The Odisha government announced the postponement of the summer holiday this year on Thursday due to the extreme weather conditions. All government, private, and aided schools up to Class XII were ordered to remain closed starting on Friday, April 21 by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The I&PR department announced on social media that the summer break for students in grades I through XII will start on April 21 in accordance with the chief minister’s directive. In due course, the affected departments will choose a date for reopening. Soon, a formal announcement in this regard will be made.
The state had set the start of the summer break for the first week of May.
The state administration had previously announced that schools and Anganwadi centres will be closed from April 12 to April 16. After resuming courses on April 17 and 18, all schools and Anganwadi centres were once again shuttered on April 19 and 20 owing to extreme heat.
Temperatures in Odisha have been exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in 30 locations for the past two weeks, causing severe heatwave conditions.
With a temperature of 44.5 degrees Celsius, Baripada had the day’s highest temperature, followed by Nuapada (44.4), Balangir (44.4), Angul (43.7), Jharsuguda (43.6), Titlagarh (43.1), and Bhubaneswar (42.5).
Up until Friday, the state has been under yellow heatwave warnings from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). After that, though, folks may look forward to some reprieve from the oppressive heat as thunderstorm activity may provide a little temperature decrease.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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