Government has said it is set to distribute 6 million copies of text books for the revised lower Secondary School curriculum which was rolled out in 2020 to private and public secondary schools across the country.
“The government is spending Shs 33 billion for this exercise and we are distributing to 5505 secondary schools .Of these schools we know that at least 1300 are government secondary schools ,so the majority are private schools,” said Denis Mugimba,the spokesperson in the Ministry of Education during a news conference.
He noted that they want to achieve a student-to-textbook ratio of three learners per textbook for the core subjects; English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History and Political Education.
On the other hand, Mugimba said that for the non-core subjects the textbooks shall be distributed to attain a student-to-textbook ratio of 6 to 1 and each school shall receive 80 percent of textbooks for regular use whereas 20 percent of the materials consist of textbooks for reference purposes.
“We are experiencing late completion of the distribution exercise than anticipated. More than 80 percent of our supplies were held up during the strike of truck drivers at Malaba border which has since come to an end,” he said.
Mugimba said that the delivery of the textbooks for S.l and S.2 is intended to assure implementation of the revised lower secondary school curriculum.
“Other textbooks that are used for the old curriculum may be utilised as reference materials where applicable. We appeal to all stakeholders especially local governments, RDCs, Members of Parliament to support the ministry by being vigilant in ensuring that schools that are expected to receive the textbooks do so and in the correct quantities as per the distribution list,” he said.
Schools that shall not have received any textbooks by the end of February are advised to write to the Permanent Secretary by providing the details of the school including the enrolment of students in all classes.
“The procurement of S.3 and S.4 textbooks for the cohorts that shall be using the revised lower secondary curriculum in those levels is in the final stages. These books are expected in schools before the next school academic year commences,” he said.
