New School Calendar released as Education Ministry issues School fees guidelines

The Ministry of Education has issued additional guidelines on closure of education institutions and a revised school calendar for academic year 2020.

Following the presidential speech on Sunday regarding the Covid-19 situation in the country, during which he directed that all education institutions be closed with effect from 7″ June 2021, the Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary says that 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 has come up with additional guidance regarding the latest Covid-19 enforced closure of schools and planned reopening.

Kakooza noted that 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 any further adjustments to the revised school calendar for some classes.

Tentative Adjustments to the revised school calendar 2020 for the proposed reopening of schools on 19th July 2021

P7, S4 & S6 who reported on 15^th October 2020 and completed the academic year. The same went for P4 & P5 who reported on 6^th April 2021 and completed the academic year on 4^th June 2021. P1, P2, P3, P6, S3 & S5 who were supposed to report on Monday 7^th June 2021, will now report on 19th July 2021 and break off on 3^rd September 2021. The same classes will come back to school for first term of the 2021 academic year on 20^th September 2021.

Meanwhile, S1 reported to school on 12^th April and were expected to break off for holidays on 2^nd July 2021. This has been adjusted and they will report back to school on 19^th July before breaking off on 13^th August 2021. S2 students will then reported on May 13^th and were meant to break off on 23^rd July 2021. They will now return to school on 19^th July and break off on 3^rd September. For first term of 2021 academic year, they will report on 20^th September 2021.

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

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

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. P6, S3 and S5, who were expected to report on 7″ 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. Pl, P2 and P3 will pay the fees for a normal term when they report back for the academic year 2020.

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 19″ 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.