By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, March 20: Superhero “Iron Man” has taken the day off from saving the world today to welcome new and returning students of SK Petra Jaya in Matang here on their first day of school.
DayakDaily was at the school as early as 6am to observe the reactions of the school fraternity.
By that time, the weather was rainy with a dozen of students waiting inside of the school gate near the security guard’s post.
According to a security guard, the students often wait for their friends near the gate and not proceed straight to their classes on their own due to fear of the dark and quiet environment.
As today is the first day of school for Primary One pupils and other students new to the school, one would expect some pupils would be in tears when faced with their first day in the unfamiliar school environment and away from their parents.
However, that was not the case because DayakDaily did not observe a single student with a frown at all and that most of them appeared rather calm.
While walking down the hallway, DayakDaily stopped by a classroom for several minutes to accompany a boy named Adha who was sitting alone and looking nonchalant.
He didn’t really respond to some of the questions but on the bright side, his parents must have taught him that he must not take candy from a stranger.
Meanwhile, technician Taib Drapar, 51, said he came to the school today to accompany his seven-year-old son, Muhammad Arif Akmal, who was enrolling into Primary 1.
He said Arif who is the fifth out of six siblings, had always been excited about going to school with his schooling preparation starting in December last year.
“Today, I will observe the situation first. If Arif is comfortable with his environment at school, I won’t have anything to worry and go home first and come back to pick him up later.
“However, starting tomorrow, Arif would be riding a school bus to school and going home.
“It will not be a problem because Arif’s elder siblings are now studying at SMK Petra Jaya which is just next door to SK Petra Jaya. Thus, his elder siblings will pick him up after school before going home together,” he said when met at the school. — DayakDaily
