THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Time for all play and no study is over for students with the schools reopening to vibrant smiles, bright colours of uniforms and school paraphernalia, and welcoming teachers.
The Praveshanolsavam held in schools across the capital district saw vivid scenes and programmes to welcome newcomers as well as regular students to classes that were spruced up for the first day of the new academic calendar.
The most number of new admissions to Class I was in Government Model UPS, Manacaud, which had 220 students on rolls. Among the new students to Class I was also a boy of Nigerian origin — who joined the Government Model Higher Secondary School for Girls, Pattom. The school also had an array of cultural programmes staged by students to welcome the new students.
Most of the schools witnessed similar scenes, as parents accompanied their children whose faces were writ large with enthusiasm though laced with lingering uncertainty. Teachers were seen sprightly as they moved about attending to the students and trying to make them feel at home.
So, schools here become part of the 13,000 across the state to open to another year, expected to be a rigorous one that will see reforms in textbooks, exam valuation, and discontinuation of certain practices such as allowing all students to move through classes one to 9 without the need for any pass percentage in examinations.