In the U.S., each day news stories ponder how we’ll get back to school in the fall. The struggles are similar in Uganda where the president is poised to reopen schools for candidate classes. Candidate classes include all grades graduating to the next level – P7, S4, S6 and university finalists.
Maintaining personal space, performing temperature checks and testing for the virus are difficult requirements to provide and maintain in an environment where basic human needs are often a challenge.
“When the president says schools will open – schools must open,” said Fr. Matthias Kakooza, our program coordinator. His primary and secondary school campus must figure out how to welcome back students whose families have been largely unemployed during the pandemic lockdown. “We’re not sure how we will pay our teachers,” he added.
Fr. Matthias told us how strange, lonely and empty the school campus has been and how he longs for the days it will clamor again with laughter and chatter from his students. “I know how excited the students are to see their friends again. This has been difficult for all of us and we’ll find a way forward.”
