Uganda’s Minister of Education, Janet Kataha Museveni, said on Tuesday that government would shorten the school term by two weeks to reduce daily contact among students and help curb the spread of Ebola.

The minister said the cabinet had decided to close preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools on November 25 because densely packed classrooms made students highly vulnerable to infection.

“Closing schools earlier will reduce areas of concentration where children are in daily close contact with fellow children, teachers, and other staff who could potentially spread the virus,” Ms Museveni said in a statement.

Students in Uganda are currently in their third and final term for the calendar year, at the end of which they sit promotional exams.

Among children, 23 cases have been confirmed, of which eight have died, said Ms Museveni, the president’s wife.

Authorities have struggled to contain the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever since the epidemic spilt into the capital Kampala, home to around two million people.

As of Monday, the country had recorded a total of 135 confirmed cases and 53 deaths, according to the health ministry.

The virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola generally kills about half of the people it infects.

(Reuters/NAN)