Bhubaneswar, April 20 (IANS) In view of the prevailing sweltering heatwave conditions, the Odisha government on Thursday declared a summer vacation for all schools from Friday.
Prime Minister Naveen Patnaik has issued an order for public and private schools from grades 1-12, officials said.
The school administration and mass education have been asked to notify the reopening of schools in time.
Usually the summer holidays start from the first week of May.
However, this year, the state government moved the date back in view of the sweltering heat.
Speaking to the media, Minister of Schools and Mass Education Sameer Ranjan Dash said, “Schools’ summer holidays were supposed to start from May 4. However, due to hot weather conditions, our Prime Minister has declared summer holidays from tomorrow.”
He explained that according to the academic calendar, the summer vacation will last until June 16, and schools will open the next day.
But as the holiday date approaches, the final decision on reopening schools will be taken after examining the situation in the coming days, the minister said.
Besides, a parent-teacher meeting will be held on Friday as per the schedule. Dash added that parents are advised not to bring their children to the meeting.
Earlier, the state government closed schools twice on April 12-16 and April 19-20 due to hot weather.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) morning bulletin, the town of Jharsuguda in western Odisha recorded a maximum temperature of 41.4°C as of 11:30 am on Thursday.
Likewise, the capital city, Bhubaneswar, soared with a maximum temperature of 40.2 degrees Celsius.
On Wednesday, as many as 30 places in Odisha recorded an intraday maximum temperature of 40C or higher.
– Jans
bbm/ksk/
