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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Bittersweet return to school

by

RADHICA DE SILVA
1113 days ago
20220207
Students await temperature checks at the Parvati Girls Hindu College in Debe. (Image: KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

Students await temperature checks at the Parvati Girls Hindu College in Debe. (Image: KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

Some par­ents looked teary eyed while oth­ers smiled and waved as they dropped off their chil­dren for school for the first time in al­most two years on Mon­day.

"It's bit­ter­sweet," Lin­da Dood­nath said as she watched her daugh­ter walk through the gates of the Par­vati Girls Hin­du Col­lege in Debe.

She added, "We may be wor­ried, but we un­der­stand they have to go to school." Her hus­band Ra­jin Dood­nath said, "It's been two years and we have to learn to live with the new nor­mal."

Gee­ta Kan­hai echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments as she took to put her daugh­ter's back­pack from the trunk of her car out­side the col­lege.

" I'm not wor­ried. She is ma­ture and she knows what she has to do, san­i­tize, wear her masks and re­main so­cial­ly dis­tanced," Kan­hai said. Her daugh­ter Vi­jan­ti smiled say­ing she was hap­py to be in school.

In­side the com­pound, all stu­dents were giv­en tem­per­a­ture checks be­fore they were al­lowed to en­ter. Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers and oth­er staff were present to guide the stu­dents to their class­rooms.

Students await temperature checks at the Parvati Girls Hindu College in Debe. (Image: KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

Students await temperature checks at the Parvati Girls Hindu College in Debe. (Image: KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

At Debe Sec­ondary School at the M2 Ring Road, sim­i­lar checks were be­ing done.

One par­ent who asked not to be named or pho­tographed stood by the fence, her eyes filled with tears.

"I’m wor­ried. I know the virus is spread­ing and I am won­der­ing if send­ing him was the best thing to do," she whis­pered. She stood by the fence long af­ter he dis­ap­peared in­to the school build­ing.

An­oth­er par­ent con­soled her and even­tu­al­ly, she drove off.

An­oth­er par­ent Kari­ma Ad­har who waved good­bye to her son Sameer said she was hap­py to send him to school.

" He was very ex­cit­ed to meet his friends. Since Stan­dard Five, he has not been in school, and he knows his friends from on­line but has nev­er met them. I don't feel wor­ried be­cause I know he un­der­stands safe­ty and he was very pre­pared to go to school. I am glad he is not one of those chil­dren who just want to stay home be­cause they need in­ter­ac­tion at this stage of their lives," Ad­har said.

Guardian Me­dia will bring you up­dates on school at­ten­dance dur­ing the course of the day.

SchoolsCOVID-19EducationMinistry of Education


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