Parents in the town of Demyanovo in Russia’s central Kirov region released a video appeal last week calling on local officials to make basic repairs to the run-down facilities at the town’s only school.
The video, in which parents complain of broken toilets, rotten floors, leaking roofs, and a lack of heating in the building, was filmed in front of a freshly installed memorial plaque for a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine.
The Demyanovo middle school teaches some 500 pupils from the local area, all of whom were forced to switch to remote learning after the school's heating system broke down earlier this month, causing the temperature inside the building to plummet to 12 degrees Celsius.
According to the parents, the school building has not been properly renovated since it was built over 60 years ago.
However, while local officials have been unable to finance basic repairs to the building for decades, they apparently had no problem finding the money to install a granite memorial plaque commemorating one of the school’s former pupils who died serving in the Russian armed forces in Ukraine last year.
The plaque, which features an image of the late Alexander Vohmyanin, who died aged just 23 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Courage, was unveiled at the school in December.
Days after the video was released, Kirov region Governor Alexander Sokolov promised he would personally oversee the repairs, while the region’s education minister paid a visit to the school on Monday, promising that repair works in the building would begin in the coming months, according to local media.
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