Summer vacation in Delhi schools to begin from April 20 due to Covid-19 surge

The vacation, which was to start from May 11 and continue till June 30, has now been rescheduled from April 20 to June 9.

The Delhi government on Monday advanced summer vacation in all schools of the national capital in view of the spiralling COVID-19 cases.

Summer vacation has been preponed in Delhi's schools in view of Covid-19 cases. (HT Archive)

The vacation, which was to start from May 11 and continue till June 30, has now been rescheduled from April 20 to June 9.

"In view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation, the summer vacation has now been rescheduled and will be observed from April 20 to June 9," the Directorate of Education (DoE) said in an order.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a six-day lockdown from 10 pm on Monday till 5 am on April 26, which, he said, was necessary to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases as the city's health system was stretched to its limit.

Delhi has been reporting around 25,000 COVID-19 cases daily in the past few days.

"All the heads of schools are hereby directed to disseminate this information among the teaching, non-teaching staff, students and parents through SMC members, mass SMS facility, phone calls and other means.

"During the vacation period, heads of schools are authorized to call vacation staff according to requirement for any school-related work (academic, admission, examination) maintaining COVID-appropriate behaviour and following the standard operating procedure issued by competent authorities from time to time," it said.

The Delhi government had earlier this month ordered closure of schools and suspension of physical exams for all classes in view of rise in COVID-19 cases.

"All centrally conducted online and semi-online teaching and learning activities will remain suspended during the period for classes KG to nine," the Department of Education said in a separate order.