About 1.8 million children have been out of school for almost on year after the government shut down academic activities for the fear of the deadly virus, which has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
It was reported that some of the children were excited to be back in school while others the government could have waited for the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the country Ebola-free before reopening schools.
New cases of Ebola continue to be reported in Sierra Leone but numbers are declining.
According to Xinhua, the temperature of every child was taken and made to wash their hands before they were let into school.
“I have been looking forward to this day because I was fed up with the home environment listening to radio lessons every day,” Mohamed Koroma, a student at the Prince of Wales school, one of the secondary schools in the capital Freetown, told Xinhua.
Another student, John Williams, said, “I have met some of my classmates, but was sad that I could not see all of them. Some have died of the Ebola virus, especially those that went to spend the holiday in the regions with their relatives.”
Most parents were reportedly accompanied their children to school the first day to ensure the necessary precautionary measures are taken by the country’s Health Ministry.
“I hope this precautionary method is not only for the first day at school,” said Fatu Sesay, a single mother. “I hope these methods will be repeated everyday until we say good bye to Ebola.”
