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Amid hot weather conditions prevailing in the state for the past several days, the Haryana government has decided to change timings of all schools with effect from Wednesday. Due to intense heatwave prevalent throughout the state, it has been decided that the timings of all schools--government and private--will be from 7 am to 12 pm for Classes 1 to 12 with effect from May 4, said the order issued by the Directorate of School Education on Monday. There had been a demand from parents that in view of the scorching heat, the school timings be revised from 8 am to 2.30 pm to 7 am to 12 pm. For the past several days, maximum temperatures at most places in Haryana have hovered in the range of 41-45 degrees Celsius.
Edtech firm Schoolnet aims to grow multifold to generate Rs 6,000 crore in the next 5-7 years from expansion of services in schools and subscriber growth on its learning app. The 25-year old firm provides digital classrooms to around 40,000 schools at present, along with digital learning content and trains teachers, Schoolnet head of strategy Arindam Ghosh said. The company claims to have reached a revenue of Rs 800 crore before the COVID-19 outbreak, but it came down due to the closing of schools during the lockdown. Ghosh said the company expects to close the current financial year with a consolidated number of around Rs 400 - 450 crore if all goes well. "There was an impact on the overall revenue during the Covid times, but we have maintained profitability even in this current year. We would be maintaining that. In long term, we are looking at revenue of Rs 6,000 crore over a 57-year horizon for which significant augmentation of resources will be required," he said. The company
After Uganda, India saw the longest school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, Union Minister of State for Education Annpurna Devi said in Lok Sabha on Monday citing a UNESCO report. The pandemic has severely affected the education system not only in India but also in other countries due to the closure of schools, she said in a written reply to a question. "As per the UNESCO report, India is the second country after Uganda where offline schools were shut for the longest period of time. However, the report does not mention the methodology used in the study and the source of this data is stated to be a study by a non-governmental organisation," Devi said. Schools were closed across the world as a precautionary measure to protect students from COVID-19. "Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on September 2020 had stated that states and UT governments may take a decision in respect of re-opening of schools in a graded manner and the decision shall be taken in consultation with the respecti