The Delhi government on Sunday extended summer vacation for students till Class 8. The schools will reopen from July 8 for these students, while higher classes will resume from Monday as decided earlier.
“In view of the hot weather in Delhi, summer holidays are being extended for a week in schools for students up to Class 8,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet. “Schools will now reopen for Class 8 students from July 8. For other classes, the schools will reopen as per earlier schedule.”
Sisodia, who is also the education minister of Delhi, clarified that the order is applicable for both government and private schools.
Delhi and its surrounding states have been experiencing a heat wave for two months now. On Saturday, weather department officials claimed that the onset of monsoon is going to be delayed from the usual date of June 29.
“We do not expect the monsoon to make any progress over northeast India in the next two days,” The Times of India quoted senior India Meteorological official K Sathi Devi as saying. “But a low-pressure system is likely to form over Bay of Bengal on June 30 and come inland. In its wake, monsoon is likely to progress into fresh areas in north India in the first week of July.”
Delhi’s air quality is likely to become worse in the coming week due to dust winds from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The city’s hottest ever June day was recorded on June 10 when temperatures rose to 48 degree Celsius.
Meanwhile, other states reeling from the heat wave have also take certain precautions for school-going children. Madhya Pradesh’s school education department had extended summer holidays for all schools by a week due to the heat wave. The schools were reopened on June 23 instead of the earlier schedule of June 16. The Odisha government on June 18 had issued a directive, extending summer vacation in schools till June 25 due to the prevailing heat wave conditions, PTI reported. In Patna, the Bihar government kept schools shut till June 19 due to extreme heat conditions, India Today reported.
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