More than 300,000 children, and young adults, will return to their classrooms this morning for the first time since they left them last December.
They include more than 260,000 of the country's junior primary school children, as well as 60,000 Leaving Certificate students.
Special schools will also move to full capacity today, having for the past two weeks welcomed just half of pupils on alternate days.
Today's reopening follows 33 days of remote learning at home. it does however occur amid trepidation and concern. School staff in particular are wary of the new more transmissable B117 variant.