A school in Oymyakon, a Siberian village believed to have been the coldest school day anywhere on earth recording -51°C on Dec 8.
The children were documented struggling in the sub-zero temperature heading out to school. They can be seen well wrapped-up waiting for the school bus on a pitch-black morning before walking the rest of the way to school.
In the village, the school is only closed if the temperature is -52°C or lower for students aged 11 and below.
According to Siberian Times, Oymyako with a population of 500 have only one school in the village. The school, built-in 1932 and named after the local merchant and patron Nikolay Krivoshapkin, serves Oymyakon and two nearby villages, Khara Tumul and Bereg Yarde.
Lessons start at 9 am when it is still dark, as the December sun only rises an hour later, and finish at 5 pm when it is also dark with a sunset at 2:15 pm.
“Local kids walk to school with their parents and often with dogs, too; pupils from other villages have to take a bus to get here. The bus ride takes from 10 to 18 minutes,” said local photographer Semyon Sivtsev who took the pictures and filmed on Dec 8, 9 am in -51°C for The Siberian Times.
‘How cold did it feel? I had to keep my gloves on which wasn’t very comfortable, but otherwise, my fingers would have been frostbitten, and I could only film in very short bursts’, he said.
One child in a green coat appears to be walking solo to the school in the biting cold, frost and ice began to form on his eyelashes before receiving a routine body temperature check at the door of his school due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some children are accompanied by their parents and pets.
In different cities, they have different conditions for the school to close. For example, in Yakutsk, the capital and the coldest city, classes for primary children are canceled at -42°C with wind and -45°C without wind.
Info via Daily Mail | Siberian Times