Mixed bag for students

Senior school students have returned to school across the kingdom after an extended Eid break caused by measures to curtail the spread of swine flu ... and now administrators face having to work out the best way to make up for the lost time in the classroom.

Students facing important exams will have to pile on the hours of study to ensure they pass their tests with flying colours.

Some schools are planning to bring in pupils for extra sessions on Saturdays and increase the daily timetable.

However, requests to use up national public holidays for school days have been snubbed by the authorities. As a result, plans to allow pupils to take the day off to enjoy the annual Formula One race next year have also been withdrawn as it is not an official holiday.

Bahrain's education law states that schools should be open for at least 180 days in an annual school year calendar, although it is understood that some school executives would prefer that rule to be made more flexible in the current circumstances.

All schools are rigorously following health and education ministry guidelines and regulations and are monitoring the temperature of all students before they enter their classrooms and in some cases, before they board school buses.

Bryon Pearce, assistant head teacher at St Christopher's Senior School in Isa Town, said that the school was pleased to resume normal services on Sunday. He said: "We are delighted to have the students back at school. Our first day at school was normal and we are looking forward to welcoming our Year 7s to 9s next week.

"Many of our students have important exams coming up and they are delighted to have the opportunity to communicate directly with their teachers rather than via email and online forums. Nothing is quite like having a face-to-face interaction with them."

This coming Sunday, most intermediate students will resume school while the primary schools will open their doors on October 18. The Indian community schools will delay by a day to allow for the Diwali festival. Kindergartens and special needs centres will open on November 1.

New H1N1 virus guidelines state that a school will have to close if three swine flu cases are found in more than one class. If three cases of swine flu are found in one class students from that class will be sent home for seven-days. However, if less than three swine flu cases are found in several classes, neither the classes affected nor the schools involved will be ordered to close.

As for kindergartens and nursery schools, premises will have to shut if two per cent of the students have common flu symptoms along with a fever.