Schools In Delhi Requested For Early Winter Break

According to a November 8 decision, the Directorate of Education (DoE) has decided to advance the winter break for the 2023–24 session so that teachers and students can spend more time at home and schools can close completely.

The directive is issued in the midst of grave worries about the short- and long-term effects of air pollution on public health, particularly that of children. The Central Pollution Control Board said that the reading for the air quality index on Wednesday was 426.

Due to the severe air quality in Delhi, the IMD (India Meteorological Department) has predicted that there will be no respite from these unfavourable weather conditions in the near future.

As a result, the winter break for the 2023–2024 session has been ordered to be preponed, allowing schools to close completely and allowing teachers and students to stay at home. Consequently, winter break will be observed by all schools from November 9, 2023, until November 18, 2023. The directive, which was signed by Delhi's education director Himanshu Gupta, instructed heads of schools to notify parents of this information right away.

A decision regarding the annual winter break will be made in due course, according to the order. However, actions taken under the fourth stage of the Graded Response Action Plan to reduce pollution only permit state governments in the NCR to stop holding in-person classes for classes 6 through 9 and class 11, and instead conduct lessons online.

While some educators and school administrators expressed concern about the announcement, others said it would benefit students who were finding it difficult to attend online classes because they lacked devices, the DoE had earlier ordered a shift to online classes for all students, with the exception of Class 10 and 12, from November 3 to 10.

While government school principals applauded the move, private school principals stated that it will affect their academic schedule. An anonymous government school principal stated that many of the students do not have mobile phones for online classes. Students will benefit more from holidays.

Additionally, in Delhi, there are 5,619 accredited schools with approximately 4.57 million pupils enrolled. There are 1,250 government and aided schools in Delhi. The education department stipulates that in order to comply with the requirements outlined in section 19 of the Right to Education Act of 2009, a minimum of 220 working days must be observed.