The Police force and its sister security agencies particularly Uganda People’s Defence Forces – UPDF have deployed joint spy teams to monitor schools operating without COVID-19 clearance certificate including those flouting the Standard Operating Procedures – SOPs.
Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said the intelligence officers will be watching over the schools purposely to document those that are exposing learners by working without clearance or going against the COVID-19 measures.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni allowed schools with candidates to resume operations on October 15. Schools had been closed for over seven months in order to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
However, for any school to resume teaching, it must be cleared by the COVID-19 task force team comprised of officials from the ministries of education and health. Among the requirements schools are supposed to have in order to be cleared by taskforce team in their respective districts include; temperature guns, sickbays, hand washing equipment and splitting learners into various streams in order to avoid overcrowding.
Security agencies say some schools have since begun operating even without being cleared by the taskforce. This, according to Enanga, is the reason intelligence teams have been deployed to identify such schools but also ensure that even those already cleared do not deviate from the SOPs.
Police working alongside officials from ministries of education and health last week arrested two head teachers in Kabale district on allegation of reopening schools before they were inspected.
Uganda has so far registered 10,691 COVID-19 positive cases of which 6,992 have already recovered. At least 97 people have succumbed to the virus since March 21 when Uganda recorded her first positive case.
Enanga urged schools that have been cleared to adhere to the guidelines so that their students are not exposed to COVID-19 but also should restrict access to school premises by outsiders including children’s parents.
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