KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

It was a new era for thou­sands of pri­ma­ry school pupils who woke up at least an hour ear­li­er to reach school on Tues­day for the first time in two years, af­ter in-per­son class­es were stopped in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Many par­ents dropped off their chil­dren at var­i­ous schools around South Trinidad with cau­tious op­ti­mism that the full re­open­ing would be safe.
 While sec­ondary school pupils were back in class­rooms months ago, they had a lev­el of pro­tec­tion as some stu­dents took COVID-19 vac­cines. But there is no vac­ci­na­tion pro­gramme yet for the five-11 age group. The Gov­ern­ment is cur­rent­ly ne­go­ti­at­ing a do­na­tion of Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cines from the Span­ish gov­ern­ment.


Schools had staff at en­trances yes­ter­day, en­sur­ing stu­dents wore masks, washed or sani­tised their hands and had ac­cept­able body tem­per­a­tures.

Sta­cy Se­vi­er-Joseph was one of those par­ents who faced the dilem­ma of keep­ing her daugh­ter Sky­lar Thomas safe from sick­ness while she en­gages in more hands-on learn­ing.
 As she took Sky­lar and her niece Jahzara to the St Gabriel’s Girls’ RC School in San Fer­nan­do, Se­vi­er-Joseph hoped all would go well this term, trust­ing that teach­ers would guide the pupils through all safe­ty pro­to­cols.


“It is a bit scary be­cause they are kids. You want them to be re­spon­si­ble but at the same time, you have to pray that they can con­tin­ue with the safe­ty pro­to­cols in school and not too much touch­ing or hug­ging. Their masks are off when they are eat­ing, so all those things are on my mind, but I guess we have to get to this point even­tu­al­ly. They have to learn to be able to deal with it on their own in school,” Se­vi­er-Joseph said.

When Sky­lar looked at the school uni­forms and shoes that she wore two years ago in Stan­dard One, they were way too small. Sky­lar is much taller than in March 2020.
 It was on­ly at the end of last month that Gov­ern­ment an­nounced the full re­open­ing of schools for all pupils. Se­vi­er-Joseph had to rush like many par­ents to get all sup­plies ahead of Tues­day.


How­ev­er, Sky­lar said she prefers on­line school, as learn­ing at home en­sured hot meals at lunchtime.


There were ea­ger faces on pupils’ faces to meet their peers.

First and Sec­ond Year pupils had nev­er set foot in a pri­ma­ry school be­fore yes­ter­day.

It was al­so Dar­ren New­ton Jr’s first day at San Fer­nan­do Boys’ RC School, af­ter trans­fer­ring from VOS Gov­ern­ment in Gas­par­il­lo last year. Dar­ren on­ly knew his class­mates from on­line class­es. He said he felt hap­py to be back to school but could not an­tic­i­pate how the day would go.
 New­ton Sr was al­so wor­ried about school dur­ing COVID-19 but be­lieves par­ents must ad­just. He said chil­dren will ben­e­fit from so­cial­is­ing with their peers.
 As an­tic­i­pat­ed, the full re­open­ing of schools cre­at­ed traf­fic grid­locks around the coun­try.

With sev­en schools near Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, traf­fic backed up on the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way and Todd Street. Ve­hi­cles al­so moved slow­ly from Cof­fee Street to Li­brary Cor­ner, with sev­en schools in that area.


San Fer­nan­do po­lice, mu­nic­i­pal po­lice and traf­fic war­dens were out­side from ear­ly, en­sur­ing there was no con­ges­tion. ACP Ce­cil San­tana said each out­fit took up dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tions and would con­tin­ue the same ex­er­cis­es af­ter school.


San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, who vis­it­ed sev­er­al schools, said the City Cor­po­ra­tion would ob­serve the move­ment of ve­hi­cles this week and tweak the traf­fic plan if nec­es­sary.
 Apart from traf­fic man­age­ment, he said the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice would se­cure Har­ris Prom­e­nade, pro­tect­ing pupils from per­verts.

“Par­tic­u­lar­ly with the two girl schools, with the home­less per­sons around and to en­sure that there is no mo­lesta­tion and no in­de­cent ex­po­sure and things like that, be­cause there are some naked men walk­ing around the city. It is un­ac­cept­able. The po­lice will be very pa­tient and very un­der­stand­ing, but at the same time, we do not want that kind of pres­ence,” Re­grel­lo said.

The SS Erin Road was con­gest­ed near the Debe Hin­du School, as par­ents showed up with anx­ious faces.

Gee­ta Ra­jku­mar was un­easy when she ar­rived with daugh­ters Alex­is and Sky­lar to school but said life must nor­malise. Her daugh­ters, how­ev­er, were ex­cit­ed to meet their class­mates and teach­ers.


Nali­ni Mungroo brought Calvin for the first day of his first-year class, feel­ing ner­vous, anx­ious and sad.


“I am miss­ing him al­ready,” Mungroo said.


Al­though she fears the spread of COVID-19, Mungroo feels she has no choice but to send him to school.


Not all par­ents felt the same. Ra­jesh Gan­gaper­sad was over­whelmed at the oc­ca­sion of his son Jay­den sit­ting in his First-Year class at the Debe Hin­du School. Gan­gaper­sad, how­ev­er, said he was not afraid of COVID-19.


Prin­ci­pal Usha Ram­per­sad wel­comed pupils at the gates and as­sured par­ents that staff would care for their chil­dren.


“Your chil­dren will be fine. They are well tak­en care of. You all go home and pre­pare din­ner for them when they come home,” Ram­per­sad said.