Phnom Penh: 159 private schools have been approved by the Phnom Penh Capital Administration to reopen their secondary school campuses. Most are opening from next week, but Berkeley International Academy by ELT opted to reopen on Wednesday morning and EAC News was there.

It was a day of joy for Berkeley International Academy to see their students finally reunited and filling up seats in class. The resumption of classes brings back fond memories of pre-Covid times, but students and staff have all had to adapt to the so-called “new normal”. School Head, Tania Hodges, talked us through what procedures have been taken to ensure everyone’s safety:

“So first things first, we as a School, we had to ensure that we attained approval from the Ministry to open up. Prior to that we had to ensure that the place was clean, sanitized and everything was put into place. We also made sure we maintained our classroom making sure no more than 15 students per class. And then, with regards of the opening which is today, we made sure that students maintained social distancing, all students are wearing masks all the time. And that start of our school the temperatures are measured for teachers, staff as well as students. This is to ensure everyone is at good health.”

The excitement can be seen on students faces, finally able to meet their friends again after 7 long months of online teaching. Student, Borani Deng, told us, “I’m actually pretty excited because we have like different experiences between both on studying online and in person. But I feel like if we are studying in person, people will have much more knowledge and every student will start paying more attention in classes rather than online because some students might not participate and it’s a different experience”.

15-year-old Martina Long told us that worrying about her internet connection was very distracting during online classes:

“I’m very excited to be finally back at school I can finally see my friends again and focus more on class, on school on lessons because online class can be difficult and tough. There could be connection loss, internet could be slow, so it’s really hard when there’s connection lagging. So when I’m finally back at school I can finally focus on more on the lesson, I can finally learn instead of worrying about my internet connection getting lost and my Wi-Fi getting slow.”

Teacher Christopher Rodieck told EAC News that it’s been hard to get students’ attention during online classes, and it’s good to be finally able to put a real face and voice to their names. He said teachers have had to go through a series of steps to be back in class:

“Before teachers could return we all had to be vaccinated twice, so all the staff have been fully vaccinated. We also have been grip on policies to ensure social distancing, for example the desks in our classroom have been spaced and put in box so the students have space between each other. We also had to guide them from teachers to teacher so that the students can’t interact. And we also have been told to keep them interacting when leaving the school too much just to prevent any possible transmission”.