Local education authorities should make sure schools in northern China have sufficient indoor heating for this winter and next spring, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.

They should work with finance authorities to allocate extra funds for heating at rural schools and those with a longer heating period, the ministry said in a notice.

Ensuring energy supplies for school heating should be one of the top priorities for education authorities and they should work with other government departments and enterprises to secure sufficient supplies of gas, electricity and coal for winter heating, the ministry said.

With natural gas prices rising, schools that have not completed coal-to-gas heating projects can delay the process until the gas supply crunch eases and prices become more stable, it said.

Schools that will not have clean energy heating systems in the short term should continue to use heating from clean coal and they should ensure coal reserves are sufficient, the ministry said.

Schools and education authorities should pay extra attention to heating safety, conduct regular safety checks and root out any potential hazards, the ministry added.

There have been reports of students having classes outside in freezing weather due to a lack of indoor heating.

Students at a primary school in Hebei province had to run around the playground to keep warm and had classes outside in the sparse sunlight rather than in their cold classrooms due to a delay in switching from coal to electric heating, China Youth Daily reported in 2017.

In 2018, a primary school in Shaanxi province could not offer heating to its students due to a delay in its coal to gas heating transition, Huashang News, a local newspaper, reported.

Heating at both schools resumed after the media reports.

The Shandong Provincial Education Department opened hotlines last week to receive reports on heating problems at local primary and secondary schools.

The Hebei Provincial Education Department asked education authorities to check the heating conditions of every classroom and dormitory before the start of the heating season.

The department also asked education authorities and schools to regularly check for safety hazards and whether room temperatures during the heating season met requirements, it said in a notice.