schools reopen after two years of closure

For two years, the children of Kampala, Uganda, had not set foot in their classroom. The start of the 2022 school year was eagerly awaited. “I am happy because I missed my teachers and my studies“, says a schoolgirl. In Uganda, 15 million students have returned to school. They are encouraged to wear masks and wash their hands. The country’s authorities had made the radical choice at the start of the pandemic , to set up classes at home.The schools were closed for 83 weeks, the longest shutdown in the world.

“The first few months, we fought to teach them the lessons. It was difficult for parents. You go to work, you leave homework for them to do, and when you come back, nothing is done“Says Patrick Ssemanda, father of a family. The lucky ones were able to follow distance learning courses, set up by their teachers via applications.

In the country, one of the poorest in the world, school dropouts have been massive. “In the schools of the cities, some were able to have material to learn. But in the schools of the hinterland, in the countryside, some have not studied anything at all “, explains Richard Aburo, head of a primary school. Faced with economic difficulties, some children had no other choice than to lend a hand to their families, in the fields or in the gold mines.