KAMPALA, UGANDA: Universities and other tertiary institutions all over Uganda are today’s et to finally reopen four months after closure by the government over Covid-19 spread in schools.
According to the guidelines for reopening set by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) last month, the reopening of institutions will be done in a staggered manner while prioritizing first-year students and finalists.
The staggered manner of reopening implies a variety of institutions will have fresher students report from today onwards for physical classes while other groups of students will continue studying online.
Speaking about the reopening of University, Professor Celestino Obua, the Vice-Chancellor Mbarara University yesterday said students from the faculties of applied science, computing and sciences will report today.
He said other students offering business management and inter-disciplinary courses will continue studying online and only report on campus to sit for exams.
“Whereas we only have a population of about 5,000 students, we shall bring them in phases as guided by the government. Students with a lot of practical work will report physically on campus. Those in Humanities will continue online,” Prof Obua said.
Similarly, the managements of Makerere and Kyambogo universities, said they will only allow students offering science courses physically at their institutions while those offering Humanities and Social Sciences will continue with their lessons online.
They further said the students offering arts courses will only report on campus physically to sit for their exams.
Another group of students to report today are those in primary and national teachers’ colleges.
Addressing journalists at Media Centre in Kampala last Friday, the acting commissioner for Teacher Education Training, Ms. Annet Mugisha, said the first-year students and second-year students in Primary and National Teachers College who joined the institutions for the 2019/2020 cohort will report today.
She said second-year students in primary teachers’ colleges who did not conduct their school practice in lower primary will not report today because primary schools will still remain closed. These will only report when Primary One to Three classes reopen.
Students in Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions are also slated to report on campus today.
According to the November guidelines from the executive director of NCHE, Prof Mary Okwakol, all institutions should submit to the council, their phased reopening programme.
It should be noted that President Museveni in his June address to the nation ordered the closure of all institutions of learners for the second year following the increase in Covid-19 cases.
In August this year, the President cleared institutions teaching medical students to reopen in September and later in his address on September 30, announced that tertiary institutions were allowed to reopen by November 1.
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