India, Dec. 15 -- The Gautam Budh Nagar, and Ghaziabad district administrations on Sunday ordered online classes for pre-nursery to Class 5 and a hybrid mode for Classes 6 to 12, a day after the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) Stage-4 was invoked across the Delhi-NCR on Saturday as air quality plunged into "severe" category.

"As directed under the Grap-4 category, all schools affiliated with various boards in Gautam Budh Nagar will shift to online mode from pre-nursery/nursery to Class 5 and hybrid mode-both online and physical (wherever online mode is feasible)-for Classes 6 to 12," said Rajesh Kumar Singh, district inspector of schools (DIOS), Gautam Budh Nagar, in a statement.

"The move aims to minimise students' exposure to pollu...