Extreme Heat Across Europe Creates Divide Over Leaving Schools Open - The New York Times
Few schools in Britain or France have air-conditioning to keep children cool in soaring temperatures, leaving parents, teachers and officials divided about what to do. By Amelia Nierenberg and Ségolène Le Stradic Sweltering in London and Paris London’s schools, some decades or over a century old, are baking in 90-degree heat. In France, teachers have covered windows with blankets or chalk and let children play in water outside. Most students are just glad to kick off their shoes. “I feel like I’m in an oven,” said one of them, Raya Petrova, 7, whose teachers were desperate to keep their London classrooms cool without air-conditioning. “It is really hot.” Extreme heat is broiling much of western Europe, but class is still in session for millions of students in countries such as Britain and France, where few schools are air-conditioned. The heat has trapped education officials between trying to avoid school closures, which mean lost learning days, and the effects of high temperatures, wh