Government Warns Schools Against Teaching During Holidays.
The Ministry of Education and Sports has warned all schools preparing to conduct coaching during holidays to stop it with immediate effect.
This follows a holiday notice from an Entebbe-based school, informing parents and guardians of Senior Three, Four, Five and Six students to prepare for a three-week “Term X” coaching that will be conducted at Shs200,000 per student.
However, the Ministry of Education and Sports spokesperson, Mr Dennis Mugimba, noted: “The Ministry of Education and Sports school calendar does not include anything called Term X. There is a reason school holidays are scheduled.”
In a telephone interview with this publication yesterday, Mr Mugimba said schools should let parents to mobilise resources for next term and also allow learners to rest.
Children also get exhausted. You have been studying for 10 to 11 weeks and they add you another three weeks during holidays. Students end up resting for one week, it’s just abnormal and not accepted,” he added.
According to the Ministry of Education and sports academic calendar, the First Term is expected to close on May 5 and the Second Term opens on May 29.
Penalties
Mr Mugimba said schools that defy the directive risk closure.
“We also have administrative procedures for putting to order headmasters of schools that have gone against the guidelines the ministry has put in place and the school calendar is among the guidelines the schools must follow during the academic year,” Mr Mugimba said.
He added that the ministry set up an inspection team to ensure that schools do not conduct coaching during holiday time.
Last year the directorate of education standards conducted an inspection in Mbale District where one school was closed for conducting classes during Christmas break.
The ministry’s spokesperson called on parents to report cases of schools that are conducting holiday classes.
“The challenge we are having is that parents know about it but they keep quiet and they don’t tell the ministry. They assume that the ministry automatically knows but we also don’t know because we cannot be everywhere,” he added.