Because of the unusual cold this winter the winter holidays of students were prolonged by teachers. (rus) They realized that it is impossible to have classes in the freezing rooms. However there was no permission from the Ministry of Education and it means that teachers had no right to cancel classes on 11th of January - the first day after the winter holidays. Today the Ministry reported (rus) that they have no intention to cancel classes during the cold period and asked the administrations of schools to try to keep warm the rooms by all means.

Now there is a dilemma for the teachers – if they continue working in the cold rooms they will have very low attendance and those who will attend the classes will get sick and the situation will get even worse. But on the other hand if they don’t follow the recommendations from the Ministry they will have problems with their employer.

What should the teachers do? I think they will choose the first option – continue working. It means that the classes will not be taught properly and there will be a very low attendance. Because besides the teachers students have parents who do not want to undermine the health of their children by forcing them to go to freezing schools. But not going to school will also not save all students from getting cold-related diseases because most of them have problems with heating at home. Cold is everywhere. It is unimaginable.