The government has announced a country registration of students for national identification cards.
The exercise is to be conducted by the Ministry of the Education and sports in conjunction with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) starting July 1st, 2022.
This is to ensure that students with National Identifications are enrolled in 2026 general elections.
Accordingly, the education ministry has written to all head teachers of both government aided and privately owned schools about the forthcoming exercise.
“The Ministry of Education and Sports, in conjunction with NIRA, is planning to conduct a countrywide registration of all learners in schools. The registration will ensure that the learners get National Identification Numbers in order to create unique identification, enable continuous follow and progress assessment of each learner through the education levels….” Read part of the letter by the permanent secretary of the ministry of Education and sports Ketty Lamaro.
“The exercise will begin on 1st July 2022 with registration of all Senior One (S1) and Senior Two (S2) learners in all Government and Private Secondary Schools. The target is to cover all local governments and register all S1 and S2 learners in approximately 5550 secondary schools by December, 2022,” the letter continues.
According to the letter, schools are required to submit names of students in classes of S1 and S2 as of the year 2022 by 20th June 2022 to enable effective planning.
In 2017, government rolled out the same exercise that had been planned to enable students acquire National Identification card so as they could participate in the then 2021 general elections that saw the President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta emerged the winner.