With schools planned to reopen in January, school teacher Vijaylachmi Prasad is making sure her daughter is ready for school.

Mrs Prasad is a language teacher at Vunimono High School who says back to school shopping has changed.

“A lot of prices for stationary have changed and families are still struggling from the pandemic and now I will also include face masks and a hand sanitizer for my daughter because I want her to be ready and safe for school,” she said.

Her daughter is in Year three at Vunimono Sanatan Dharam Primary School.

During the lockdown period, Mrs Prasad had ensured study materials and worksheets were collected on time for her daughter.

“We kept in touch with her school teacher on the times to collect the worksheets and other materials.

“I would guide my daughter while she attempts the assessments and then deliver them back to her school teacher.”

“This is a very different way of studying compared to what we were more used to before the pandemic but we were able to manage it,” she said.

She plans for her daughter to continue using the same unform and other stationary as they were still in good conditions.

Mrs Prasad said the teaching methods have also changed because of the pandemic.

While teaching included doing classes through zoom meeting, it allowed her to learn a lot about using technology for teaching.

“Before COVID, it would be classroom-based teaching but now it has changed.”

“We only have 15 students per class because of COVID restrictions.”

“I have learnt a lot from this pandemic about the various technologies out there to use for teaching,” she said.

Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Premila Kumar this week said if there were any changes to the dates of the beginning of the school year, an update would be done.

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