‘J&K best-vaccinated place’: Time to reopen schools, PSAJK appeals govt

Srinagar, Nov 20: Clamour is growing for the reopening of schools in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Child Rights Day, the Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) called on the government to reopen the schools that have been shut for two and a half years.

“Of all these rights we consider the right to education as one of the most important rights, and government and civil society should do everything to ensure that every child gets access to good education,” said G N Var, president, PSAJK during a function to observe World Children’s Rights Day. 

“Unfortunately during the last two and a half years, our children have been deprived of education at schools. Due to this the educational, social, and psychological loss to them is enormous.”

The Association said that it is high time that government reopens the schools before further damage is done. The Association accused some vested interests of sabotaging the possibility of reopening schools due to unknown reasons. “We find it strange that whenever people start raising voices calling for reopening of schools, the COVID cases suddenly start to rise. There seems to be some mysterious correlation between the two and we don’t know why this happens,” said Var. 

The Association said that the education system has almost collapsed and the online mode has not provided desired results.

“Online education upto a certain time may have helped, but stretching it too much has created problems. Furthermore, a large number of our children do not have access to online education and some don’t even have a basic smartphone. Those children are at a huge disadvantage and we don’t know what kind of future awaits them,” said Var.

“The government doesn’t comprehend the problem and the crisis which is staring at us. We are looking at a generational gap due to a huge learning loss. This will be very difficult for our society to cope up with.”

The Association said that Jammu and Kashmir is one of the best-vaccinated places in India and more than 1.6 crore vaccine doses have been administered which also includes 65 lakh people with both doses.

“Apart from vaccination if we strictly follow Covid Appropriate Behaviour then there is no chance of any spread of Covid. We don’t know what is stopping the government from opening the schools at a time when colleges and higher secondaries are operating and every social gathering is going on unhindered,” said Var.

On this occasion Zonal Education Officer Mohd Maqbool Dar said that children are our future and Govt is committed to the cause of child-centric education and despite pandemic, every effort is being made to mitigate the learning loss due to the closure of classrooms 

All speakers appreciated the role of Ishrat Tanki, Chairman of Firdous Educational Institute for her untiring efforts to reach out to the children despite pandemic. Ishrat Tanki also heads the Women’s wing of PSAJK.