MPS WANT A PUBLIC HOLIDAY FOR VACCINATION
By Admin
Members of parliament on the forum of children’s affairs have urged the government to declare public holidays to scale up vaccination of teachers and students in order to achieve the vaccination target required to reopen schools.
MPs noted that the prolonged lockdown on schools has exacerbated cases of defilement, teenage pregnancy and acute malnutrition.
The Uganda parliamentary forum for children together with the National Children Authority addressed a press conference at Parliament today and rallied teachers and non teaching staff to heed to the ongoing mass vaccination of teachers in order to fast track the reopening of schools.
They launched a three months campaign which is going to be rolled out across the country to promote vaccine uptake of teachers and students.
The parliamentary forum on children has downplayed government efforts to distribute home learning materials, saying 58% of parents can’t manage home schools due to low literacy levels in most parents.
In efforts to step up vaccination, Members of parliament have urged the government to declare a public holiday of two day for mass vaccination. They believe it will not only scale up vaccination but also save vaccines from expiring.
Legislators are concerned that the prolonged closure of schools has exacerbated the problem of malnutrition amongst children. Cases of severe and acute malnutrition have spiked from 2,998 in April 2021 to 4029 cases in June of the same year.
The executive director of National Children Authority Martin Kiiza says the lockdown on schools has contributed to the increased cases of defilement with 14000 cases registered since last year.
It is estimated that only 10% of primary and secondary school children have access to some alternative schooling especially e-learning.
On the government school reopening plan which is premised on the vaccination trend, tertiary institutions will reopen in November but Secondary and primary schools will wait up to next year.
