At the start of the year, when the news came that physical classes would return to vaccinated children between ages of 12 and 17, I let out a sigh of relief.
As a parent of a couple of teenagers, it had been very difficult to watch them “waste away” the day, listless and unmotivated.
So, when schools re-opened their doors to adolescents, the enthusiasm for learning returned to my children.
Unfortunately, these past two years have been quite challenging for the younger generation due to disruption to their carefree reality, even more so in the past few weeks, when the Sultanate records a huge number of new cases on a daily basis.
While a part of me would like my children to attend physical classes, the environment I had hoped for just wasn’t there. Some classes had barely any students – or in some cases, teachers.
So when the authorities made an announcement yesterday that students would return to remote learning, I was relieved. It is better to keep them from harm’s way than to risk their health in the third wave.
I have trust in the authorities to do right by the younger generation. As such, I urge the populace to comply with the health protocols. Like authorities have repeated since the start of the pandemic, it takes a whole-of-nation approach to overcome the COVID challenge.
Peanut Man
