By Jithendri Gomes and Pavani Jayasinghe Munagamage Some schools have been opened for two weeks now, some for a week, and some others continue to stay closed. With only 2% of the entire student population on the first day, it is safe to say that as a total, not even 10% of the total has returned back to their schools. It may take more time for it to return to normalcy, especially with new threats that emerged during the past week. In a parent’s mind, it will be bomb blasts, a multitude of swords, incompetent politicians, and now communal violence. To put all that aside and send your child to school seems like a challenge that is beyond any person. But for a child to continue his or her usual routine, some might say, may be the best way to deal with the current crisis. We spoke to the forces, the relevant ministry, and parents to gauge where we are on this road back to normalcy. We tried reaching several government, private, and international schools for comment as well. Military Spokesman and Army Media Unit Director Brigadier Sumith Atapattu exclusively spoke to The Sunday Morning Brunch to share his stance on the matter. He maintained that the forces are doing everything in their power to ensure the safety of the country’s children, which in turn we hope is a confidence-winning factor for all parents. “We have cleared all the areas around and inside schools, and we did these three days prior to the day schools were supposed to reopen (5 May). We have also done a security evaluation and assessments around each of these schools, and according to our findings, we have deployed our troops to provide security to the schools. I must emphasise that we have done this in all the schools in Sri Lanka, which amounts to around 9,000 that includes government, private, and international schools. But some schools continue to remain closed, for an example the Catholic schools. Yet we have ensured that those schools are also included in the same procedures,” Brig. Atapattu affirmed. Then speaking to Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, he also shared his thoughts with us about the current situation and precautions taken. “We have seen an increase in the number of students attending school over the past few days and we are appealing for the parents to send their children to school. We have taken the highest security measures that we can take in order to ensure that the children and the schools are protected well. We are also asking the parents not to believe any false news that spread around. I will continue to emphasise that we have taken all the measures we can take to ensure the safety of our children. I am also appealing for the media to create awareness to the parents about these measures taken, rather than spreading news that will only make them more fearful,” the Minister reiterated. We also spoke to the Vice Principal of Ladies College, and asked her to share her thoughts about how they are making sense of this whole situation as a school that represents all ethnicities. “We have faced this kind of situation before in the country and we have taken similar measures. There is obviously no 100% guarantee in any of these situations, but we have had very high attendance in schools which says a lot. Our students and parents are confident to come back. “We here at Ladies Collage believe in a diverse ethnic and religious community and have always been driven by unity. At this juncture in the country, we are encouraging the children to hold on to what our ethos is all about – being united, standing together, and acting with love and compassion in all possible situations. As a way forward, this is what we strongly believe in and encourage our girls with,” she said. Parents share their concerns Sindujaa As much as we want our children to be kept away and protected from what is going on, it is tough as a parent to send them to school in order to keep them occupied and distracted. It is important to not let their routines be tampered with. But for each parent, their child is precious and to send them to school when the authorities are not sufficiently guaranteeing their safety is challenging. What can two policemen do? It especially scares us when the media releases a list of ministers’ children who hasn’t returned to school yet. My two children are very young, so my husband and I take turns waiting parked outside of school in case something goes wrong. We may be labelled paranoid, but for us, it is within reason. --- Piyumi My child is in his late teens. Up to now, we have never had an issue with that – the school has always ensured that all students are treated equally. But now, I am in constant fear of what can happen to him. And the situation only seems to be worsened by the day. --- Shehana My daughter goes to an international school. The school, even before everything that happened, has been very strict about their rules and regulations. We have always been very satisfied with their policies because even parents are not allowed to enter schools beyond a certain boundary. The security guards have always done their job efficiently. So a stranger has no hope in entering the school. This doesn’t mean we are at peace when sending our child to school, especially because the Wattala area had frequent troubles shooting up during this crisis, but we are grateful to the school about the strict measures they are taking.