“So this semester, I decided to come back to school since I had the option, but as you can see, I came to an empty classroom. “I was scared at first to come back to school but seeing all these measures in place, I felt it would be fine. “I would like to see more classmates back to school.” Classrooms remained largely empty at Shatha's school and across the emirate's 116 private schools. Of the 168,766 pupils taught on the first day of term on Sunday, only 19,198 (12.8 per cent) were present in classrooms. While attending to Shatha’s education, her teacher was also giving remote lessons to pupils who opted for online learning.