Thousands of Illawarra parents for the most part will breathe a collective sigh of relief on Monday.
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May 25 will go down in history as the day NSW public schools return to the classroom full-time, two months after COVID-19 restrictions forced around 800,000 children to study remotely.
It is true the earlier than expected return to full-time face-to-face teaching caught many parents and teachers off guard.
Rita Jaksic was initially surprised when NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced last Tuesday that students across the state will be back in the classroom full-time from May 25.
But the Flinders mother of four girls was now feeling "a sense of relief and happiness".
Mrs Jaksic said more importantly her daughters Jacinta, 9 and Gianna, 7 were looking forward to heading back to Stella Maris Catholic Primary School on a full-time basis.
"So am I to be honest," she told the Mercury.
"I was happy for them to be at home but I'm also happy we are moving forward because it means things are improving and there are less cases of COVID-19."
While Mrs Jaksic does not work, home-schooling her children has proved more than challenging at times.
With her truck-driving husband out on the road for work most days, the job of looking after and teaching four kids under the age of 9, has fallen on the shoulders of Mrs Jaksic, who is also undertaking a medical business administration course from home.
"To add to the challenge, my background is I've never used or touched an iPad before so the school had to lend us the two iPads in order for them to do their work at home," she said.
"So you kind of had to learn to navigate yourself as a parent first before you can help them. I did my best but I'm so glad my girls now will have the option of learning from their teacher face-to-face.
"We have a great school and I know they're ready to welcome our kids back."
NSW Department of Education secretary Mark Scott said the department was looking forward to welcoming all students back at school.
"The doors will be open for all classrooms and classes will operate normally in Government schools across NSW," Mr Scott said.
"We've had a very successful staged return to school in the last fortnight. We have been well prepared with the sanitiser and other cleaning products to put into schools and also an enhanced cleaning system that we've rolled out over the last fortnight.
"We have strong confidence and strong belief that now is the right time for our schools to be fully operational again."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
