Emotions reign at first day of new school year

KUALA LUMPUR: The atmosphere was emotionally charged, with anxiety, concern, fear, excitement, sobs, laughter.
The 2016 first-day-of-school blues did not spare anyone - neither the children nor their parents.
These were familiar scenes yesterday in schools in several states and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.
They were almost a repeat of the atmosphere in schools in Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor which reopened on Sunday, a day earlier.
The Education Ministry, in a statement, said 448,677 pupils started Standard One classes throughout the country this year.
These pupils, admitted to 7,765 primary schools, comprised 229,808 boys and 218,869 girls, it said.
It said 314,697 started Standard One classes yesterday while 133,980 did on Sunday.
Selangor had the highest number of Standard One pupils, at 89,419, followed by Johor (54,492) and Sabah (43,879).
It said 443,008 students entered Form One at 2,402 secondary schools nationwide.
Again, Selangor had the highest number of Form One students, at 83,368, followed by Johor (54,550) and Sabah (41,945).
Meanwhile, Selangor education director Zainuren Mohd Noor said there was an increase in the number of pupils who entered Standard One compared to last year.
He also said two schools - SJK Tamil Ladang Dominion, Semenyih, and SJKT Ladang 15, Hulu Selangor - had only one Standard One pupil each while SJKT Ladang Mary, Bestari Jaya, had no Standard One pupil this year.
In Penang, 19,123 pupils entered Standard One in 687 schools, a drop from the 21,962 last year, while in Perak, 37,532 pupils began Standard One classes, higher than the 33,228 who had done so last year.