Power failure: Schools in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai cancel exams, events and classes

The power failure in the city led to several schools cancelling their exams while many others cancelled online classes and special events.

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“We had our primary school exams today, but we had to cancel them and inform the students accordingly. Some of our teachers had come to the school for the exam and were stuck in school due to the power outage. We also had a storytelling event which had to be cancelled,” said Kavita Sanghvi, principal of Chatrabhuj Narsee Memorial School in Vile Parle.

Sanghvi added that even after power was restored, classes could not be resumed. “The staff waited in the school till 2pm but since power had not resumed, we had to leave. Parents were already informed about the postponement,” she said.

At St Mary’s School (ICSE) in Mazagaon, online classes had to be cancelled. “We informed all our teachers to communicate this to the students. Similarly, we told our non-teaching staff not to come today,” said Father Francis Swamy, principal of the school.

Several teachers who were headed to go to school were stuck due to trains being stalled. “I had to go to school to make question papers for an internal test. Now I am heading back home as there are no trains,” said the teacher of a BMC school in Goregaon.

At St Joseph’s School in Panvel, the semester exams took place as per the schedule before the power failure. However, most schools in Navi Mumbai and Panvel, too, had to cancel online classes.

Yukti Rajan, 37, whose son is in class 2 of Reliance Foundation School, said, “My son Prithvi had online classes from 11.30am to 12.30pm. Around 11.20am, we got a message from school about the cancellation of classes due to power failure. The kids were overjoyed as this was an unexpected holiday.”

Gouri Bhattacharya, vice-principal of Podar International School (CBSE), Nerul, said, “We had to cancel the online class owing to the power cut. The message was sent to the parents via our internal communication system.”

At Ryan International School, Sanpada, the exam had to be postponed. “Since students can’t submit the online forms, the exam was cancelled and postponed. New dates have not been declared yet,” said a parent from Sanpada.

(With inputs from Raina Shine)