Chatter Fills Hallways, Classrooms As Overjoyed Students Return To Delhi Schools

After looking at their teachers and classmates on computer screens for 17-long-months during their virtual sessions, uniform-clad students of Classes 9-12 were visibly overjoyed on their first day back to school — meeting their friends, running to classrooms, and attending classes.

The corridors and staircases that had fallen silent after COVID-19 forced schools in the national capital to shut down in 2020 woke up to the familiar sound of footsteps and indistinct chatter over a year later as students returned to their classrooms on Wednesday. After looking at their teachers and classmates on computer screens for 17-long-months during their virtual sessions, uniform-clad students of Classes 9-12 were visibly overjoyed on their first day back to school — meeting their friends, running to classrooms, and attending classes. And while the familiarity of being back at school was reassuring, there was no denying that the experience of going to school amid COVID-19 was starkly different from the one during the pre-pandemic world. Social distancing, wearing masks, thermal screening, and no exchange of stationery and lunches on school premises felt alien to many students.