“Forcing the students and teachers to sit in the classrooms for examination in freezing temperatures after December 15 would be tantamount to putting the lives of children at risk”
Undoubtedly it is very difficult for the schools to hold annual examinations at short notice in the backdrop of the Government decision on restoration of November-December academic session in Kashmir Valley but this does not give Director School Education Kashmir a license to prolong the examinations beyond December 15 in view of the fact that chilling cold of winter forces Government to shut valley schools from Mid December till February end annually. Forcing the students and teachers to sit in the classrooms for examination in freezing temperatures after December 15 would be tantamount to putting the lives of children at risk given the fact that schools in valley are not equipped with the adequate heating facilities and more so in semi urban and rural areas of Kashmir Valley. Though it has been a decades old practice that school heads are given the liberty to fix timing for the annual examinations excepting 8th, 10th, 11th and 12 class examinations which are conducted by J&K Board of School Education but this year the Directorate Of School Education Kashmir has surprisingly in contravention of the past practice of over seven decades imposed its own calendar on school heads without taking into view the inconveniences different schools may face at different times in conducting the upcoming annual examinations in mid December. Now even if a uniform examination calendar was a compulsion for the Directorate of School Education Kashmir for completing the annual examinations in Mid December this year, the delays and deferments of the examination schedules by Director School Education Kashmir would obviously increase the vulnerability of the schools children to dithering cold of mid December.
“The rising concerns of both the parents and as well as the students necessitate immediate attention and intervention of both the Education Minister and as well as Principal Secretary School Education on frequent scheduling and rescheduling of the examination calendar for middle and lower middle classes by the Director School Education Kashmir. It is ultimately for Minister School Education and the Principal Secretary School Education to ensure that bureaucratic ego come in the way of smooth conduct of examinations before December 15 in schools across Kashmir.”
After all examinations come next to health and it is not at all advisable to defer and delay the examinations week after week only to prolong the completion of the examination exercise which would ultimately bring children under physical stress in classrooms in the freezing temperatures from mid December onwards. The rising concerns of both the parents and as well as the students necessitate immediate attention and intervention of both the Education Minister and as well as Principal Secretary School Education on frequent scheduling and rescheduling of the examination calendar for middle and lower middle classes by the Director School Education Kashmir. It is ultimately for Minister School Education and the Principal Secretary School Education to ensure that bureaucratic ego come in the way of smooth conduct of examinations before December 15 in schools across Kashmir.
