SASCHA WIL­SON

Par­ents dropped off their chil­dren at schools through­out the coun­try this morn­ing, for the first time in six months.

Guardian Me­dia caught up with a few par­ents who said they cau­tioned their chil­dren about ad­her­ing to the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions.

"I feel a lit­tle great but then again, the risk,” said Kr­ish­na Sama­roo, who dropped off his daugh­ter at Par­vati Girls Hin­du, in Debe.

“I kind of a lit­tle fussy, you know.  She com­ing to in­ter­act with oth­er chil­dren. You have to be very care­ful with them. I made sure and told her to be care­ful, wash her hands, keep so­cial dis­tanc­ing and al­ways be on the look­out," he told Guardian Me­dia.

Davinand Roop­nar­ine, a par­ent of Pe­nal Sec­ondary School, was hap­py that his son Vishal was back out to school, but he was con­cerned about the coro­n­avirus.

"Plen­ty times yes­ter­day I spoke to him about it. What to do, how to car­ry your­self, so­cial dis­tanc­ing, san­i­tiz­er is im­por­tant, al­ways have a rag with you in case you sneeze, be aware in school of oth­er chil­dren who sneez­ing,” Roop­nar­ine ad­vised. “Safe­guard your­self be­cause this virus here a while and I find it is not go­ing at all."

Ad­dress­ing stu­dents of Forms Five and Six at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do, prin­ci­pal Dex­ter Mitchell said they will be ad­her­ing to the pro­to­cols and guide­lines set by the Min­istry of Health, in­clud­ing mask wear­ing, san­i­tiz­ing, tem­per­a­ture checks and phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing in the class­rooms.

Wel­com­ing the stu­dents back to school, he said Forms One to Four con­tin­ue with on­line learn­ing at home.

He added, "To­day I want to re­mind you of the 33-day chal­lenge that our Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don has asked all men in the arch­dio­cese—be­gin­ning on the 15th of Feb­ru­ary and end­ing on the 29th of March—where we con­se­crate our­selves as men to the ideals of Saint Joseph."

Mitchell re­mind­ed the stu­dents that they are not al­lowed to share meals or sta­tionery.

Mean­while, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr Nyan Gads­by Dol­ly, toured sev­er­al schools to­day, to see how the min­istry’s guide­lines have been im­ple­ment­ed.

Among the schools the min­is­ter vis­it­ed were: St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary School; Cou­va West Sec­ondary School; Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary School; and St James Sec­ondary School