Last Month, Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports released the 2024 academic calendar for Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary Schools, Technical, and Farm Schools.

These education institutions run a term system. There are three terms in an academic year: First Term (Term One – I), Second Term (Term Two – II) and Third Term (Term Three – III).

According to the new 2024 academic calendar for Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary, Technical/Farm Schools, and Community Polytechnics, the first term will begin on Monday, February 5, 2024, and run up to May 3, 2024. This means that the term will run for 89 days, which is nearly three months.

Learners will then go for a 23-day holiday and return for a second term on May 27, 2024, which will run up to August 23, 2024.

The third term will also be the shortest as it covers 75 days starting from September 16, 2024, and ending on December 6, 2024.

Denis Mugimba the Education Ministry’s Spokesperson said the schedule released will affect basic and secondary education levels, as well as technical and vocational education training institutions and community polytechnics.

Janet Kataha Museveni, the Minister of Education, said that the calendar can be subject to change should the country face a crisis over the spreading Ebola virus disease.

The ministry also guided on school’s annual functions.
“All school open days and other annual functions should be set by individual schools and institutions during the second school term. Schools and institutions should sensitize parents and other stakeholders about the school Calendar,” Janet Museveni’s Ministry directed.

The schedules show that learners will be in school for a total of 260 days, a record length, as the country’s education system works to recover from COVID-19 which caused schools to close for more than a year and a half, paralysing learning.

The academic year 2020 was cut short when President Yoweri Museveni announced a total lockdown in March 2020. Schools remained closed until October when the government allowed finalists at institutions of higher learning and learners in candidate classes to reopen.

Subsequently, a new calendar was issued and schedules for other classes to return to school in a staggered manner were made.

However, in April 2021, the country was hit by a second wave of infections leading to a second closure.

Uganda is the only country in Africa where schools remained fully closed for close to two years.

Data collected from UNICEF shows that Uganda closed schools longest in the world followed by Nepal, and Bolivia.