Cartoons, tuitions keep kids busy

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 10

“It is very difficult for the students to study nowadays. I am also a student and I know what is the problem of other students,” wrote Faiza Fatima, a Class III student from the Parraypora locality of the city in her school copy, which she has been maintaining as a diary for the past over 37 days, noting her perspectives about the situation.

With schools closed for the past over 37 days owing to unannounced clampdown and the shutdown in the Kashmir region, the students have taken to home tuitions, watching cartoon networks, reading books and also writing diary to note down their innocent experiences.

“It was a difficult choice to make. Though no parent will like his kid to miss the school but given the ground situation in the region, it was also not safe to send my children to school when the whole area around is under lockdown and communication blockade continuing,” said Tariq Ahmad, a parent from north Kashmir.

He, however, added that he had developed a routine for his kids at home to compensate the schools by introducing home tuitions. “For two hours in the morning, the kids would take tuitions from a neighbour, who is a teacher. Then I allow them to watch TV, which is mostly cartoon networks,” he said.

However, the parents are finding it tough to manage the students at home as the schools, colleges and universities continue to be closed in the region ever since the Union government abrogated the special status of J&K and downgraded it into two Union Territories. Most parents maintain that teaching kids at home is very challenging if it becomes a routine for months.

“There are occasions when my five-year-old son completely refuses to study. Initially, he was happy that school is shut. But now he asks why schools are not opening. I have no answer,” says Adil Ahmad Khan, a parent hailing from Bankers Colony in Rawalpora.

“Since he does not have siblings, he expects me to play cricket with him,” he adds.

The sentiment that some kids are now missing their schools is also shared by the Class III student in her diary.

“I am missing my school so much. It is horrible for our future. The children are getting bored at home. I am also getting bored at home and doing nothing. And also we cannot communicate with each other,” Faiza concludes, while chronicling the day 37 of the Kashmir lockdown in her diary, adding, “It is very difficult for us. Now people are scared to go anywhere and also to shops.”