MARAWI CITY — Najib Sarip, 16, was supposed to be a Grade 7 student this school year had war not broken out here on May 23 last year.
He and his family fled their home at Barangay Saduc here to avoid the conflict that razed parts of the city.
Najib did not have a chance to complete Grade 6 classes even though the school term was about to end and he had completed the required number of school days.
Menial jobs
Returning to school was not a priority when they fled to nearby Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur province, he told the Inquirer. “I took menial jobs while we stayed at the evacuation center in Saguiaran,” he said.
But on Monday, Najib sat with incoming Grade 6 pupils of Saduc Elementary School (SES) here, along with hundreds of students who attended the first day of classes.
His cousin, classmate and best friend, Yasser Marohom, 14, was also not able to enroll in Grade 6. But unlike Najib, Yasser would have to retake Grade 5 as he stopped attending classes months before the war started, according to their school adviser, Salima Tampi.
Both Yasser and Najib were wary of new faces so the cousins stuck together. “I brought Najib to the Grade 6 room but he returned here,” Tampi said.
New faces
The new faces belonged to pupils from nearby schools in the main battle zone that had not reopened.
Close to 400 pupils at SES attended classes on Monday, said assistant principal, Sainollah Baute Salem.
“We are expecting more students in the coming days when residents of nearby villages finally resettle,” Salem said.
Officials said they expected at least 31,000 elementary pupils and high school students to return to school on Monday.
But the actual number might not even be half of that, local teachers said. —Divina Suson