In pictures: children’s first day back at school around the world

Since the start of September, children around the world have been going back to school. Some in beautifully-equipped classrooms in safe countries. Others trying to learn in war zones.

These pictures show some of those boys and girls on their first day at school or their first day returning to classes after the summer break.

But as they went back, almost 30 million other children are out of school because of a record number of conflicts and emergencies.

HAITI  

A teacher writes on the board as students attend the first day back to school at the Ecole adventiste de Saint Laurent in Laboule 12, in the commune of Petion Ville, in Port au Prince, on September 8.

SYRIA

Children attend the first day of school in a rebel-held area of the northern city of Aleppo on September 6. Following an initiative from Syrian activists to set up a field school for the younger children, classes are taking place at a residential building which was deserted by its residents after the start of the three-year long conflict.

VIETNAM

Pupils sing the national during a ceremony marking the new school year at an elementary school in Hanoi on September 5. About 22 million high school and elementary school students throughout Vietnam began a new school year amid strong public criticism voiced in official media against the national education system's weaknesses.

USA

Mayor Bill de Blasio visits a second-grade Spanish class at Amber Charter School in Manhattan on the first day of New York City public schools on September 4.

CUBA

Schoolchildren gather during a ceremony at Baragua school in Havana, on the first day of school on September 1. Almost 1.8 million students began the 2014-2015 course in all levels of education.

CANADA

Yesenia Villada helps Caroline Mogomela with her timetable on her first day of school at St Patrick Secondary School in Toronto on September 2. Caroline came from Botswana in July and will be starting Grade Nine.

UKRAINE

Children attend their first class at a school in Volnovakha, south of Donetsk, on September 1. Representatives of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine are seeking a special status for the region, a report said, in what would constitute a de facto division of the country.

FRANCE

The only two children attending the school on Houat Island are pictured on the start of the new school year on September 2. The mayor does everything to keep the school on the island where only 246 people live all the year.

RUSSIA

Russian schoolchildren arrive at school on the first day of school in Saint-Petersburg on September 1, which marks the traditional start of the academic year in Russia and many countries of the former Soviet Union.