Thousands of Liberian
children in pristine uniforms flocked back to school on Monday as classrooms
opened their doors for the first time after a six-month hiatus designed to stem
the spread of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Dozens of schools
reopened, 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.
Reuters reports 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.
At the peak last summer,
Ebola patients were collapsing outside overflowing hospitals but 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.
But in the classrooms
there were some empty desks as 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 and 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 the ministry of education, said all
schools in the country would have to 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reopened most of its schools in January, but some parents have withdrawn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. Around 30 have been converted into
treatment centres and will have to be emptied and decontaminated first.
In Liberia, some of about
a million enrolled students have been following 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 U.N. Children's Fund.
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