Wednesday’s extreme cold wave caused temperatures in northern Vietnam to drop below 10 degrees Celsius, forcing hundreds of thousands of pupils to stay at home.
Wednesday morning temperatures in all 25 northern Vietnamese locales were below 10 degrees Celsius, a decrease of 0.5-2 degrees from Tuesday.
The lowest temperature was recorded at minus 2.9 degrees at Mau Son in Lang Son. Eight other locations had temperatures below 5 degrees, including Dong Van in Ha Giang, Tam Dao in Vinh Phuc, Pha Din in Dien Bien, and Sa Pa in Lao Cai. Other locations with temperatures below 5 degrees were Son La’s Moc Chau, Bac Kan’s Ngan Son, and Cao Bang’s Trung Khanh, and Sin Ho in Lai Chau.
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Tens of thousands of kids in various locations have been forced to stay at home due to the extreme cold.
Approximately 56,700 pupils in Son La did not attend class, including more than 3,500 middle and high school students.
Due to the weather, some 32,400 children from 96 schools in Lao Cai stayed at home, up 21,000 from Tuesday.
The Department of Education and Training reports that about 92,000 kindergarten and primary school pupils in Lang Son were forced to stay at home.
According to Be Doan Trong, chairman of the Lang Son education department’s office, a number of schools have set up online learning programmes for their pupils.
“Schools also need to actively adapt to keep students up-to-date with knowledge,” he stated.
According to a teacher in Ha Giang, pupils will fall behind in their coursework if they consistently stay indoors throughout the winter months.
With the current 5 degree weather, only kindergarteners are remaining at home while other grades attend school. In order to keep students warm, classrooms are often outfitted with multiple layers of glass,” the instructor stated.
When the temperature drops below 10 degrees, kindergarteners and primary school students are permitted to stay at home, and middle school and high school students are permitted to stay at home if the temperature drops below 7 degrees in other areas with milder weather.
On Wednesday, 440 schools in the lowlands of Phu Tho Province, which borders Hanoi, allowed their children to stay at home. About 190 schools in the province, according to authorities, have allowed kids to stay at home starting on Tuesday. Over 100,000 primary school children remained home on Wednesday, according to the Bac Ninh education department, with 32,200 still attending classes.
When parents bring their children to school, most communities still ask the schools to admit them.
According to Nguyen Van Manh, the director of the Phu Tho education department, about thirty percent of kindergarten parents wish to send their kids to school. At midday, a few of them agreed to drive them home.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged communities in northern and central Vietnam to provide information to residents about how to stay warm.
