Oldest School in Volgograd Region Closed Due to Lack of Students
In the Kotovsky District, the oldest school in the Volgograd region — the Pereshchepnovskaya School, which was a branch of the Mokro-Olkhovskaya Secondary School — has closed. The reason cited in the official resolution was the absence of students.
The village of Pereshchepnoye is considered one of the highest points in the Volgograd region. According to locals, the educational institution there had been operating since the early 1870s.
Officials in the Kotovsky District administration declined to elaborate on the decision, referring inquiries to the education department. However, attempts to contact the department by phone were unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, Pereshchepnovskaya School is far from the first to be «cut» in the Volgograd region. Volgograd sociocultural projects manager Fyodor Yermolov knows this firsthand, as he once tried to save the dying khutor Martynovsky (a small hamlet) and its abandoned school.
«I can only say that the closure of the school is the beginning of the village»s death. There will be no new people, the young will leave: no one will want to drive their children God knows where. And once they leave, no one returns,« he commented on the closure of Pereshchepnovskaya School.
