Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Aug 04: In Kashmir Valley, the schools and colleges recorded less than twenty academic days since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 05 2019 and then the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Top officials at the School Education Department said that the class work of students in the academic year 2019 resumed after a gap of seven months in the last week of February-2020.
Director Colleges, Yaseen Ahmad Shah told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the colleges across Jammu and Kashmir recorded only a few weeks of regular academic days since August-05-2019.
“Since the abrogation of Article 370, except three weeks of March-2020, no regular classes were held in colleges here, however, after the winter vacations were over and the class work was again suspended, following which we started virtual classes via different online platforms,” Shah said.
“After winter vacations, the class work in colleges resumed on March-05, then the institutions were again closed in the third week of the month in view of COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.
Meanwhile, the officials at Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) said that 1.3 million students turned up at schools after 7 months on February-25 following the abrogation of Article-370.
“Except few academic days in March, the schools across J&K were closed again in the third week of the month in view of COVID-19,” he said.
Earlier, in the year 2019, schools and colleges across the Kashmir Valley recorded less than 100 academic days.
Officials said that before the approval of the New Education Policy (NEP), the educational institutes were supposed to remain functional for at least 180 days in an academic year.
“Until the abrogation of Article 370, the schools were functioning normally, but post August 5, when the authorities scrapped Article 370, no academic activity was held for over seven months.”
In the last week of August, JK government said the high schools in Kashmir would reopen after remaining shut for more than three weeks since August 5.
However, no student turned up to the schools while parents of the wards also expressed fear and risk in allowing their beloved in such circumstances.
Earlier in the same month, the government said more than 190 primary schools in Srinagar would function normally followed by the orders of reopening of higher secondary schools and colleges as well.
The students again dress-up their uniforms for the first time in seven months, and around 13 lakh students of government and private schools of Kashmir resumed classes on February-25 this year after remaining shut since August 5.
However, the pandemic outbreak again compelled the authorities to order closure of the institutions to avoid the transmission of the virus among the students—(KNO)
