GORKHA: Most of the schools in Gorkha district have shut 10 days before the scheduled summer vacation due to the scorching heat. The summer vacation was scheduled to begin on June 28.

The schools were forced to take the decision after the students began to fall sick due to rising mercury. There has been an acute shortage of potable water on the school premises due to the adverse weather condition. "All the schools under Luintel Resource Centre have been shut owing to rising mercury," Nanibabu Adhikary, headmaster of Dharmodaya Lower Secondary School, said. Saint Joseph Boarding School of the district had been closed since Monday, Supriya Shrestha, a student said.

Meanwhile, many schools in the district headquarters had been closed citing the reason of sweltering heat, according to headmasters of those schools. Some schools in the district, however, have been running classes in the morning shifts.

Meanwhile, many public schools in Nawalparasi have been closed from June 19, ten days before the scheduled vacations because of scorching heat.