The Delhi government has directed the schools run by it to suspend primary classes for three days in wake of the chilly weather in the national capital and private schools to alter their timings.
While private schools have been asked to amend their timings themselves, directions have been issued to government schools to start an hour later than their usual time.
"Government has suspended primary classes for the next three days in wake of the chilly weather. Besides, we have also issued an advisory to the private schools in this regard," said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds education portfolio.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) has sent a communication to schools directing them to make the amendments in schedule and timing.
"Due to the ongoing cold weather and the forecast that the temperature may dip further, it has been decided that primary classes (class KG to V) will remain suspended from Jan 21-23," the DoE circular said.
"Morning shift and general shift in government schools will start an hour later than the usual time and similarly evening shift will close and hour before. All private and unaided schools are advised to amend their timings accordingly," it added.
While the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has notified that the schools run by the three corporations will remain closed during the period, the schools operated by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will remain open.
Chilly conditions prevailed in Delhi today as the mercury plunged to the season's lowest at 15.1 degrees Celsius, five notches below the normal, making it the coldest day of the season.
Yesterday, the Noida and Ghaziabad administration had ordered closure of schools for two days in wake of the intense cold wave.
The private school associations have expressed reservations that the academic progress at the schools is likely to suffer as the schools had closed down for over 15 days earlier this month in wake of the odd-even vehicle rationing experiment as the state government had sought school buses for augmenting public transport.
Also, the government had yesterday only directed schools to observe minimum of 222 working days in an academic year.
"It will be upto the respective schools to take a decision in this regard whether to suspend classes or not but I personally feel this is a difficult situation if schools have to be closed every now and then. What if the winter season prolongs?
"Examinations are knocking the student's door and I believe they should be prepared to face the rough and tough situation," said SK Bhattacharya, President of Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Schools, which has over 400 reputed schools as its members.
