Tens of thousands of students in many northern and north-central Vietnamese provinces were allowed to stay home on Monday as temperatures dropped below 10 degrees Celsius due to the effects of a strong cold spell.

In the north-central province of Nghe An, the provincial Department of Education and Training issued a document requesting students of kindergarten and elementary schools to let students stay home if the temperature falls below 10 degrees Celsius, and seven degrees Celsius for middle and high schools.

In addition, schools have to inform the students and their parents of the school break as soon as possible.

Accordingly, all kindergarten students in the province’s Ky Son District were asked to stay home to protect their health as temperatures ranged between 4-7 degrees Celsius, with frost forming in many places on Monday afternoon, according to Phan Van Thiet, head of the district’s bureau of education and training.

Besides, 41 elementary and middle schools along Vietnam-Lao borders and in mountainous areas, where many students of Mong ethnic people are living, were also closed.

As a majority of those schools provide semi-boarding services with the students living far away and having opted to stay at their campuses over the past few days, local authorities directed them to strengthen measures to combat the cold for students, including using firewood, Thiet said.

In northern Son La Province, 401 out of 527 kindergarten, elementary, and middle schools and 16 out of 44 high schools urged students to stay home on Monday, according to the provincial education and training department.

Schools at all levels in the three districts of Yen Chau, Thuan Chau, and Van Ho were shuttered.

In northern Dien Bien Province, nearly 55,000 students of 130 schools were given leave to avoid the cold on Monday morning.

Likewise, 98,175 students from 256 schools in Nghia Lo Town, Yen Binh, Van Chan, Luc Yen, Tram Tau, and Mu Cang Chai Districts in northern Yen Bai Province, stayed home.

Meanwhile, their peers in Yen Bai City and Tran Yen District still went to school.

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