Monitor News Bureau
Srinagar: Education remains a casualty due to the prolonged uncertainty in Valley even as government claims opening 4000 schools across Kashmir.
The education department has claimed to open around 4000 educational institutions in Valley, however hardly any student has reported to these schools so far, thus turning into a major challenge for the department to revive the academic cycle.
“Though the department has asked the teachers to report to their respective schools, no student has turned up so far,” said an official, who was part of the inspection team.
“We conduct daily inspection of schools but we find no student in any institution,” the official said.
The schools are witnessing zero attendance at a time when the education department is preparing to conduct annual exams of students from classes 10th to 12th, to be conducted by Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE).
“The department has asked students of secondary and senior secondary classed to submit their exam forms but exams can be only held if students report to schools,” the official said.
As per reports, only 45 per cent of the syllabus has been completed in classes 10th to 12th.
“Recently, the department held a meeting with CEOs to take feedback about the completion of syllabus. All the CEOs informed the meeting that more than 55 per cent syllabus is incomplete which makes chances of holding exams bleak,” the official said.
Also, the department has been caught in a catch-22-situation for holding exams of lower classes (from primary to class 9th) as the students have not completed their syllabus in schools.
“If the decision to hold an annual exam couldn’t materialize, then the department may go for evaluating students through the continuous evaluation system. The concerned schools have held Term I exams and the second term marks will be awarded as per the performance of students in previous exams,” the official said.
He also ruled out any chance of granting mass promotion to students in lower classes. “Granting mass promotion creates learning gaps in students which results in poor performance of students in BOSE exams,” the official added.
Each year, the Term II exams for lower and higher classes in schools commence from October, however, this time the students have not reported to their schools for the past one month post the decision of Government of India to revoke Article 370 and bifurcating the state.
“Education sector has been worst hit in this phase and the prevailing situation will cost the students dearly. While preparations for exams have been started, nobody in the department is certain about conducting them given the zero response of students to attend their schools,” the official said.
