By Spy Uganda
Kampala: As schools prepare to reopen after a prolonged period, the UK and Ireland in partnership with UNICEF have donated to Uganda UGX9b to support safe and sustainable reopening.
The UK provided £450,000 (UGX2,153,403,038) and Ireland provided Euro 1.8 Million (UGX7,200,521,083) to UNICEF for the overall Government of Uganda school reopening strategy, a portion of which is used for school-based surveillance and MHPSS in the Karamoja region.
Speaking at the opening of the training, Kate Airey, British High Commissioner to Uganda, said “Without investment in human capital, without schools remaining open, I fear Ugandans will start to fall behind regional peers. Uganda must therefore now create a system to ensure that can enable schools to remain open, and education can carry on without further interruptions.”
Getting children back into school and learning is a priority for all three partners and this support comes at a critical time to support Uganda in its recovery.
The initiative will result in up to 40,000 schools nationwide (both public and private) being capacitated via district officials to effectively track and manage COVID-19 cases and support students and teachers on re-entry.
UNICEF has worked with the government and development partners on continuity of learning and safe school re-opening for the last two years. UNICEF’s support has included sharing of global knowledge and best practices, provision of self-learning materials, radio, and TV lessons for continuity of learning and parenting education.
Apart from the nationwide School-Based Surveillance training, UNICEF is also providing selected schools with infection prevention and control supplies including handwashing materials and tents for the safe re-opening of schools.
Since March 2020, the UK has provided distance learning via radio to an estimated half a million lower primary and secondary children, and in 2022 intends to provide catch up classes directly to 250,000 children.
Ireland has been a strong supporter of Uganda’s education sector for more than fifteen years, with a long-standing focus on investing in bursaries in Karamoja.
Since June 2021, Ireland has chaired the Education Development partners group and has maintained its support for the sector throughout the pandemic with continued investment in primary and secondary schools, vocational training, and bursaries with a variety of partners including UNICEF, Enabel, and Straight Talk Foundation.
