Governor Vohra's Personal Agony

In a private conversation with the author on September 4, Governor Vohra laments about the disruption in academic career of students because of lengthy shutdowns in J&K

Disturbed academic calendar leaves students in lurch

Mehboob Jeelani (Rising Kashmir)

Srinagar, Sep 05: The education sector in Kashmir valley has been severely hit with educational institutions remaining closed for a duration amounting to five months till August leaving a working period of just four months in the current academic session.

Till August this year, strikes and curfews have taken the number of holidays observed in educational institutions to 164 days, which includes 90 days of winter vacations, 11 days of state holidays, 7 days of summer break, 26 Sundays besides about 30 days of strikes and curfews.

Loss of working days for such a long duration is bound to affect the academic calendar and thereby the education sector of the valley.This undue break in the academic calendar has created difficulties particularly to those students who are about to appear in the secondary, higher secondary and university level examinations with major portion of syllabus still incomplete. “Now I don’t think about my school. Every morning we expect it to be an off day and having excessive holidays is no fun,” said Heeba Shafi, a 7th grade student of New-Convent high school.“We could have completed our syllabus in private coaching centres but due to curfews and strikes it was impossible to leave home,” said Shahid Rafiq, a 12th grade student of Sri-Pratap Higher Secondary School.

The brunt of the situation is borne by the students who are completely dependent on the school teaching. With hardly 50-days of working days left, these students are concerned fearing worsening of the situation in the valley. “Due to some financial problems I can’t go for private classes. I can manage to pass few subjects but I am naive particularly with physics, chemistry and mathematics,” said Mudasir Hussain, a 10th grade student.

Meanwhile, Secretary Education, GA Peer said that for a time being stress has been laid on all the educational institutions to take extra classes to compensate the loss.“We are holding a meeting on September 15 with chief education officers, educationists and senior academicians to discuss the situation. I appeal the teacher community to put extra efforts to complete the pending syllabus,” said Peer.