A student has her body temperature checked as part of an Ebola screening at Don Bosco High School, as schools reopen in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Photo: AFP
Monrovia: Thousands of Liberian children in pristine uniforms flocked back to school for the first time in six months, after a after a closure designed to stem the spread of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Dozens of schools reopened on Monday, in a sign the outbreak is ebbing in Liberia, once its epicentre. The epidemic has killed more than 9,000 people there and in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The closures were yet another setback for a country whose health system and economy, based on diamonds, coffee and cocoa, were devastated by the virus.
Students stand in line at Don Bosco High School, in the Monrovia. Photo: AFP
At the peak, last summer, Ebola patients were collapsing outside overflowing hospitals. Now there are only a handful of new cases a week.
In the sunny courtyard of a Catholic school in the Congo Town district of the capital Monrovia, hundreds of students gathered to hear the principal’s welcome. Medics took children’s temperatures and told them not to stand too close together.
“I feel very great being in school in the first day, most especially after a long period of time waiting for this day,” said teenager Faith Sayeh.
However, there were some empty desks in the classrooms, as some parents kept their children at home while other schools remained closed.
“Only one of my seven children I have registered,” said Lindsay Seakor, who lost her job last August due to the epidemic. She says she cannot afford to pay for books and uniforms.
Some schools opened on Monday but had to send students home by mid-morning because teachers failed to turn up. George Wuo, a regional director of Liberia’s Ministry of Education, said all schools in the country must open by March 2 or face fines.
Neighbouring Guinea reopened most of its schools in January, but some parents have withdrawn children amid rumours schools were infected with the virus.
Sierra Leone hopes to open schools by the end of next month. About 30 of its schools have been converted into treatment centres and will have to be emptied and decontaminated first.
Liberia has more than 1 million enrolled students, some of whom have been keeping up with their lessons by radio.
“Authorities in the three countries are looking at catchup sessions and cancelling some school vacations. It will be challenging,” said Sayo Aoki, education specialist in Ebola Emergencies at the UN Children’s Fund. Reuters