The Ugandan Ministry of education has said that they will start to close schools that have been operating without licences across the country.
According to the commissioner of private schools at the Ministry of Education ,Edward Ssebuchu, they have received numerous intelligence about mushrooming private schools without licenses and they will close them starting this week.
“There is always a tendency of some people opening up and starting schools at the start of the year to target the new entrants from primary seven and those going to senior five. We have already received information and we shall go around the country arresting and closing them starting this week,” Ssebuchu said during a thanks giving ceremony of Maryland High School Entebbe.
A school survey done by Ministry of Education in 2015 indicated that there are 2, 875 privately owned schools across the country.
In 2017, government closed over 1, 300 school across the country for having no proper structures, no licenses and pit latrines among other requirements.
In February last year, about 300 private primary and secondary schools were blocked from opening for first term after they failed to meet the minimum standards as required by the ministry of Education.
Since the crackdown three years ago, the education ministry says there have been other sprouting schools and this has led to a subsequent growth in the number of substandard private schools.
According to the ministry’s guidelines, for a person to get a license for a private school, they have to write to the permanent secretary who asks the district authorities to carry out an assessment to see whether one has the requirements to run a school.
Upon enrollment, one is allowed to open a private primary school if they have at least 55 pupils enrolled in each class while the minimum number for secondary schools is 40 students per class.
At the same event, SSebuchu called on government schools to embrace the new curriculum which focuses on the students’ participation in class.
