Learners from 56 schools in Port Elizabeth's Northern Area's have returned to school.
Schools in the Northern Areas were on a shut down for more than week in protest over teacher shortages.
Earlier this week violent protests rocked the Northern Areas leaving several people injured and three behind bars.
The chairperson of the Northern Areas Education Forum, Ronald Matthys, says they did not expect full attendance on Thursday and are hoping that it will increase dramatically by Friday.
"Kids are back at school although we do not have a 100% attendance. The statistics for Thursday show a 49.5% attendance, average, across the schools. Some have more, some have less"
Matthys says the meeting held earlier this week with MEC for Education Mandla Makapula was positive in terms of teacher shortages.
"There were some positives that emanated from the meeting that we had with the MEC, although all the issues were not totally addressed to our satisfaction. Parents requested that what was said be put onto paper with dates of proposed implementation. We are very positive, because we were given permission to appoint teachers"
