As AQI worsens, winter break in Delhi schools preponed for Nov 9-18

In view of air pollution in the national capital, the December winter break of all schools has been rescheduled and it will be now from November 9 to November 18, a circular from the Delhi Directorate of Education stated on Wednesday.

Further orders for the remaining portion of winter break will be issued in due course of time, it stated. Holidays were earlier announced from November 3 to November 10 due to bad air quality.

"In the wake of implementation of GRAP-IV measures due to severe air quality prevailing in Delhi and seeing that no respite from such adverse weather conditions in the near future is predicted by the IMO, the winter break for the session 2023-24 is ordered to be preponed so that schools can be totally closed and both children and teachers can stay at home," the circular stated

"Accordingly, all schools shall observe winter break with effect from November 9, 2023, to November 18, 2023," it stated.

Reacting to the announcement, the principal of ITL public school, Sudha Acharya, said that scheduled school activities got hampered and several events had to be postponed because of it.

"The whole school calendar is getting hampered because of this sudden announcement. But since this is a government order, we have to abide by it.

"The government thinks that shutting down school is the only option. Tests for classes 10 and 12 were supposed to be held from November 16, and the annual function was supposed to take place on November 24 but now we have postponed it all," Acharya told PTI.

Urging the government to find a permanent solution to the pollution issue, Acharya said they will rework their school calendar soon for next year and avoid keeping any event in November.

Sant Ram of Government School Teachers Association said while the order is fine from the students' point of view as pollution would affect their health, it is also hampering their studies.

"If we see this from students' point of view, the order is a welcome step. However, the government should have planned it because shutting down schools means it will be an additional burden on teachers to finish the syllabus in a short period," Ram told PTI.

The air quality in Delhi and its suburbs dropped to the severe category again on Wednesday morning, with smoke from post-harvest paddy straw burning in neighbouring states accounting for one-third of the air pollution in the national capital.

The city's air quality index stood at 421, worsening from 395 at 4 pm on Tuesday.

Despite a marginal dip, the concentration of PM2.5, fine particulate matter capable of penetrating deep into the respiratory system and triggering health problems, exceeded the government-prescribed safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre by seven to eight times in the capital.

It was 30 to 40 times the healthy limit of 15 micrograms per cubic metre set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Several cities across the Indo-Gangetic plains reported hazardous air quality. Neighbouring Ghaziabad (382), Gurugram (370), Noida (348), Greater Noida (474), and Faridabad (396) also reported hazardous air quality.

According to data from the Decision Support System, a numerical model-based framework capable of identifying sources of particulate matter pollution in Delhi, stubble burning in neighbouring states, especially Punjab and Haryana, accounted for 37 per cent of the air pollution in Delhi on Tuesday. It is likely to be 33 per cent on Wednesday.