There was no surge of students, excitedly leaving months of the strenuous SEA preparation behind, exiting school doors yesterday.
The usual excitement that is synonymous with the completion of SEA exams was missed again, as students still mindful of the COVID-19 protocols orderly stepped out of the exam room and filtered into various directions to greet anxious parents.
Guardian Media visited a few schools to get feedback from parents and teachers in the aftermath of the exam.
Ronaldo Demas of the Signal Hill Government Primary School said he was happy to finally have the exam over and done with, but he was more excited to see his friends.
“I was tempted to go and hug them up but I had to follow the precautions.”
He said it felt a little weird to be back in a classroom after so long and he described his preparation for the exam as tough.
“It was a little hard for me because I suffer from migraine headaches and I used to have a lot of them but my mummy take care of me and I went back the next day.”
Janae Atkins also of the Signal Hill Government Primary said she was excited to be reunited with her friends.
“I really wanted to hug them but couldn’t.
She said missing out on socialising with her friends made preparing for the exam even more challenging.
“It was ok but it was upsetting because you not getting to see your school friends. The first thing I wanted to do was talk about how they were feeling about the lockdown and zoom and everything.”
Over at the Scarborough Anglican Primary School Janea Cordner said preparing for the exams was a challenge but she was glad to have the exam behind her.
“It was kind of hard because it had some times when current gone and you have to get ready for school, it was good to see my friends because I missed them and it was good to see them.”
Janea’s classmate Abigail Edwards said she was also “excited to see a classroom again.”
“I know I was going to come to school to do the exam but I didn’t expect to be so excited to see me friends my teacher and the principal. When I saw my friends I wanted to run over and hug them but we couldn’t.”
Abigail said she hopes the country would be able to go back to being normal because she was looking forward to enjoying high school.
After SEA it would be customary for students to be treated to mall outing, their favourite fast food meal or even cinema.
But because of COVID-19 restrictions it could not happen.
Instead, many of the students said they had plans to get some rest, watch television and spend the rest of the day playing video games.