It’s back to school for expats in Oman

More sports Wednesday 08/August/2018 18:17 PM
By: Times News Service
It’s back to school for expats in Oman

#ReadersResponse: With most international schools in Oman resuming classes this week, signalling the end of the long summer vacation, it’s fair to say that there were mixed reactions among students who will once again need to wake up early to go to school, and then stick to the daily grind of classes, homework, and private tuition.
“I spent most of my summer back home with my extended family in the UK,” said Neil Simon (name changed), an expat student in Oman. “I’m quite glad to get back to school, because I get to meet all of my friends and classmates, but the thing that really takes getting used to is the heat. When my plane landed, we came in through the new airport, so it was nice and air-conditioned, but when you get outdoors, the heat that greets you is really hard to handle at first.”
“But that’s just a part and parcel of living in Oman,” he added. “There are many nice things here and our life is good, so I really have very little to complain about.”
Rakesh Nair, an Indian expat, landed in Oman just a few hours before school could begin.
“My school begins at seven, but our plane only landed at 2am,” he said. “I really didn’t want to go to school the next morning but my mother said I had to. I had set the alarm so I could board the bus on time, but I ended up oversleeping and my father had to drop me to school. He was also not used to waking up so early, so him and I were both in a bad mood. My mother did not hear the end of it when he got home, so maybe it would have been better for me to miss the first day of school.”
Some students in Oman were quite eager to go back to school, while others simply didn’t want to. Raffiul Islam from Bangladesh also came back to Oman after his holidays in Chittagong.
“My friends back home used to make fun of me because I didn’t know how to swim,” he admitted. “In Bangladesh, everyone knows how to swim because there are so many rivers and lakes and it is a nice way to spend the summer. This time, I learned to swim back home and I did it well, so when I came back to Oman, I was excited because I could swim here as well. I really wish we had holidays for longer, but if I say that now, I will be saying the same thing in a week’s time, so I guess we all have to go to school eventually,” added Islam.
Priyanka Jha from Salalah said she was actually looking forward to coming back home because she didn’t want to miss the Khareef festival, which this year takes place during a portion of the summer holidays, all through Eid Al Adha and ends in the final week of August and the first week of September.
“We actually came back a little bit earlier, because my younger brother and I really like the rains,” she said. “Yes, it is the monsoon season in India, but it’s not the same as the Khareef season. I sometimes wish I didn’t have to go to school at this time so we could enjoy all of it, but I am sure there will be plenty of time to do so.”