The Minister for Education, Valentine Uwamariya, has asked schools to accommodate five hours into their teaching timetable every week to cater for students who are academically challenged in a fast-paced learning environment.

This, she said, will help ensure that learners who are not able to grasp what they are taught at the same pace as their classmates are not left behind.

She made the disclosure during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of national celebrations for World Teachers’ Day on Tuesday.

The minister said there will be one remedial teaching hour a week but hastened to add that specifics about how it will be implemented will be left to schools.

The development comes a day after it emerged that more than 60,000 students who sat their Primary Leaving Examinations and Ordinary Level exams this year were required to repeat their school year, as an earlier decision by the government to terminate the automatic promotion policy came into force.

The next academic year begins on October 11.

"This arrangement (remedial teaching) will apply to all schools and we call upon teachers and head teachers to make sure that it is well implemented,” Uwamariya said.

She also said the programme will help those who will be repeating their grade this year to improve.