Janet Museveni Postpones MPs’ Meeting on Schools Re-opening

The Meeting between the Ministry of Education & Sports and Members of Parliament that was scheduled for Wednesday 24th November 2021 has been called off.

According to a tweet from the Ministry of Education, a new date shall be communicated.

Last week, the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports wrote to the Speaker of Parliament requesting to meet all Members of Parliament in regards to Government’s preparations to reopen schools at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds.

The government closed all institutions of learning in early 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the postponement, MPs especially from the opposition had opposed the move to meet the Education minister at Kololo saying it would compromise on the independence of the institution. Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda (FDC, Kiira Municipality) said that for the sake of the institution of Parliament, the members should not be persuaded to go for the meeting.

He questioned under which rule the meeting will be convened aside from Rule 52 which requires Ministers to make statements in the House. In his response, Oulanyah said that it will not be the first time that MPs have continued with discussions of things that have happened in the House outside of Parliament. He cited when President Museveni addressed Parliament on security and a meeting was convened at the Prime Minister’s conference facility and a debate was held.

“It will be a semi-parliamentary sitting. Semi in the sense that I will be presiding without a Whip; it is a mix breed kind of thing. I will be in the Chair, but it will not be a formal parliamentary sitting because they have invited other people like Civil Society Organizations (CSO)’s and others to also come and be part of this so that the same message is passed at once,” Oulanyah said.