Volgograd Students Study in Jackets Due to Lack of Heating

Students at the Volgograd Technical School of Railway Transport and Communications have encountered extremely low temperatures in the academic buildings and dormitory. Many students are missing classes due to illness, and dormitory residents have been forbidden from using their own heaters under threat of expulsion.

“There is no heating in Building No. 2 on Geroev Maloy Zemli Street and in the dormitory. Students are forced to sit through lectures in outdoor clothing — jackets, hats, and multiple pairs of socks — because the classrooms are very cold,” the students reported. “The administration not only fails to solve the problem, but has also confiscated students’ personal heaters in the dormitory — our only means of keeping warm. At the same time, students are openly threatened with expulsion if they do not hand over the heaters.”

Additional complications have arisen with the power supply in the building at 56 Sologubova Street. “In some rooms there is no electricity,” the future railway workers complain. “Some have to write notes by lighting the way with flashlights from their mobile phones.” Attendance has plummeted: in groups of 25 people, fewer than ten attend classes due to widespread illnesses.

The technical school«s director, Galina Akishenko, confirmed the existence of the problems. “At the entrance to the dormitory building and Building No. 2, the temperature of the supplied resource has indeed dropped, work with »Heat Supply Concessions« is ongoing, and a letter has been sent to them,” she commented. “The electricity issue has already been resolved.”