of a 42-day lockdown. The first lockdown of the country to curb the spread of COVID-19 was in March last year.
The Proprietors of Private Education Institutions’ Association in Uganda (PPEIAU) say they have a cardinal role of working with the Government, which will help in the quickening of the re-opening of schools.
In their letter dated July 4 and addressed to the permanent secretary of the health ministry, their leader Mike Kironde says: “We have contemplated that, part of the solution to this pandemic is to devise a long-term strategy. We would like, therefore, to pledge our resolute commitment to work with your ministry to combat COVID-19 in Uganda through the following private education sub-sector spearheaded interventions.”
Kironde adds: “We wish to confirm to you that the private education sub-sector, has been co-operative in adherence to both the presidential directives. However, your recent report pointed out some misnomers in the education sub-sector that could have been part of the incitement of the second lockdown.”
“On the above basis, we wish to confirm to you that our association is willing and ready to partner with the Government, through your ministry in the fight against COVID-19,” they note.
In their suggestion, the school owners pledge to support the Government in promoting COVID-19 vaccination campaign countrywide.
They note that this will involve, launching a fight against fake news on the vaccination programme (emphasising that Astrazeneca is one of the best vaccines for COVID-19 in the world).
They also pledge to conduct a countrywide mobilisation of all proprietors/directors and teaching and non-teaching staff of private and Government-aided education institutions to join the fight and take vaccinations.
Kironde adds: “We wish to note that over 90% of the adult population in Uganda have at least one child in school. We pledge the availability manpower to support the vaccination process across the country, provide premises as local immunisation centres within reach of the people at no cost, motor vehicles for transportation of our taskforce personnel in the mobilisation exercise, as well as resources and strategies for mobilising the target people for the exercise.”
The private schools heads also pledged to avail accommodation at no cost for the professional team in the premises designated as vaccination centres for this purpose.
The association has also pledged “to institute a continuous strong sensitisation programme on the preventive measures of COVID-19 in all private education institutions in Uganda until the pandemic is flashed out of our country.”
Kironde says for this to happen, the Government needs to provide adequate vaccine for the exercise to proceed.
They have also asked the Government to provide all the necessary professional manpower and their financial and logistical requirements, to guide their taskforce team and to conduct the vaccination exercise smoothly.
There are about 4,300 private schools in the country with about 1.5 million pupils in the primary section and more than 390,000 students at the secondary level.
Most of the privately owned schools are in the primary section. In regard to secondary schools, there are more privately owned ones than public institutions.
Kironde adds: “We express our utmost recognition of the professional way the health ministry has handled the COVID-19 pandemic to-date, especially with regard to the education sector. We also welcomed and fully embraced the guidelines put in place by the ministry for the education sector to ensure its utmost safety.”
Past Interventions
In October last year, the association provided 1,000 temperature guns to at least 500 private education institutions across the country; at a subsidised cost.
The director for basic and secondary education, Ismael Mulindwa, also noted that the association initiated and conducted live interactive talk-shows on mass media and online to sensitise stakeholders about the pandemic and preventive measures as advised by the health ministry.
Last month, before the second lockdown, Proprietors of Private Education Institutions’ Association in Uganda initiated and executed the teachers’ vaccination campaign codenamed Save Your Learner, where over 2,000 teachers were vaccinated at Kololo Airstrip within two days.
Response From Government
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwiine, says: “The ministry would love to work with the schools, in case there is need.”
However, much as they say they sent the letter to the health ministry, Atwiine says she has not yet received it, ‘‘but we will be willing to sit with them and see what we can do to support each other for the betterment of our country. We need patriotic people like these school owners. We now need to sit down and see what we can do with them. Let them officially write to us.’’
The state minister for higher education, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, also says this is a good initiative from schools owners ‘‘to step forward and work with the Government. We need everyone’s support to overcome this pandemic.”
Muyingo encouraged other associations, companies and individuals, to also step forward and lend a hand in the fight against COVID-19.
Jessica Musiimenta, a private school owner in Kibaale district, says most schools would be willing, if only the Government involved them in the COVID-19 fight.
“Some of our schools have been closed for almost a year. We have made great losses, but that does not mean we cannot lend a hand. We just cannot leave everything to the Government. I am willing to support the Government, if such a move guarantees the re-opening of schools in the near future,” Musiimenta says.
The director of basic and secondary education, Ismael Mulindwa, says the move by private schools owners is highly appreciated and calls on more associations to join suit and support the Government.
“If, for instance, we had a good number of teachers vaccinated, it would encourage their colleagues to register. The challenge we currently have are the false messages being circulated, discouraging people from getting vaccinated. If we are all committed to fight COVID-19, we will win this battle. We must get the teachers, parents and communities involved in the fight. We hope to get more vaccines and we will have more people vaccinated,” Mulindwa pledged.
Status Of COVID-19
Figures from the health ministry show that COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Uganda, with 299 new infections reported on average each day since the lockdown. There have been 92,490 infections and 2,557 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.
Private Schools Contribution In Fighting Unemployment
The Proprietors of Private Education Institutions’ Association in Uganda (PPEIAU), according to its records, has a network of over 100,000 members at all levels across countrywide.
The schools, according to the education ministry employ over 500,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.
The education sector contributes heavily to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to the tune of 5% annually. In particular, private schools contribute about 80% of that compared to government-aided schools’ 20%.
Private schools are the core investors in the human capital, creating skilled human resource that has boosted industrialisation, infrastructure development and the fight against unemployment.
Mike Kironde, the PPEIAU leader says, the COVID-19 situation has caused a lot of mayhem to the education sector leading to loss of government revenue (taxes) and jobs.
Over 100,000 schools’ owners stopped earning since March last year and majority are challenged with accumulated loans from financial institutions.
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