By IANS,
Pune : Nearly 1.2 million students – sporting face masks and told to keep a distance from one another – returned to schools and colleges in Pune city and district Monday after a two-week break due to swine flu, an official said.
“All the 5,000 primary, 1,250 secondary and 55 colleges in the city opened, and there have been no reports of any incident from anywhere,” said district education officer Prakash Parab.
However, a handful of schools affiliated to the Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE) and the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) will remain closed for another week till next Monday (Aug 31), Parab said.
Hundreds of thousands of masked students trooped into their schools in the morning and afternoon sessions, to reume the first half-year term – disrupted half-way due to swine flu, which has claimed 23 victims in the city so far.
A majority of the schools and colleges offered the students quick refresher tips on how to deal with the swine flu menace – wearing face masks, keeping a look-out for classmates suffering from common flu symptoms, avoiding crowding in the campuses and canteens, keeping at least an arm’s length while interacting with friends and not accepting or sharing tiffin boxes or water bottles as they usually did.
“No handshakes or any kind of physical contacts which could spread swine flu among the children, the most vulnerable section… Stick to the good old Indian traditions of ‘namaste’ in these difficult times,” a school principal, sporting a face mask herself, told media persons.
She said teachers have also been told to keep a strict watch on any student displaying even the most minor flu-like symptoms and immediately alert the school authorities.
The first swine flu cases had spread among the students of a local school and the first victim was a school girl, Reeda Shaikh.