Education: The casualty of conflict in Kashmir

Education as usual is the casualty of over three decade old conflict in Kashmir even after the abrogation of article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two union territories on August 5 last year. A single incident has one again put the students and teachers on a disconnection mode and as usual there is no word about the timing of the restoration of 2 G mobile internet services in Kashmir. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar has promised restoration of mobile calling and internet facilities in Kashmir without hinting about the timing of it’s restoration. Forget about immediate restoration of 2 G mobile internet services, the government has even withdrawn the mobile calling facilities to the people that has resulted in total disconnect between the teachers and the students. If the calling facilities won’t have been withdrawn, the teachers could at least assign some home work to the students till the time internet is restored. The messages via SMS could have also reduced the intensity of teacher’s disconnection with their students. Unfortunately reports about the disruption even in the broadband mobile internet services in South and North Kashmir districts drop indications of curbs even on the broadband internet services in valley. Ironically the private schools only a day before the suspension of 2 G mobile internet services had demanded the government intervention on payment of tuition fee by the parents during a meeting with the Principal Secretary School Education. Before agreeing to the demand of the private schools over the payment of tuition feed for the lockdown period , the government should have sought details about the timing of the online classes conducted by private school teachers as the government schools too used to send details about online classes to concerned Chief Education Officers (CEOs) .
Enforcing the mobile internet suspension and posing no questions to private schools for demanding tuition fee for the lockdown period are the highly objectionable actions of the government which show that education becomes the casualty of all conflicts with the approval of the government in Jammu & Kashmir.
While the government teachers were holding seven classes a day to ensure that students are taught all the subjects as per the normal class work schedule, the private school teachers used to teach only three classes against the normal work schedule of seven classes a day. Interestingly the online classes were started just 15 days ago and barely after 15 days the private school started demanding payment of fee by the parents amid COVID-19 lock. It may be recalled here that amid a row over the payment of tuition fee by the parents for the lockdown period, the private schools had told a top public functionary that lockdown period is the time to save lives but not the time to decide the payment of fee for the lockdown period by parents. Lockdown remains in force but private schools are desperate to demand payment of tuition fee for hardly three classes a day against the normal work schedule of seven classes a day and that just for less than 15 days. On one hand the suspension of mobile internet and calling facilities has put the online class schedule on a suspension mode but on the other hand the private schools are desperate to fleece the gullible parents running out of pockets due to COVID-19 lockdown. Enforcing the mobile internet suspension and posing no questions to private schools for demanding tuition fee for the lockdown period are the highly objectionable actions of the government which show that education becomes the casualty of all conflicts with the approval of the government in Jammu & Kashmir.