All schools in the Indian capital have been told to take ‘mandatory summer vacation’ as heatwave continues
All schools in Delhi have been ordered to take a “mandatory summer vacation” from 11 May amid a heatwave that has swept the city.
Officials say temperatures will continue to rise in the coming weeks, after reaching 44C (111F) on Monday – the hottest day of the year so far.
Schools in other parts of India have already been forced to close because of heatwaves and a drought that has affected 330 million people across India.
Delhi’s state-run schools finish for the summer on 10 May anyway, but private and municipal schools’ term dates vary. Many schools’ end-of-term tests will now need to be rescheduled.
Nav Bharti public school was due to break up for the summer on 18 May. Its headteacher, Sanjay Bhartiya, said the government’s decision would cause a scheduling nightmare. “We had cycle tests and unit tests scheduled for the second week of May, so now all our schedule will be disturbed,” he said.
“We are going to follow the government’s order, there is no alternative right now. But in the school calendar, one week matters a lot. We understand the government’s concern over the heatwave but this abrupt decision will definitely affect us.”
Madhulika Sen, headteacher at Tagore International school, Vasant Vihar, which will lose three working days because of the government’s order, was less forgiving. “Where the temperature is concerned, the government schools have no infrastructure – no fans, no back up for electricity, drinking water. They can’t handle the heatwave, so it makes sense for the government schools to be closed.”
“But I don’t know why private schools have been affected because we have all the infrastructure – many schools even have air conditioning. The government just doesn’t want to make it sound as though children in government schools are finishing earlier than private school students,” she said.
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