Noida: The district magistrate of Noida has ordered all schools to stay shut until November 10, for students in pre-school to Class 9, due to ‘severe’ levels of air pollution. Until schools reopen, authorities have been issued a notice to conduct classes online.
“All schools of the District Gautam Buddha Nagar are directed to follow the implementation of the Graded Responses Action Plan Stage-IV order by discontinuing physical classes from Pre-School to Class 9 up to November 10. And conduct classes in an online mode,” the notice read.
This directive was issued subsequent to the implementation of stage four of the Centre’s anti-pollution strategy on November 5
Similar measures have been taken by the Delhi and Haryana governments. Delhi will see classes of all government and private schools suspended till November 10, with the exception of classes 10 and 12. Gurugram also announced the discontinuation of physical classes upto class 5 until further notice.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was recorded at 394, indicating a marginal improvement from the 421 AQI registered on Monday at 4 pm. Several cities in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have also reported poor air quality, with Ghaziabad at an AQI of 338, Gurugram at 364, Noida at 348, Greater Noida at 439, and Faridabad at 382.
