Over 400 Chinese pupils forced to take exams outdoors after school shut due to heavy smog
More than 400 pupils sat their exams outdoors in a football field despite thick, choking smog in central China.
The 480 eighth-grade pupils from a middle school in Linzhou, Anyang, Henan province, were made to do so on Monday afternoon after the local education authorities ordered all schools to close from Monday because of severe air pollution, Dahe News reported.
Watch: Outdoor children's classes hit hard by smog in Beijing
Photos taken by a parent and shared widely online showed pupils seated or squatting in front of wooden stools, used as tables, in the football field, shrouded in heavy smog.
As visibility was poor, only the silhouettes of pupils seated further away could be seen in the photos.
The news report said visibility was down to around 200 metres.
The school’s principal was quoted as saying that school staff had organised the exam.
“We thought that since we had already organised it, why not just finish the whole process [despite the school being ordered to close],” the principal said.
Many schools across northern China have in recent days been ordered to suspend lessons as hazardous smog lay siege to the region.
Pupils in Xian, Shaanxi province, this week attended classes from home as their teachers taught them through live-streaming videos.