Exams to be on time, Valley schools stare at academic losses of students

SRINAGAR: While the state administration is not showing any indications to postpone the annual examinations to be held next month, even as several of its attempts to make schools in the Valley fully operational have failed repeatedly.
Some schools in the Valley have found a way around the protest-shutdown against the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status by holding early-morning classes for students to minimize academic losses before exams but the overall picture looks very gloomy.
School in the valley were closed on 5th August, the day centre abrogated special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into Union Territories.
However, primary, middle, high schools and higher secondary were reopened by the administration in phased manners. While the teaching staff in both government and private schools report to work, the students have largely stayed away.
The latest attempt by the government was last week when Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Baseer Khan announced that schools will reopen on October 3 while colleges will function from October 9. However, the schools have remained closed till date, giving no hope of reopening of colleges on Wednesday.
The schools exams in Kashmir are held in October-end and November and the dates are announced by Board of School Education.
Advisor Farooq Khan has repeatedly appealed to the parents to send their children to schools and said there were no plans to change the exam dates.
"The exams will be held on time," said Khan on more than one occasion.
The private as well as the government schools have started holding internal practice examination of students thereby preparing grounds for the annual exams in the valley.
Many government schools have reportedly informed the concerned teachers and zonal authorities to reach out to the students, while as the private school through advertisement in local newspapers are informing pupils about internal exams.
“The department is adamant to hold annual regular exams of class 10th and 12th students from last or third week of November for which the schools need to complete internal practical exams,” the official said.
“Last week, students in most of the schools were appearing in internal exams and in some government schools the students of higher secondary classes were given assignments for the internal practical exams,” an official added.
He added that the department has informed all the private schools to complete the internal practical exams of class 10th to 12th students to complete the conduct of internal exams.
Recently, the divisional administration stated that the higher secondary schools will reopen from 3rd October and in most of the schools- private and government schools, students were seen appearing internal exams.
“We opened the schools but the students do not turn up. We cannot force them, but on our side we are taking all initiatives so that the students do not suffer,” the official said.
The official further said that the annual exam of class XI is likely to start from second week of November. And, the dates will be decided soon and students will be informed in advance so that they get an ample time to prepare. Moreover, the exercise for paper setting and evaluation has already been started by BOSE.
He added that the exercise for paper setting and evaluation has already been started by BOSE. “We have informed the directorate to provide manpower for evaluation which will start in last week of this month and will continue till November,” the official said.
Meanwhile, some schools in the Valley have found a way around the protest-shutdown by holding early-morning classes for students to minimize academic losses before exams.
The children, sans the uniform, in Sebdan area of Budgam district put school bags on their backs and walk to a house where their teachers wait to impart lessons that need to be covered before the final examinations.
"We have been holding special classes in this house, instead of the school building, to help students cover the syllabus for the current academic year," Mohammad Abid, a teacher at the local private school, told.
The 'new school', as it is called by the students, operates from 8.00 am to 11.00 am everyday before the kids return to the safety of their homes.
Bashir Ahmad, father of an 8th standard student, is waiting for his son outside the makeshift school to ensure that his son goes back straight to home.
There are several other schools in Sebdan and nearby Bemina which follow the same routine to ensure that the protest-shutdown, which entered the 65th day on Tuesday, does not severely affect the education of the kids.
In some areas of Srinagar city, community schools have come up, where teachers have volunteered to teach students in their respective areas irrespective of the schools they come from.
One such school is functioning in Sarai Bala area but the community school organisers refused to talk about the initiative.

Updated On 10/9/2019 9:21:28 AM