Bhubaneswar: With the weatherman issuing a heat wave alert, the state government Tuesday further extended the summer vacation for schools by four days.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced this at a press meet here. This is the second consecutive extension of the summer holidays in the last three days.
Chief Minister @Naveen_Odisha has announced to extend school holidays upto 25th June in #Odisha, to give relief to school going children from the extreme heat wave conditions.
— CMO Odisha (@CMO_Odisha) June 19, 2018
School and Mass Education Department Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra had earlier stated that the schools would reopen June 21 due to the sudden rise in temperature, instead of the originally scheduled June 18.
The Chief Minister said Tuesday that since there has been a sharp rise in day temperature across the state, the summer vacation for all schools would be extended by four more days.
“If the heat wave condition prevails even after June 21, a revised date for school opening would be announced,” Mohapatra had stated.
The southwest monsoon reached Odisha June 8 – two days ahead of the scheduled date. However, the hot and humid weather conditions continued in the state as the monsoon weakened. Eight places in the state recorded above 40 degree Celsius in the recent days.
Both the government and private schools were shut from April 25 after the temperature continued to hover above 40 degrees Celsius across the state.