With the rising mercury,schools in the city and the National Capital Region have altered their timings to give respite to the students from the intense heat. While most schools in Delhi and Gurgaon changed timings without any formal notice from the authorities,Noida District Magistrate Deepak Agarwal recently directed all schools to close as early as 10.30 am for classes I to VIII. It is an advisory from the state government to all the schools keeping in view the rise in temperatures. The notice has already been implemented. All schools are following it, Agarwal told Newsline. The Delhi Directorate of Education (DoE),however,has no plans to issue such an advisory. DoE director P Krishnamurthy told Newsline: Schools are functioning as per old timings. Most schools will close in the first week of May for summer vacations,so there will be no change in the timings. Though no notice was issued,both senior branches of Modern School Barakhamba Road and Vasant Vihar advanced timings by almost half an hour. Our earlier timings were 7.40 am till 1.40 pm. Now,we start at 7.15 am and the classes run till 12.40 pm, Modern School-Barakhamba Road principal Lata Vaidyanathan said. The new timings came into effect from Thursday. Several schools have,however,changed timings only for pre-primary sections. St Marys School-Safdarjung principal Annie Koshy said,We begin and close classes early only for primary classes. Our new timings are 8 am to 12.15 pm against the earlier 8.30 am to 1 pm. Springdales School-Pusa Road principal Ameeta Mullah Wattal,also the secretary of National Progressive Schools Conference,said: We have not changed the timings. The temperatures are predicted to fall in the coming days. Meanwhile,schools across the Capital will close for summer vacations in the first week of May. With government declaring holiday for the 11 days of the Commonwealth Games,schools will remain closed for 49 days this summer instead of 61.
