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parents in chengdu, sichuan, wuhan, hubei, changsha, hunan, huangshan, anhui and other places posted on social platforms that due to the hot weather, the primary and secondary schools where their children are studying have no air conditioning and cannot hold classes normally. some schools have purchased ice cubes and placed them in the classrooms. some parents even organized themselves to deliver ice cubes to their children's classes in an effort to cool down.

text | news hot spot group

in september, the school season begins, and “the beasts of legend have failed to return to their cages”…

in the past two days, the first class for primary and secondary school students in some places that just started school was actually "fighting the high temperature." parents in chengdu, sichuan, wuhan, hubei, changsha, hunan, huangshan, anhui and many other places posted on social platforms that due to the hot weather, the primary and secondary schools where their children are studying have no air conditioning and cannot attend classes normally. some schools have purchased ice cubes and placed them in the classrooms, and some parents have even spontaneously organized to deliver ice cubes to their children's classes to cool down.

netizens expressed surprise: it’s 2024, and our primary and secondary schools still don’t have air conditioning?

in the internet's memory, in the college entrance examinations in june and july around 2000, candidates were also disturbed by high temperatures. in order to perform well in this most important moment of life, some places with better conditions would put ice cubes in the examination room to cool down. but today, when home appliances have long been popular in rural areas, primary and secondary schools in big cities are still so hot that they have to rely on ice cubes to cool down. what is the reason?

on september 4, zhengzheng news interviewed parents and education departments in several cities on this issue. can air conditioners be installed uniformly? the actual answer is no. for example, the education department of kaifu district, changsha, responded to zhengzheng news that the current policy, electricity, funding and other difficulties do not support the installation of air conditioners uniformly.

a staff member of a school in changsha told zhengzheng news that currently no primary school in kaifu district has air conditioners installed, and whether to install air conditioners requires the education department to make a comprehensive assessment. he also said that not installing air conditioners is "to cultivate the spirit of hard work and perseverance among primary school students."

"i can't stand it anymore", the child is bleeding from the nose due to the heat

on september 2, at the north campus of chengdu normal university yindu zither primary school in chengdu hi-tech zone, the open space outside the classroom was filled with blue and red plastic buckets, each containing huge cubes of ice.

"this is the most in-demand commodity in the entire market, ice." a teacher who recorded the video lamented the current hot weather, "it's really unbearable (dialect, unbearable)."

one parent said on social media that "it's so stuffy once you enter the classroom" and the head teacher kept pouring water on the floor to cool it down. in the video, each child in the classroom had a fan and was fanning themselves. some children were so hot that they laid their heads on the table. it was not until a plastic bucket filled with huge ice cubes was placed next to the seats that everyone could calm down and attend the class.

"are all the mothers in chengdu worried about their children getting heatstroke today?" said another parent. parents called 12345 to complain and finally received a notice of suspension of classes.

that afternoon, parents of chengdu no.7 middle school yucai huiyuan campus received a text message: "at 10:00 this morning, chengdu meteorological observatory issued a red high temperature warning, and high temperatures will continue for the next 24 hours. according to the "sichuan province meteorological disaster warning signal and defense guidelines" and other relevant regulations, the school adheres to the principle of putting students' health first and has decided that students will not go to school for educational and teaching activities from wednesday, september 3 to thursday, september 4."

the school also cancelled its daily "extended tutoring classes" on the 2nd and moved up the school dismissal time to 16:40 so that parents could pick up their children early.

many other cities in the yangtze river basin also suffered from high temperature "disaster weather" and were unable to hold classes at school. a parent in changsha, hunan said that students in all primary schools in her district reported that "the weather is too hot and they feel dizzy and want to vomit." a parent in wuhan, hubei said that her son had a nosebleed due to the heat at school.

schools in some areas have also had to take measures to suspend classes. for example, on september 2, the education bureau of jiujiang city, jiangxi province, issued an emergency notice that due to the high temperature, public and private primary schools and kindergartens in various places will suspend classes on september 3 in principle, and officially resume classes on september 9. on september 3, yanshan primary school and experimental primary school in furong district, changsha city, hunan province successively issued notices that students will study at home from september 4 to 6.

why is the weather in the yangtze river basin still so fierce even though it is already autumn?

according to today's chengdu weather report, the reason for this round of continuous high temperatures in chengdu is not only the subtropical high pressure, but also the qinghai-tibet plateau high pressure. the qinghai-tibet plateau high pressure is formed because the qinghai-tibet plateau is strongly heated by the sun in summer, causing the air on the plateau to heat up and rise. the qinghai-tibet high pressure will further enhance the influence of the subtropical high pressure, causing the temperature to rise further. under the action of double high pressure, the high temperature weather will be heated up.

as of the start of school in september, the sichuan basin has endured more than 20 days of high temperatures. jiemian news reported that throughout august, the average temperature in sichuan province was 2.8℃ higher than the same period of previous years, the second hottest in history, second only to august 2022. on august 31, the sichuan provincial meteorological observatory issued a yellow high temperature warning.

