Parents in Hyderabad wrote to authorities of Telangana's Education Department on Thursday, requesting that the start of the academic year 2018-19 be postponed to the second week of June, due to the heat.
The letter was written by Venkat Sainath, Joint Secretary of the Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) and addressed to the Commissioner and Director of School Education, Hyderabad.
A copy of the letter was also marked to Ranjeev Acharya, Principal Secretary Education Department.
"We HSPA, the Hyderabad Schools Parents Association, request you to examine the current extreme weather conditions and postpone the schools reopening to June 2nd week so that several lakh children are not hit by the prevailing extreme hot climatic condition," the letter states.
"As you are aware that for past several years, the schools in the state reopen after the summer vacations in the second week of June. This was the norm adopted to suit to the summer climatic conditions of our region," it added.
The letter came after schools were asked to open earlier than usual this year, reportedly keeping Telangana Formation Day on June 2 in mind.
"We understand that this year’s decision to reopen school on June 1 is to celebrate the Telangana State Formation Day. We very much respect the sentiment of state formation and are very much happy to celebrate it, but not at the expense of the health of the several lakh school going children. We already read in the newspapers that most of the private schools have already taken decision to reopen the schools on June 11. Hence, in order to save kids from severe heat conditions and to avoid chaotic circumstances with several lakh families, we earnestly urge you to re-consider the decision to reopen schools on June 1, and defer it to the second week of June," the letter concluded.