Schools suspended in Chechnya for swine flu threat

Starting Monday, November 23, schoolchildren of Chechnya will go to additional vacations in the context of possible swine flu epidemic. The pupils' forced rest will last for at least ten days.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Ministry of Public Health of Chechnya that the measure was just preventive, since there are no serious grounds to assert that Chechnya has surely faced swine flu epidemic.

"There are flu cases, but as we know, this is seasonal. Usually, the flu epidemic bursts out in autumn, when it grows cold," a medical worker said.

Many pupils' parents are not happy with cancellation of lessons. In their opinion, the training process in general at educational establishments of the republic is not apt without the quarantine.

"The training level in our schools is low without that, first of all because of deficit of teachers - specialists in their business. However, they still cancel lessons quite often," said Dashu Tepsaeva, a resident of Grozny, and reminded that not long ago schools of Chechnya were closed because of elections.

Another local woman - Zareta - joined her opinion and added that although pupils' parents have to give money all the time "on some stripes on the uniform, without which children are not let to school, on the uniform or repair of classrooms," the quality of training does not become any better. She also believes that the reason is in teachers' low professional level and lack of experience.

Now, Chechnya operates over 440 secondary schools. The total number of pupils exceeds 200 thousand; of them about 37,000 study in Grozny.