Parents are using their own modes of conveyance to ferry their children to and from school and protect them from unnecessary exposure to the rising heat.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Agarwal on Wednesday directed private and public schools to finish all academic activities for students up to Class V by 11am to ensure their safety from the heat wave and sun strokes.

"We are monitoring the rising temperature and reducing the school timing," said district public relations officer Ravi Bhushan Sahay. "If the situation deteriorates, the administration will declare an early summer vacation with the consent of higher authorities."

Kiran Sahay, whose daughter studies in Notre Dame Academy, said she had been picking up her daughter from school for the past one-and-a-half weeks.

"Travelling in the school bus in the afternoon temperature is very risky," she said. "Patliputra and Kurji areas get congested in the afternoon. The bus gets stuck for half an hour most of the time. The car will save my child from the heat at least."

Like Kiran, Shailendra Kumar also picks his daughter up from St Michael's school after she fell ill last week.

"The dust and the heat made her sick," he said. "She started vomiting last Friday and her nostrils bled. I hope the school plans an early summer vacation."

Shivani Shree, a mother of two sons who study at The Tribhuvan School, said: "Even if the school is closing at 11am, the children are still exposed to the heat because of road congestions."

The rising heat has led to an increase in the number of sunstrokes, especially among kids.

"A number of children are coming to me with the symptoms like fever, weakness, loss of appetite, loose motion, nausea and vomiting," said Arun Kumar Thakur, a general physician. "Kids must avoid drinking cold water immediately after getting into the shade."

Thakur advised children to drink a lot of water to avoid sunstrokes.

"Drinking juice and glucose will energise them," he added.

Rajiv Ranjan Sinha, president of Patliputra Sahodaya (a group of CBSE schools) in Bihar, said the association will convene a meeting and decide on the summer vacations.

"The vacations generally begin from mid-May," he said. "If the mercury keeps climbing, we will direct the schools to start vacations from the first week of May."

DPS World School has introduced air-conditioned buses to save the children from the heat. Schools like Open Minds A Birla School, DY Patil Pushpalata Patil International School and GD Goenka Public School have increased the number of their air-conditioned buses.