“Teachers of both the Government and private schools are at liberty to hold online classes even during summer vacations for the purposes of increasing the teaching periods in the larger interests of the students.”
The announcement of summer vacations for schools in Kashmir were though delayed but not denied in the end and very rightfully so in view of unprecedented rise in temperatures. Notably the short summer break of 15-20 days for schools in Kashmir is otherwise also a decades old precedent. The objections raised by a representative body of the private schools against the Government’s decision of announcing summer vacations from July 8 for just 10 days have only irritated and angered both the parents and as well as the teachers for very right reasons . Private Schools representative bodies opposes summer vacation for schools in Kashmir but it does not ask private schools to abandon the practice of holding 4-5 days summer camps . What merits a mention here is the fact that not the representative body of private schools but the parents and the teachers are concerned about the health safety of children during intense heat waves haunting more hugely people in Kashmir this year than the previous years. Argument that working days of teaching are reduced by summer and winter vacations goes against the spirits of academic practices and procedures followed for last more than seven decades in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. Since online education system is more preferred than the offline mode of teaching in the current era of digitisation equally in Jammu & Kashmir and other parts of the country, the teachers of both the Government and private schools are at liberty to hold online classes even during summer vacations for the purposes of increasing the teaching periods in the larger interests of the students. While the fact remains that unprecedented rise in the popularity of online coaching platform “Physics Walla” has hugely reduced the enrolments at offline coaching centres in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country, the shift to online mode of teaching during the summer vacations is more advisable than the routine class work in schools in larger academic interests of the students of both private and Government Schools.
As far as the decisions of summer and winter vacations for schools in Kashmir are concerned the weather itself defines the timing for the announcement of both summer and winter vacations. Administrative wisdom demands that health safety of students is accorded the highest priority in announcing both the summer and winter vacations. Though there was no scope for delaying the announcement of summer vacations in view of the unprecedented rise in temperatures across Kashmir and it’s further rise not rule out in coming weeks by the Meteorological department but at last the Government very wisely has not denied the students the much awaited summer vacations which were overdue to them and very rightly so.
As far as the demand of the representative body of private schools for consultations over the announcement of summer vacations is concerned, there is no scope for it in view of the fact that ground realities themselves speak about the conveniences of the people and Government always takes decisions for furthering the causes of bigger public conveniences without looking into the conveniences of private players. As far as the decisions of summer and winter vacations for schools in Kashmir are concerned the weather itself defines the timing for the announcement of both summer and winter vacations. Administrative wisdom demands that health safety of students is accorded the highest priority in announcing both the summer and winter vacations. Though there was no scope for delaying the announcement of summer vacations in view of the unprecedented rise in temperatures across Kashmir and it’s further rise not rule out in coming weeks by the Meteorological department but at last the Government very wisely has not denied the students the much awaited summer vacations which were overdue to them and very rightly so.
