Mumbai: Maharashtra Education Minister, Deepak Kesarkar has advised all schools in the state to advance summer vacations in light of the simmering heat wave.
He also said that the summer vacations in the Vidarbha area would be extended till June 30 in order to protect school kids from the ill effects of the heat.
“We had earlier declared that the schools in Vidarbha region would reopen on June 30 unlike June 15 in other regions of the state. Now, we have advised the schools, where examinations are over, to immediately begin with summer vecations,” the minister told reporters at Mantralaya.
All the schools, except those where the syllabus is yet to be completed, should ideally declare summer vacations. Many a schools now a days conduct hobby classes or take some activities. They have been asked to conduct them in the morning session instead of noon, the minister said.
The minister also said that the schools have been advised to call only the students from the class 9 and 10.
Students from class 10 can be called for extra classes, but the schools should not bother younger students, the minister said while expressing concern over possibility of heat related complications.
All the students should enjoy their holidays and protect their health, the minister said.
Meanwhile, the state government had earlier released an action plan to beat the rising heat. The disaster management department of Maharashtra government has a detailed action plan ready in order to avoid heat stroke deaths.
The state disaster management department had prepared a detailed action plan to avoid heat related deaths. This was done a couple of months back keeping in view of the rising temperatures over past few years and the fact that the number of heat-waves affected districts in the state have gone up from seven to 13 over past few years.
The measures suggested in the 86-page action plan directed district administrations to change the timings of the schools, the working hours of vulnerable labourers, to avoid load shedding during afternoon and to reserve separate wards in government hospitals for the people affected by heat. The measures also include painting roofs of government buildings and huts in white, among others. The action plan even has measures in place for animals. They include creation of makeshift ponds for animals, water pots for birds and stray animals etc.
The administrations have also been directed to educate people on measures like avoid carbonated drinks, high-protein drinks, tea-coffee, avoid venturing in open during day-hours unless absolutely necessary etc.
Thirteen districts of Maharashtra - nine in Vidarbha and two each in central and north Maharashtra - are prone to heat waves where the measures need to be implemented in order to avoid loss of lives, the action plan states. It incidently has classified all the six districts of Konkan devision under ‘moderate risk’ category as far as the heat strokes are concerned.
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