Heavy rain in places like Salt Lake, VIP Road and New Town at a time children leave home for school resulted in many students reporting late for their classes.
At least three schools, two in New Town and one in Salt Lake, relaxed their timings and allowed children in despite being late.
In some schools, children’s uniforms got wet, especially their socks and shoes.
Delhi Public School New Town, Delhi Public School Megacity and Our Lady Queen of the Missions School Salt Lake relaxed their timings on Monday morning.
Around VIP Road it started raining heavily around 7.15am.
Children could not wait outdoors for their school buses or their chartered cars because of the lightning and rain.
Delhi Public School New Town allowed children in till 9am and the Monday test, which is held in the first period, was shifted to the second.
At Our Lady Queen of the Missions School in Salt Lake, children were allowed in till 8.20am. Both schools start at 8am.
At Delhi Public School Megacity, the authorities allowed children time till 8.50am. The school starts at 8.30am.
“School buses arrived late, so, too, children who use personal transport. The first period went by with children still coming in and settling down because students faced both rain and heavy traffic,” said Sonali Sen, principal of Delhi Public School New Town.
A Class IX student was scared that he might be late for a test, scheduled in the first period.
“I travel in a pool car, I kept asking the driver if I should get down and walk. I was scared that I would be late for the test, but when I reached the school I learned that the test had been rescheduled to the second period,” he said.
Many teachers and students had to navigate waterlogged streets.
“I was stuck near Narkelbagan, near the Kolkata Gate, because of waterlogging and traffic a little before 8am,” said Soumi Sinha, an administrator at Delhi Public School New Town.
At Our Lady Queen of the Missions School in Salt Lake, parents crowded at the gate requesting that they be allowed to drop their children right up to the class.
“Since it was raining we had opened all our gates and we allowed children in even if they were late. We do this on all rainy days. If they have made an effort to come despite the rain, we cannot turn them back,” said Sister Sherly Sebastian, principal of the school.
Students who travel towards the city centre had a hard time, too.A Class IX student at Don Bosco Park Circus travelled in heavy rain from Baguiati. “My driver said it was raining so heavily that visibility was low and he had turned on the fog light,” said the mother of the boy.
Several schools reopened on Monday after summer vacation. The rest had resumed in-person classes last week.
At Delhi Public School Megacity, some of the senior students were apologetic because their socks and shoes got wet in the rain.
“They had a prefectorial meeting with me but we understand, given the circumstances today,” said Indrani Sanyal, principal of Delhi Public School Megacity.