SCHOOL REOPENING: Senior Two Students Reportedly ‘Exempted’ from Paying Fees

Senior Two students who had studied for about two weeks before the second lockdown was announced in June 2021 will reportedly not be required to pay school fees provided they had cleared their fees balances to zero by the time of closure then.

This decision is said to have been reached in a meeting attended by education sector stakeholders during a meeting attended virtually by most stakeholders on Friday, December 10.

Among others, the meeting was attended by officials from bodies such as the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA) and Secondary Schools’ Head Teachers’ Association.

In the meeting, reports claimed, stakeholders in the education sector agreed that all those who had paid school fees by the time another lockdown occasioned the closure of schools should not be charged afresh.

This would mean that the money these students’ parents or guardians had paid would be carried over to first term of the 2022 academic year.

But the stakeholders reportedly agreed that those who had not paid should be required to pay the fees and those who had not fully cleared be tasked to complete payments.

Education minister and first lady Janet Kataaha Museveni is expected to shed more light on this decision when she addresses the nation this week on government’s school reopening plan.

In her address, Ms Museveni will also release the revised school calendar.

The minister is also expected to issue guidelines to ensure that schools are safely reopened and kept open even in the wake of new variants such as Omicron.