A Jamshedpur schoolgirl beats the heat with water on Wednesday. (Bhola Prasad)

Ranchi, April 7: If a rainy day is a holiday, a hot day will be at least half as happy for schoolchildren in the capital and elsewhere.

In the wake of oppressive heat and low humidity levels, Ranchi deputy commissioner K.K. Soan has directed schools — government, aided and private — to reschedule classes between 6.30am and 11am.

Normally, classes are held between 8am and 4pm. “All schools have been directed to hold classes only till 11am from Monday,” said Soan.

While the temperature soared above 40°C in Jamshedpur and Dhanbad, Ranchi remained a tad cooler at 38.2°C today.

Soan met education department officials today and asked them to apprise principals of all government, government-aided and private schools in the city of the new timings.

The East Singhbhum district administration had issued a similar directive last week and new timings are already being followed in most schools in Jamshedpur.

Last Monday, Dhanbad deputy commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh, too, asked schools in the coal town to shut down by 11.30am. The rule came into effect from yesterday.

“We issued letters to all CBSE, ICSE and government schools on Monday asking them to reschedule classes. Principals have also been asked to take special care of students and take help of doctors in case of any emergency” said R.K. Mahavar, the district superintendent of education, Dhanbad.

Coal town schools, including DAV Public School, Delhi Public School, Rajkamal Saraswati Vidya Mandir and De Nobili have rescheduled classes. However, many which run classes in two shifts, including Rajkamal Saraswati Vidya Mandir and DAV Koylanagar, are facing problems with the new schedule.

The two separate shifts at Rajkamal Saraswati Vidya Mandir are running from 5.50am to 8.45am and 8.50am to 11.30am. Principal of DAV Koylanagar K.C. Srivastava said that they had reduced the normal seven periods to five.