Teachers and Headteachers Unions in Uganda have warned school authorities across the country that failure to actualize recommendations by the National Task Force for Ebola will lead to imminent closure.
The National Task Force for Ebola in an emergency session which was convened on Friday, passed resolutions namely; banned parties of all kinds at schools, prohibited parents from visiting their children at schools, and failure to observe these will lead to closure, like what happened at the height of Covid-19 Pandemic.
During the emergency session, the National Task Force unanimously agreed that Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has already infiltrated schools, but there is a prerogative of mercy extended to learning institutions by keeping a blind eye to a few things that may lead to closure, thus threatening the education sector.
Ishmael Mulindwa, the assistant commissioner Private Schools Policy Regulations in the Ministry of Education and Sports said the resolutions that were passed by the task force were not aimed at closing schools like it is rumoured, but to avoiding over crowding and provide proper guidance to school authorities on how to curtail the spread of ebola.
“It was not intended to effect the closure of schools. Schools will remain operating and there are no serious changes, however it has been made clear that no more visiting of learners by parents and other parties,” noted Mulindwa.
“We call upon school authorities to cooperate with us and ensure that parents are stopped from accessing school premises to see their children, we should avoid a scenario of different people from different areas congregating in one place” he added.
Richard Wamboka, the chairperson for teachers in Buganda under Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) urged school authorities to respect and actualize recommendations put in place by the National Task Force for ebola, which is under the Ministry of Health (MoH).
“We largely believe that the fast spread of ebola can be amplified by recklessness in schools in respect to disregard of SOP’s because the school population is comprised of people from different communities, different homes and some learners especially in day schools board different taxis, bodabodas,” said Wamboka, adding;
“I agree with the suggestion that visitations should be cutoff, it is temporal.”
Patrick Kaboyo, the chairperson for the Federation of Non State Education Institutions (FENEI) in Kampala warned that schools should exercise caution and carry out screening for day learners, noting that all positive cases have been identified amongst day scholars.
“We dont want ebola to take us by surprise. If there is any law in place, a preventive law, intended to fortify learners’ lives against danger, it must respected,” said Kaboyo.
Commissioner Mulindwa also revealed that regular patrols have been flagged off to establish if school authorities are complying in respect to observing these guidelines, in addition to seriously dealing with transgressors.
He revealed that it was agreed in the emergency session that learners are to continue studying normally, write their final examinations, and that the trend will be mantained if all school authorities cooperate and respect guidelines put in place by the task force which is under the Ministry of Health.
According to the data supplied by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which was derived from statistics by World Health Organization (WHO) as of October 26th, the state of affairs regarding EVD in Uganda raises serious alarm.
The statistics point out that there have been 115 confirmed cases of ebola, including 32 deaths, putting the case fatality rate at 28%.
According to the same statistics, there are seven Ugandan districts affected by the outbreak which include; Kagadi, Kampala, Kassanda, Kyegegwa, Bunyangabu, Wakiso and Mubende which is known to be the epicenter of the virus.
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