Ammon News - Students returned to classrooms in Syria on Sunday after the country's new rulers ordered schools reopened in a potent sign of some normalcy a week after the opposition grioup swept into the capital in the dramatic overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

Officials said most schools were opening around the country on Sunday, which is the first day of the working week in most Arab countries. However some parents were not sending their children to class due to uncertainty over the situation.

Pupils waited cheerfully in the courtyard of a boys' high school in Damascus on Sunday morning and applauded as the school secretary, Raed Nasser, hung the flag adopted by the new authorities.

"Everything is good. We are fully equipped. We worked two, three days in order to equip the school with the needed services for the students' safe return to school," Nasser said, adding the Jawdat al-Hashemi school had not been damaged.

Reuters