Schools have been out of bounds for students in the Valley for the past two and a half years but not the seminars lined up by the government to mark the upcoming Republic Day. The Jammu and Kashmir education department is holding a series of seminars on Atmanirbhar Bharat in the run up to the Republic Day, surprising students and school managements who have been impatiently waiting for the schools to reopen.
The decision to scrap the state’s special status in 2019, which was accompanied by months-long shutdown, had led to the closure of Valley schools. The pandemic beginning in early 2020 had aggravated the problem. Now, Srinagar’s chief education officer has in an order directed principals and other officials to ensure the participation of students from classes IX to XII in seminars on the “eve of Republic Day”.
Ghulam Nabi Var said the educational system in the Valley was staring at a disaster because of the government’s reluctance to reopen schools, arguing that online classes had not been a success. “It has been the slogan of international bodies, including Unicef, that schools should be the last institutions to close and first to open during the pandemic. Only the opposite is true in Kashmir,” he said.