Air quality makes schools suspend activities

NEWDELHI:SOME of the top private schools suspended sports and outdoor activities because of bad air quality in the national capital, which struggles with smog and dust every year after Diwali.

Tagore International School in Vasant Vihar has enforced the restrictions since the festival of lights, celebrated this year on October 19.

The Shri Ram Schools did it on Friday. Sanskriti School in the diplomatic enclave of Chankyapuri will do it from Monday.

And the American Embassy School, another premier institution in Chankyapuri, regularly suspends outdoor aerobics when the air quality index (AQI) touches 300.

Springdales School, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and Ahlcon International School as well as government schools said they will wait until the pollution level gets worse.

According to the government’s “graded response action plan” to cut pollution in the city of more than 20 million people, schools must close when the AQI crosses 500.

The government will take measures in accordance with the anti-pollution plan in place in the Capital, according to Atishi Marlena, adviser to Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia.

Experts suggested that all outdoor activities should be restricted if the AQI reaches a range of 301 to 400. The AQI on Thursday was 311, and it deteriorated to 324 on Friday.

Principals of private schools said they would take steps as and when necessary.