A year of loss for education in Valley

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 28

On August 2, Mehwish Rafiq, 17, attended her last day at the school where she studied in Class XII. While she is preparing for her dream exam of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), she is somehow hopeless if she can qualify the exams as this has been a year of loss for education in Kashmir.

Mehwish appeared for her board exams in October and November amid tight security around educational institutions as the schools did not open in Kashmir after August 5 when a military clampdown was imposed after the abrogation of Article 370. While she appeared for the exams, it was not a normal situation as she had completed only 60 per cent syllabus at school but appeared for 100 per cent during the exams.

“When the date sheet was notified, it was very difficult to prepare for exams when we had not attended school for months together. I am sure no student in any other part of the country can manage in such circumstances. We are under tremendous mental pressure,” says Mehwish who is now preparing to crack the competitive exam to secure admission in a medical school.

2019 has been a year of academic losses in Kashmir. The students have not attended their classes from August and the three-month-long winter break that was announced from December 10 means that the students will not be able to attend the educational institutions for straight eight months. The loss has caused a concern among the teachers too.

“It is very hard to survive in a competitive world when students outside are hardworking. Our students are losing so much of their precious time that we fear what will they do in the future,” said Gowhar Ahmad, a physics lecturer at a private higher secondary school in Srinagar.

The lack of Internet has put the students in another trauma as they have to apply for scholarships and different competitive exams outside. It has been more than 145 days of complete Internet shutdown in Kashmir. While the government has opened few facilitation centres for students to submit the forms of exams like NEET, they are not sufficient for thousands of students who have no way to explore more career options.

“We have our exams and are struggling for study material because usually, we would download it from the Internet. We have multiple hindrances in our academics,” said another college student Faiqa Aijaz, who is in her final year.

In Srinagar, while a few schools had last month started classes, they were held amid fear as the parents had to remain escorts of their children who attended in casual clothes. The schools were also not able to ply their buses in the routes due to the fear of attacks from miscreants.

GN Var, chairman of the Private Schools Association in Kashmir, said this year, the students were not able to study in schools and this may create an academic gap.

“There has been a boom of coaching centres in the region this year because the students now want to compensate the losses. The students lost a whole year as they were not able to attend school since July. It is an intangible loss, it cannot be measured,” he said.

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