Schools in Uganda closed down in March 2020, as the world came to the realization that the Covid 19 had spread all over. Schools made an attempt to resume in October 2020, however the second wave hit the country and students too were affected by the diseases. Despite the alarming numbers of persons contracting the Covid 19 virus globally and the high number of deaths, Uganda has recorded up to 120,000 cases of Covid 19 and approximately 3,000 death by September 2021.
The relatively smaller numbers of Covid 19 infections and deaths, compared to the global statistics, could be as a result of the Uganda’s tightly controlled response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Part of these measure include maintaining Lockdown which has seen to the closure of schools for a period of over a year. However, while the measures have succeeded in containing the outbreak so far, they have also caused significant damage socially, economically and psychologically to the population. This is likely to impact most on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. As a result, the socioeconomic consequences of Covid-19 lockdown may likely heavily outweigh the positive health impacts in Uganda. This presentation will explore the option for school drop with an emphasis on primary and secondary level. It is most likely that when a student’s drops out from formal education, they have not achieved a skill or trade that they can easily translate into a livelihood. Now that they are faced with a dilemma of earning a living due to the long span of time they have not been in schools and the economic pressure that Covid has placed on families. And in the case of the girls that now have babies they have to think of how to provide for themselves and their families.

Speaker: Christine Apiot Okudi

Published in: London International Conference on Education (LICE-2021)

• Date of Conference: 22-24 November 2021
• DOI: 10.20533/LICE.2021.0010
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-42-6
• Conference Location: Virtual (London, UK)