After two postponements, schools across Puducherry opened their gates to students to begin a fresh academic year. Parents and children queued up for admissions in both private and government primary and higher secondary schools.
While many children were happy entering the classrooms, a few held on to the hands of their parents refusing to go.
The first day at the primary section of Savarayalu Nayagar Government Girls High School began with distribution of saplings to parents and children. “Pravesham Utsav is celebrated on the first day of school where teachers welcome children. This year, we wanted to do it differently and so we decided to distribute the saplings,” said R. Sandaravadany, headmistress of the primary section.
At V.O.Chidambaram Higher Secondary School on Mission Street, school administration formally welcomed the boys with a welcome speech by the principal and staff.
Pravesham Utsav was also celebrated in the government schools in the rural areas of Puducherry.
In the Government Primary School, Perungalur, the school management distributed notebooks for the children and provided the mid-day meal before closing for the day.
Deputy Inspector of Schools Zone III participated in the Utsav organised at the Government Primary School, Archivakpet in Abhishegapakkam, explained the importance of education and the facilities the school is providing for the children.
The School Management Committee President P. Kanimozhi and Sivakrishna Barathan distributed books while the teachers prepared sweet for the students.
As per the data available as on June 7, while nearly 213 students have been enrolled in the V.O.Chidambaram Higher Secondary School, Jeevanandam Higher Secondary School has filled 328 seats and at least 347 students have joined Thiruvalluvar Government Girls Higher Secondary School.
Admissions continue
A senior government official has said that the admissions were still continuing. “We will get the complete information on enrolment at the end of this month,” the official said.