RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Mixed re­ac­tions from par­ents and stu­dents as Sec­ondary School pupils re­turned to school for the first time in 19 months. While some stu­dents ad­mit­ted to ex­pe­ri­enc­ing feel­ings of trep­i­da­tion and ex­cite­ment, par­ents ex­pressed con­fi­dence that their chil­dren will be safe once all pro­to­cols were up­held.

At the Debe High School, prin­ci­pal Romeo Gun­ness met some stu­dents by the school en­trance and checked their vac­ci­na­tion cards. All pupils were giv­en tem­per­a­ture checks and were asked to wash their hands. They were then guid­ed in­to their class­rooms.Pupil Maria Per­sad said while she was ex­cit­ed to re­turn to school, she was scep­ti­cal about the COVID rules.

See­ta Guls­ingh whose daugh­ter Faith re­turned to the Bar­rack­pore West Sec­ondary Schools said she was pleased that schools were fi­nal­ly open. 

She said all mem­bers of her fam­i­ly in­clud­ing her daugh­ter were vac­ci­nat­ed.

Mean­while, at the Par­bati Girls Hin­du Col­lege, the ma­jor­i­ty of pupils re­turned. Not all of them were hap­py.

Stu­dent Anaya Haitool said she was told that if a vac­ci­nat­ed stu­dent fails to show up for school, the pupil will be marked as ab­sent. She said while she was hap­py to see her friends, she was al­so wor­ried about con­tract­ing the virus and spread­ing it to her fam­i­ly. At the Na­pari­ma Girls High School, on­ly eight per cent of stu­dents re­turned to school.

There were al­so struct ad­her­ence of COVID pro­to­cols at the Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School.

Guardian Me­dia will up­date this sto­ry as in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.