When schools close – whether due to a pandemic or labour dispute – the image is the same: empty classrooms, idle uniforms, and anxious parents. But the heaviest price is paid by the most vulnerable, especially girls. The current strike by arts teachers in Uganda threatens to undo fragile progress made since the Covid-19 era. Uganda’s education system is still recovering from one of the world’s longest school shutdowns – 83 weeks of closure that kept 10.4 million learners out of class. The aftermath was devastating: 67 districts reported increases in teenage pregnancies between 2019 and 2020, in some cases by more than 25 percent.
Evidence from the World Bank shows 81 percent of Ugandan pupils had already failed to reach minimum proficiency levels even before the pandemic. Covid-19 worsened the crisis, and strikes risk reopening those wounds. Girls suffer disproportionately when schools close. Without teachers, protection systems weaken, exposing girls to early marriage, transactional sex, and exploitation. They also face heavier domestic workloads, less access to remedial programmes, and the loss of mentoring and psychosocial support often provided by arts and humanities teachers. Experience from other strike-hit countries shows that lost days of learning can reduce lifetime earnings and lower education attainment.
Arts teachers are vital. Beyond teaching, they lead clubs, life-skills sessions, and guidance programmes that anchor many vulnerable learners. Their absence means cancelled exam preparation, loss of mentorship, and fewer safe spaces for girls. This puts adolescent girls at high risk of never returning to school, eroding the country’s future human capital. Uganda’s Covid-19 experience offers lessons: speed matters, targeted measures for girls are essential, and monitoring is critical. Recovery programmes showed that catch-up classes, conditional cash transfers, and community outreach were effective in reducing dropouts. These approaches must be applied now.
To prevent irreversible damage, policymakers should act urgently. First, convene immediate mediated dialogue between arts teachers, the Ministry of Education, unions, and communities. A time-bound roadmap for reopening and protecting candidates is essential. Second, launch a gender-sensitive emergency package: girl-focused catch-up lessons, travel stipends, and supervised study spaces. Third, deploy counsellors and social workers to sustain psychosocial and safeguarding services. Finally, address root causes through a transparent teacher welfare reform process to end recurring disputes. The cost of inaction is high. Each girl who drops out reduces Uganda’s productivity and deepens cycles of poverty.
Teenage pregnancies surged during Covid-19 closures. Another wave is avoidable if dialogue happens now. International research shows that even short disruptions lower long-run earnings – a price Uganda cannot afford to pay. Teacher strikes are legitimate bargaining tools, but protecting learners, especially adolescent girls, must remain central. The Covid-19 crisis taught us that temporary disruptions can have permanent effects. Uganda has an opportunity to act decisively before this strike produces irreversible losses. If policymakers, unions, donors, and communities prioritise girls’ education now, the country can safeguard its human capital and invest in a brighter future.