Over 3,000 public schools remain open in the city

A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered all the private and government schools in the national Capital to remain shut till Wednesday in the wake of rising pollution level, as many as 3,247 public schools in all 28 zones of the national capital remained open on Monday.

"At least 3,247 public schools-- primary, secondary and senior secondary, in all the 28 zones of Delhi remained working today," said RC Jain, President Delhi State Public School Association, adding the association has decided to keep the schools closed for the next two days as only 30-40 per cent students had turned up on Monday.

According to Jain, schools are 'soft targets' for the government. Every time when the season changes, the government announces to shutdown the schools and even during odd-even scheme, the schools were closed to 10 days.
"Every school has to complete 220 days of functioning. How do you expect them to complete in this state?" he said.

However, the association on Monday declared to close the schools for next two days saying, "due to government's vague declarations, most of the parents got confused and only 30-40 per cent students turned up on Monday."
"We don't want students to suffer and that's why we have decided to shut schools for the next two days," Jain said.

Meanwhile, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) declared that all primary schools under them will reopen on November 15.

"It had become imperative to close around 600 primary schools to protect children studying in the schools," said Shyam Sharma, SDMC Mayor.

"Even after reopening the schools on November 15, the prayers will be conducted in the halls and there will be no outside activity to protect students from any adverse effects of the extreme pollution level," he added.