Results from enhanced home schooling will be enough for promotion - says Education Ministry

The Ministry of Education has said results from an enhanced home schooling program will be enough for promotion of students in non-candidate classes.

President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday ordered for the reopening of academic institutions to only final year students at each level of education (P7, S4, S6 and finalists in higher institutions of learning).

The President said that government believes that the number of finalists (1.2million) is manageable and that is why the rest of the learners should stay at home.

"We are opening the schools because the cost of waiting will be high. If the batch of 2020 do not move on, what will happen to the batch of 2021? A solution for the non finalists shall be got in January 2021," President Museveni said.

While addressing the press on Thursday, Alex Kakooza, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education said that they anticipate that learners in non-candidate classes can reach a level of learning achievement for promotion to the next class, even if they don't go back to school before the end of the academic year 2020.

Kakooza said that, "progression shall be based on our evaluation of how effectively home-schooling has been implemented."

Kakooza ruled out the possibility of a dead year, adding that there is still hope for the rest of the learners to return to school as well before the year ends.

He said that" an assessment will be made after a month to determine how well institutions are implementing the SOPs to inform a decision on whether the rest of the learners can be allowed to return."

Government earlier in the year promised radios for learners to continue with learning at home when schools were closed in March due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

This was however not effectively implemented.

The Ministry of Education released new guidelines that will be followed as students in final year classes report for second term on October 15th, 2020.

The fate of rest of the students now lies in how well schools handle the final year students.