Heads of schools in Delhi were on Wednesday told to inform parents immediately about the preponement of winter vacations in the wake of severe air pollution conditions.

According to a notification from the directorate of education, Delhi, winter vacations have been preponed and will now be observed from November 9 to November 18.

The decision was taken in the wake of the implementation of GRAP-IV measures due to severe air quality conditions prevailing in Delhi, the notification mentioned.

Meanwhile, further orders regarding the remaining days allocated for winter vacation will be released in due time, the notification added.

The notification read, "In the wake of implementation of GRAP-IV measures due to Severe Air Quality prevailing in Delhi and seeing that no respite from such adverse weather conditions in near future is predicted by the IMD, the Winter Break for the session 2023-24 is ordered to be preponed so that schools can be totally closed and both children and teachers can stay at home."

"Accordingly, all schools shall observe Winter Break wef. 09th November 2023 (tomorrow) to 18th November 2023 (Saturday)," it added.

It may be noted that on Wednesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded to be around 400, which falls under the severe to hazardous category.

The current PM2.5 concentration in New Delhi is 20.9 times above the recommended limit given by the World Health Organization's (WHO) 24 hour air quality guidelines value, according to AQI.in.