It is now 15 months since the youngest children (Primary One – Three) have been able to attend school.  Many of them were looking forward to returning to school on 7th June.  However schools were closed on that very day due to increasing cases of Covid 19 in the country.

The candidate classes (Primary Seven, Senior Four and Senior Six) sat for their national exams between March and early May 2021, having returned to class in October 2020.  The release of results has been delayed due to the lockdown announced last month.

By early June, children and young people in Primary Four, Primary Five, Senior One and Senior Two were studying in their respective classes, while the “sub-candidates” (Primary Six, Senior Three and Senior Five) had just broken off for a two week break.  Many students were in boarding sections, and upon the president’s directive to close schools there was a rather chaotic rush to travel home before further lockdown measures were introduced.  Seven of JJ’s students caught a bus heading to Kampala, and one of them narrates their experience:

When we arrived at the (small) bus park there was a crowd of people each with a lot of luggage.  It was as if the world was ending that day, the road was as busy as bees trying to suck nectar off flowers.

Our teacher went to the office to get our tickets.  The seven of us had tickets.

We sat down and waited for the bus to come for eight hours.  The teacher tried to convince us to go back to school (because we would be very late arriving in Kampala) but we insisted since the fare had already been paid.

After a very long wait (eight hours), the bus came and all of us ran with our luggage to enter the bus even before the other passengers moved out!  But it was a fight to get in.  We all got set and this is how we managed to enter – E. pulled S. who pulled D. who pulled JS. who pulled K. who pulled R. who pulled JK.  One of the others waiting tried to pull me out of the bus but I held the person and the bus tightly and finally we were all inside. 

The bus people told us to get out while they washed the bus, but we stayed inside – we were afraid to lose our seats!

The new academic year will not now begin in August 2021, but has been pushed forward to September 2021.  The government have tentatively planned for Primary One to Three pupils to have a few weeks of education before that time.  We wait in anticipation!