Sierra Leone reopens schools as Ebola threat recedes

Sierra Leone’s 1.8 million students have finally returned to school, nine months after staying at home because of the deadly Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Some children interviewed by Xinhua were excited and happy to be back in school, while others were a bit sceptical, noting that the government could have waited until the World Health Organization has declared the country Ebola free.

The turnout in most of the schools visited by Xinhua were encouraging. In most of the schools, 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.

John Williams, another student, noted that “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 of the children were accompanied by their parents. Some parents told Xinhua that they wanted to watch the way the children were handled the first day at school, and to make sure the Ministry fulfilled all the precautionary methods they had promised.

“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 every day until we say good bye to Ebola.”

Before the opening of the more than 8,000 schools in the West African country, 80 percent of the schools were decontaminated throughout the country, especially schools that had been used as holding and treatment centres by the Ministry of Education.

At the University of Sierra Leone, the highest learning institution in the country, the authorities were ensuring that the students were double checked before they were allowed into class. Each classroom also had a veronica bucket to ensure students wash their hands before admitted in class.

Sierra Leone authorities have advised students to observe the “avoid-body-contact-method” as a way of securing their safety in schools.