the high temperature on august 31 even caused many participants in the 2024 guangyuan half marathon and the "run across sichuan" guangyuan station to suffer from heat stroke, vomiting, and convulsions. the organizers had to activate the event fuse mechanism that morning and end the competition ahead of schedule.

guangyuan is located in the northern part of sichuan. even adult athletes cannot stand the high temperature. one can imagine how uncomfortable it is for children who gather in classrooms to attend classes in a city with a "heat island effect".

difficulties in installing air conditioners: policies, power consumption, and funds

even if you haven't experienced it in person, it is well known that many cities in the yangtze river basin are famous "furnaces". the significance of summer vacation is to avoid high temperature disasters. but if the high temperature is extended to september, it will affect teaching and students' health.

purchasing ice can only solve the problem temporarily. once the ice melts, the indoor temperature will still affect the class.

recently, many parents have publicly expressed their concerns and asked schools to install air conditioners. the wuhan parent mentioned above said, "it's so hot, and there are 50 or 60 people in the classroom, so of course we need to install air conditioners."

but some parents hold different opinions. zhengzheng news interviewed li man (pseudonym), a civil servant at the kaifu district education bureau in changsha city, hunan province, who is also a parent.

li man said, "my daughter is in the third grade now. i just don't agree to install air conditioning. my daughter has poor eyesight and needs to go outside often. children are active and sweat outside. it is easy for them to catch a cold in an air-conditioned room."

li man also does not support putting ice cubes in the classroom. "as a member of the parent committee, i also bought ice cubes at my own expense and put them in the classroom. the windows were all open, so it didn't have any effect at all. the children also liked to play with the ice cubes, and they were easy to fall when the ground was wet."

wang shuang (pseudonym), a parent in loudi, hunan, said that it is optional to install it or not depending on the financial situation, as summer vacation is for students to take a break and escape the heat. "it was not so hot when school started in september in previous years, but this year is special." wang shuang suggested, "the education bureau can extend the vacation appropriately depending on the weather."

so, is it possible to install air conditioners in all primary and secondary schools?

on september 4, zheng zheng news called the kaifu district education bureau in changsha city, hunan province to inquire about the reasons why primary schools had not installed air conditioners. staff member li man responded that there were three reasons for not installing air conditioners: first, there was no policy requirement to install air conditioners; second, some schools were not equipped with lines for installing air conditioners, or the voltage capacity was insufficient, making it difficult to install directly; third, there were also some funding issues.

li man said that currently no primary school in kaifu district has air conditioners installed, and whether to install air conditioners requires the education department to make a comprehensive assessment. parents' opinions are also not unanimous. "among 10 parents who call to complain, two or three will not agree to the installation. we need to consider everyone's opinions comprehensively."

staff at changsha kaifu district experimental primary school told the news that the district has not yet installed the power grid uniformly, and the education bureau has also approved it in order to cultivate the hard-working spirit of primary school students. at the same time, there are some objective factors in the school, and the school's power grid cannot bear such a large load.

as early as june 2020, a citizen suggested in the hunan questioning website that air conditioners be installed in changsha’s public primary schools. the changsha municipal education bureau publicly responded:

"the current national regulations do not explicitly require the installation of air conditioners in primary and secondary school classrooms. we believe that the primary and secondary school stage is the golden period for cultivating students' hardworking spirit and adaptability, and severe cold and heat are also a kind of exercise for primary and secondary school students; primary and secondary school students are active, like outdoor activities after class, and frequently go in and out of the classroom, and air conditioning cannot achieve the cooling effect; at the same time, students staying in an air-conditioned environment for a long time is not good for their health, and the adaptability of each student's physique to air conditioning is different. in addition, our city's current financial resources are not enough to guarantee the installation of air conditioners in primary and secondary schools."

changsha kaifu district jinying primary school said that the school was built 11 years ago, and the current school voltage capacity and building design do not allow the installation of air conditioners. the school is now on a high temperature holiday, and whether air conditioners can be installed depends on the deployment of the education bureau.

on the same day, zhengzheng news called the qingyang district education bureau in chengdu, sichuan province. the staff said that according to the construction standards of ordinary primary and secondary schools, the school did not include air conditioners in ordinary classrooms when it was first built. according to the requirements of campus infectious disease prevention and control, ordinary classrooms must open windows for ventilation in warm seasons. at present, the installation of air conditioners requires the expansion of school electricity and the transformation of air conditioner dedicated lines. this requires special funds from the government and financial departments to complete, and it cannot be solved in a short time. all they can do now is to collect opinions from all parties and report them.

a staff member of tunxi jiangnan experimental primary school in tunxi county, huangshan city, anhui province said that the school is an old campus and the current power system cannot support air conditioners. if air conditioners are installed, the entire power supply will be cut off.

the education bureau of tunxi county, huangshan city told the news that it is currently working with the power department to test the school's power capacity and lines, but the problem cannot be resolved quickly.