The Government has reached its final stages of drafting statutory instruments concerning the regulation of school affairs.
This comes shortly after lawyers Michael Aboneka, Andrew Karamagi and the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) filed a case against the Attorney General in the Civil Division of the High Court, recently.
The lawyers seek help from court to compel the First Lady, who is also the Minister of Education and Sports, Ms Janet Museveni to use her powers to regulate high school fees and requirements.
The under-secretary of the Ministry, Rogers Irumba Kaija, asserted that the applicants’ rights have not been infringed on and that Section 3(2) (a) of the Education Pre-primary, Primary and Post-Primary Act number 13 of 2008, empowers the education minister to initiate policies and reforms of education.
Irumba revealed that the education ministry constituted a committee of technical officers to draft statutory instruments to regulate school charges payable in pre-primary, secondary and other post-primary institutions in April 2021.
He also disclosed that the ministry had also issued guidelines for the management of teenage pregnancy in school settings in Uganda, which were finalized in 2020 and launched by the First lady on December 3, 2021.
“A multi-stakeholder meeting was held on February 3, 2022 to discuss the ongoing roll-out of the guidelines to schools and other sectors supporting the implementation of the guidelines,” he said.
According to Irumba, learners who gave birth were allowed to report back to school and continue with their studies, according to the guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for reopening schools.
“Section 9 of the guidelines instructed education institutions to maintain the tuition fees that were charged for the first term of the academic year 2020,” Irumba stressed.
The Bottom Line.
In their letter to the education minister, Janet Museveni, the plaintiffs have advised her to regulate school fees, ban school requirements and deal with gender aspects, especially teenage pregnant girls, before second term opens.
In their suit, the petitions seek orders for regulation of fees, charges and dues payable at education institutions in Uganda.
A couple of weeks ago, Ms Museveni warned schools against demanding more fees from S3 students who had fully paid their dues in S2 last year.