Lessons in Lower Saxony: Black ice leads to few failures!

Lessons in Lower Saxony: Black ice leads to few failures!

In Lower Saxony there is a lively ebb and flow in the school system after the recent winter outbreaks. On Tuesday, January 13, 2026, the students were called to class, and these took place regularly across the country - with a few exceptions, which, however, have been washed away. The Alfeld high school had to keep its gates closed due to technical disruptions and the Werner von Siemens high school in Bad Harzburg had to switch to distance learning due to a defective heating system. This is not a real Christmas miracle, because on Monday school hours in large parts of Lower Saxony were literally canceled - or rather, in the snow - mainly because of the considerable risk of black ice, which put a lot of strain on the traffic conditions. This is reported by NDR.

But how did these lesson cancellations come about? Well, the immense slipperiness had made the walk to school a real adventure for many students. The German Weather Service had even expressly warned about the dangerous slippery conditions, and the visibility wasn't exactly great either - these were the conditions that led many districts and cities to cancel school lessons. Some regions, including Hanover, were severely affected. N TV reports that the decision about such weather-related outages was the responsibility of the individual cities and districts.

A chaotic week for schools

The winter weather had already struck on Friday, January 9, 2026: classes were canceled in many places, with one exception - the car-free island of Wangerooge, where the students continued their classes with icy persistence despite the snowstorm. On Monday the situation was so tense that face-to-face teaching was canceled almost everywhere. Some places had to resort to distance learning, as was increasingly the case at vocational schools. During this time, schools also had to organize emergency care for students in grades 1 to 10 in order to give mothers and fathers at least a little breathing space.

One reason why classes couldn't always take place as usual was due to the problems with local public transport. Apart from the extremely bad weather, the danger of safe bus transport was not guaranteed everywhere. Many parents also asked themselves whether it wouldn't be wise to leave their children at home in order to avoid possible straw men on slippery roads. Especially since they were also given the right to keep their children at home until the tenth grade without having to cancel classes NOZ highlights.

Welcome changes to school legislation

A ray of hope in the midst of the frosty days could be the planned reform of the school law. The idea is that in future schools will be able to decide more independently when to switch to distance learning in extreme weather conditions. School administrations can look forward to fewer bureaucratic hurdles and can therefore react more quickly when the weather demands it. Unfortunately, there is no central information point for school cancellations in Lower Saxony, which makes communication all the more challenging. NDR points out that information on this is disseminated through various channels, from the traffic management center to municipal websites.

Winter in Lower Saxony could therefore turn out to be an instructive time - both for students and for the school authorities. There's still a lot on the agenda in the next few days due to the frosty temperatures and the impending weather changes. One can only hope that despite all the snow and slippery conditions, the fun of learning is not neglected and that no one is left behind!