Bahrain private schools open as normal

Of all the private schools our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News could get through to, only St Christopher's School had decided to postpone the start of its term for another week.

The GDN reported on Sunday that the Ministries of Education and Health met the principals of all private schools 'strongly requesting' them to postpone classes for a week to build an incubation buffer against any potential swine flu cases.

However, an Education Ministry source revealed that the request had only been made to private schools that were originally due to begin their terms on or after September 6.

Any private school that had already pushed their term dates back from their original starting date - following a ministerial directive issued last month - were excluded from the request, said the source.

'Although we spoke to all private school principals at the same time, our advice differed depending on their circumstances,' he said.

'Any private school that was initially due to start the new academic year on or after September 6 was strongly encouraged to start their term a week later on September 14.

'This is to give pupils arriving from abroad a one-week incubation period to ensure that they are not carrying the H1N1 virus.'

The source encouraged the parents of pupils to remain vigilant and keep children at home for at least seven days after travelling abroad.

He also said there were no plans to make similar recommendations to private schools for a seven-day buffer following Eid, but admitted this could change during the next few weeks.

Many private schools - including the Indian School, New Indian School, Pakistan School and the British School - had already made the decision to postpone the start of their new term until after Eid because of the virus.

Of the private schools that were open yesterday, the majority reported healthy attendance records, suggesting that parents do not believe that sending their children back to school will place them at any increased risk.

However some schools remained relatively empty, following a ministerial directive on Friday ordering all children aged six and under to stay away from school until October 4.

A Dilmun School spokeswoman said attendance was far stronger than on Sunday, but it was still operating at around 60 per cent of its 275-pupil strength.

'It does feel quite empty as we're missing six classes that have been kept at home as per the ministry's guidelines,' she said. 'But as we school mostly Bahraini children, I don't think it was ever in the ministry's mind to include us in this additional one-week postponement.'

Riffa Views International School director Bruce McWilliams said he had been surprised with the levels of attendance on the second day of his school term.

'Our attendance really has been fantastic, it's well above 90 per cent which is a lot better than what we'd been expecting,' he said.

Shaikha Hessa Girls School, Abdul Rahman Kanoo International School, Modern Knowledge School (MKS), Bahrain School, Al Hekma International School and the Ibn Khuldoon National School also confirmed that they were open and attendances were normal.

Meanwhile, most children's summer camps will not be extending their activities to accommodate children who will no longer be returning to school until next month.

Organisers from the Parampara 2009 summer camp, Bapco workers' summer camp, the Carousel World of Imagination summer camp and the British Club summer camps said they had no plans to extend their summer programmes or set-up similar activities for the coming weeks.

However, Studio Ceramics in Budaiya said it would continue its children's camp, run in association with Mad Science, until after Eid Al Fitr. Manager Sophie Smith said the phone had been ringing off the hook since several private schools decided to delay the start of its new term.

'We have decided to run the camp because of the interest we have received,' she said.

Smith said the studio would continue to closely monitor the children, particularly those who had just returned from overseas, but said it had yet to come across a potentially positive case.

Lost Paradise of Dilmun Water Park public relations account manager Ehab El Habbal said medical staff at the park had undergone specific training to deal with swine flu cases.

'All our staff are trained in first aid,' he said.

'On top of that, our medical staff are all trained nurses and have had extra training to look out for symptoms of swine flu.'

El Habbal said staff would closely monitor swimmers to try and identify anyone who may appear to show symptoms of the virus.

'These customers will be then brought to the first aid room and will have their temperature taken,' he said.

'If their condition doesn't improve, we will advise that the customer be taken to the nearby medical clinics, where a proper check-up can be carried out.

'So far we have had a couple of cases of children with high temperatures who were taken to medical facilities but we were not informed if these cases tested positive.'

Seef Mall's Magic Island operations manager Sammy Shaheen admitted the open setting of the theme park meant it would be difficult to combat the threat of the virus.

'We normally sterilise all the equipment within the park at the start of each day. But we now sterilise everything on the hour,' he said.

Shaheen added the Seef Mall was investigating the possibility of setting up a swine flu observation unit at each of its six main entrances to try and combat the spread of the virus.