Odisha's School and Mass Education Department on Saturday issued guidelines to reschedule school timings to tackle the heatwave conditions. The timings of offline sessions for classes 9 to 12 have been changed. Class 9 and Class 11 will sessions from 7 am to 9 am instead of 8:30 am to 10 am. Similarly, Class 10 and Class 12 will have classes from 9 am to 1 pm instead of 11 am to 4 am.
In a notification, the Odisha government advised district education officers to ensure the availability of safe pure drinking water in all schools including the repair of tube wells. Also, the District Education Officers (DEOs) are also advised to store sufficient ORS in schools.
"All parents should be sensitized to ensure that their children carry a water bottle while going to school. The students must not be exposed to heat during the teaching hours and no physical activity like sports should be undertaken," said Samir Ranjan Dash, School and Mass Education Minister.
"We will first finish 100 days of education, then we will go for summer vacation," he added. As Bhubaneswar recorded a temperature of 39.4 degrees Celsius on Thursday making it the country's hottest city in February, the state government gave instructions to all districts to prepare for a possible heat-wave situation.
