Srinagar/July, 9: Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) has hailed the individual schools, teachers and other members of the society for starting community schooling in their localities for the benefit of students amidst the current lockdown.
The Association however condemned the behaviour of certain government officials for sabotaging such an educational initiative in the name of COVID lockdown. “Our education sector has been almost shut down since last one year due to one reason or another. Our children are the worst sufferers of the situation as some of them have even gone into depression. To mitigate the problems some of the individual schools, teachers and even other respectable members of the society from different fields started community schools in their neighbourhoods. It is a great initiative to save the career of tens of thousands of our students,” said the spokesperson of PSAJK. “The schools were well received by the society and PSAJK expresses its gratitude towards such schools, teachers and other members of society for starting these schools.”
The Association said that the community schooling is the best way to help students at a time when there is lockdown on one hand and ban on 4G mobile internet on the other hand. “Not many students can afford smart phones or broadband internet connection. And the virtual classrooms can never replace the brick and mortar classroom. The community classes are best suited for such situations as it effectively imparted education to students by respecting COVID19 protocol. There is no travelling or transport or other things involved,” said the spokesperson. “It is heartening to see so many such classrooms emerging in the valley.”
The Association said that although every member of the society is trying its best but there are some black sheeps in administration who are hell bent to derail this educational initiative. “In the name of COVID we are already hearing increase of corruption and now some officials are even harassing schools and teachers for starting community schooling. Recently an official in Dooru Anantnag registered an FIR against a school for starting a community class,” said the spokesperson. “We have no idea why such officials are against schooling of children. On one hand gardens and parks are allowed but few hours of schooling becomes threat for such officials.”
The Association appealed the Principal Secretary School Education to inquire into the incident and take action against the official. The Association said that government should also come up with guidelines to allow the community schooling so that career of thousands of students will be saved
