Uganda to recruit over 3,000 teachers ahead of reopening of schools

22:33, February 17, 2021

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  Biden reframes goal on reopening of elementary schools

  US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in Washington. Photo: APUS President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held in-person learning just one day a week.Bidens comments, during a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, marked his clearest statement yet on school reopenings. Biden had pledged in December to reopen “the majority of our schools” in his first 100 days but has since faced increasing questions about how he would define and achieve that goal, with school districts operating under a patchwork of different virtual and in-person learning arrangements nationwide.“I said open a majority of schools in K through eighth grade, because they’re the easiest to open, the most needed to be open in terms of the impact on children and families having to stay home," Biden said.He said comments by White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this month that one day a week of in-person learning would meet his goal were “a mistake in the communication.”Asked when the nation would see kindergarten through eighth grades back to in-person learning five days a week, Biden said, “We’ll be close to that at the end of the first 100 days.” He said he expected many schools would push to stay open through the summer, but suggested reopening would take longer for high schools due to a higher risk of contagion among older students.The town hall touched on a range of issues related to the coronavirus, from protections for small businesses to the administrations vaccination plans. Biden said that by the end of July there would be 600 million doses of the vaccine available, enough to vaccinate every American.But with many of his answers, he sought to emphasize the need for funding to ...

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  Uganda restores social media after close to a month of blockade

  File photo: VCGKAMPALA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Wednesday restored social media access, weeks after the government blocked it one day prior to the Jan. 14 general elections.Peter Ogwang, minister of state for information, communication and technology tweeted that social media had been restored."Internet and social media services have been fully restored. We apologize for the inconveniences caused, but it was for the security of our country," Ogwang said."Lets be constructive, not destructive consumers/users of social media," the minister added.On Jan. 13, a day before the country went for presidential and parliamentary elections, the internet was switched off to avoid misusing it to incite violence. Days later, the internet was restored but access to social media was blocked.President Yoweri Museveni won the Jan. 14 elections with 58.64 percent of the votes while his closest rival Robert Kyagulanyi got 34.83 percent.

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  International teachers, students taste Spring Festival flavor

  YINCHUAN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Spring Festival is the time for family reunion for Chinese. Essam Ahamed, a Sudanese student in China, also feels at home through participating in a series of activities, though he has not seen his parents for two years.Photo: China DailyWith a dumpling wrapper in hand, the young man carefully filled it with meat stuffing. "Its my first time making dumplings. It is quite challenging, but we had a lot of fun chatting and working together," Ahamed said in fluent Chinese.Ahamed is a second-year postgraduate in business administration at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, capital of northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. To avoid getting infected by the COVID-19 virus, some 40 international students of the university chose to stay on campus during the holiday.To enrich their lives, the university has organized activities such as skiing, playing table tennis, making dumplings, writing Chinese characters on Spring Festival couplets with brush pens, and learning traditional paper-cutting for the international teachers and students."We went out for skiing last week, and also took part in activities like making dumplings and paper-cutting," Ahamed said. "We feel very happy since we can get together through these activities. It is very warm like we are a big family."Nitesh Singh and his wife Sucharita Kundu from India have been teaching computer programming at the university since 2017. In the universitys activities, they have learned how to make the perfect dumpling."Yinchuan is a quiet city with a small population, so its very comfortable to live here, and we can slow down and enjoy life," Singh said.The couple has been in China since the COVID-19 outbreak. Prior to the epidemic, Sucharita Kundu brought her parents to live with them."We have many lessons and extra-curricular activities. During holidays, we explore museums, libraries and art galleries," said Singh.Singh ...