 |
| Uganda government school - Image may be subject to copyright |
 |
| Uganda government school - Image may be subject to copyright |
 |
| Uganda government school - Image may be subject to copyright |
https://www.facebook.com/yusufosuta
| Museveni's long pursued scheme of systematically destroying Uganda's formal education has been boosted by COVID-19 pandemic. Early this year, he delivered a terrible blow to the education sector when he imposed his communist oriented so-called Revised Curriculum for lower secondary schools. It was amidst overwhelming dissent against the revised curriculum by citizens, that the COVID-19 pandemic came to the scene. On March 18 2020, he decreed the closure of all the institutions of learning and out of fear for the virus, Ugandans offered him their trust. |
Around April, his wife, who also doubles as the Minister of Education, for unknown reasons issued a road-map for the reopening of schools in two weeks' time but the plan was swiftly dropped without explanation. Instead, Museveni embraced promotion of uncoordinated printing and distribution of insufficient learning materials. Individual radio and television stations also initiated teaching sessions for students. Some learning institutions initiated uploading of learning materials for the very small number of students who have access to the internet. Will no clear reason, the government banned those institutions who wanted to conduct online exams for their students. Interestingly, the regime has left International Schools to conduct online classes to their students uninterrupted.
To dupe Ugandans, around May, Museveni decreed that candidate classes were to resume on June 4. However, during his June 9 national address, he extended that arrangement for another month. During the same address, he told a total lie that some parents were concerned about the safety of their children and didn't want schools to reopen. He claimed that some parents had told him that;
"Let the year be wasted but our children are saved."
During the same address, he decreed that he was to procure 10 million transistor radios for distribution to all the 137,466 households and two solar powered television sets for every village throughout the country. Two Chinese companies are manufacturing the said radios and television sets in Uganda. Recently, the Personal Assistant to his Minister of Education/wife, Mr. Muyingo, disclosed that the government was at advanced stages of formalising digital learning guidelines. With radio and television stations expected to be preoccupied with transmitting and broadcasting Museveni's so-called scientific election campaigns, obviously there will be no space for formal education programs for the rest of this year and early next year when elections will take place.
Privately owned education institutions have played a big role in sustaining the quality of the education in the country. However, they have always fallen victim to his evil scheme to systematically destroy the country's education system. With the lockdown, teachers in private schools have suffered the most. In May, the government directed private educational institutions to pay the salaries of their teachers. Calls by these institutions for government intervention by way of paying salaries to these teachers were out-rightly rejected. The government argued that it views private education institutions as any other private business enterprise. Private school owners are grappling with bank loans in which their school properties had been mortgaged as collateral in anticipation of servicing the said loans from school fees remittances.
Four months into the lockdown, many of the country's 15 million learners have fallen victim to forced marriages, sexual and domestic violence, child labour, early pregnancies and lack of psycho-social support. The disabled learners like the blind and the deaf have been left out of all the existing Ad-Hoc learning arrangements. Ugandans have come to realise that Museveni is exaggerating the COVID-19 threat for sinister motives. Calls for opening of schools are getting louder by the day but are falling on Museveni's deaf ears. He fears that allowing schools to open would imply giving a node to political assemblies for opposition parties. The latest call is from a couple of civil society organisations that have petitioned government to open schools arguing that e-learning is very expensive, not cost effective and a waste of tax-payers' money. Museveni is buying time for an academic dead year that will consequently clog the entire education system. His sole interest is retention of power at all costs including the suffocation of the country's education.
MLN
#osutayusuf
Comments
Post a Comment