Kampala, Uganda | URN | Former presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has discredited the idea of asking parents to conduct a homeschooling program with their children saying that such policymakers are totally detached from the reality about the status of Uganda’s homesteads.
Schools across the country were closed in March 2020 as a measure to reduce concentration centres and control the spread of coronavirus disease. Over the months, the Ministry of Education and Sports has emphasized the need for homeschooling relying on lessons broadcast on radio and television as well as self-study materials distributed through local government structures.
Early this week, President Yoweri Museveni announced that schools will open doors on October 15, for learners in candidate classes and finalists in universities and other tertiary institutions. The rest of the learners will continue studying from home until January 2021.
But while addressing the media at his office at Katonga road on Thursday 24th, Dr Besigye said that it is a mistake first of all to think that the homeschooling program can yield results in Uganda. He also expressed worry that private schools will be left to die under the guise that government schools will cover the gap.
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Meanwhile, Dr Besigye has also warned that the COVID-19 pandemic may worsen Uganda’s long-term problem of absolute poverty that was caused by the government’s policy of collapsing peasant production methods based on agriculture and the cooperative movement.
He says that since the deliberate destruction of rural peasant cooperatives, many Ugandans in rural areas survive on debts issued under the pretext of savings and cooperative unions and associations. He added that the situation has caused unmanageable indebtedness forcing some family members to run from their homes while others take their own lives.
He calls for immediate government attention to the question of rural poverty.
