The opposition Democratic Party (DP) has called on Government to reign in on schools that are demanding parents to clear all the school fees of first term that learners didn’t complete in March 2020 when all education institutions were closed in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, students of semi candidate classes of P6, S.3 and S.5 reported back to school, nearly a year after all education institutions were closed to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there have been reports that some schools are demanding parents to clear all school dues of first 2020 that students didn’t complete when they sent home.
Addressing reporters in Kampala on Tuesday, DP Spokesperson Okoler Opio Lo Amanu called on Government to reign on the matter, saying that parents were badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and would therefore find it hard to complete school dues on the first day of reopening.
He challenged Government to provide Ugandans with interest free loans to boost their businesses.
“The Democratic Party notes with concern that many parents are unable to return their children to school because of pecuniary difficulties arising from Covid19 Pandemic.
Education being the foundation of transformation and development in developing nations, the government should have focused on among others, giving out interest free loans to Ugandans whose businesses were crippled by the pandemic. Now that that was not done, many Ugandans will not be able to support their children in school let alone failing to take them back,” Okoler said.
“We further note that, all students including those that had cleared their school dues to nil before the closure of schools in March last year are required to pay humongous sums of money under the pretext of COVID-19 pandemic, this is unacceptable.
We demand that government prevails over the situation lest we be flooded with unimaginable number of school dropouts which in our opinion can be calamitous to the nation,” he added.
