Children in many areas of Sri Lanka and the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have begun returning to school following the tsunami disaster.
Few lessons took place in Sri Lanka, as staff attempted to establish how many pupils and teachers were killed.
The authorities in both countries want schools open so that children affected by the tsunami can regain a sense of normality and resume their education.
Many schools are still being used as shelters, while others were destroyed.
Devastating waves
In the north of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers say schools in rebel-held areas are opening slowly.
" I'm very sad - I lost my friends and my neighbours "Correspondents say that only 25,000 out of 100,000 students in tsunami-affected areas of Sri Lanka were able to attend school because of damage to the country's infrastructure.
More than 30,000 people died as a result of the devastating waves, and up to a million people are thought to be homeless.
"Getting children back to school represents perhaps the single most effective remedy in helping them cope with the enormity of the catastrophe that has so radically altered their lives," said Ted Chaiban, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) representative in Sri Lanka.
In Tamil Nadu, schools and colleges also struggled to return to normal.
The headmaster of St Antony Higher Secondary School in the town of Nagapattinam told the AFP news agency that just 55% - or 738 students - attended the first classes since the giant waves struck.
"Many students have not come. Some of them who attended the school say they expect some relief or aid," Mr Susai said.
"The students who are put up at relief camps say they turned up because it provided a good break from the crowded shelters," he added.
Damage
At the Sudarma High School in the southern Sri Lanka town of Galle, there were nearly 1,200 pupils last term - but when teachers took the register on Monday, they found just 300 had turned up.
The BBC's Roland Buerk, reporting from the school, said some had moved away after their families abandoned the shattered city by the coast. Others are dead - no-one knows how many.
"I'm very sad. I lost my friends and my neighbours. Today my friends are not here. I wish my friends were alive," 17-year-old Sudarma College student Fathima Farha told AFP.
For the first month, the staff will try to help the children to come to terms with what has happened before proper classes begin.
For the orphans, they say, they will have to act as parents now, as well as teachers.
In Galle district alone, 25 schools have been damaged and four completely destroyed. Five head teachers were killed.
In some places, pupils will be taught in the open air for now.
Thirty-one more schools are being used to house the homeless. Sri Lanka's government hopes they will be reopened for teaching within 10 days.
Shelters
In rebel-held areas in the north and east, many schools are being used as relief camps, or were destroyed or damaged.
A spokesman for the Tamil Tigers, Daya Master, told AFP that schools were opening "slowly" in areas under rebel control, but it was unclear how many had begun classes on Monday.
He said that out of 17 schools in just one area near the northern town of Jaffna, four were being used as relief camps and six had been destroyed.
Relief officials are trying to move the homeless out of the schools into temporary shelters.
They say they urgently need 3,500 tents in eastern Mullaitivu district alone if they are to move the victims. At the moment, they only have about 100 tents.
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