The Srinagar administration on Tuesday decided to organise televised classes for the thousands of students forced to stay at home following the outbreak of COVID-19.
“All the heads of departments and educational institutions are directed to submit proposals for televised coaching and classes by March 20. These efforts should be supported and financed by the district administration, Srinagar,” District Magistrate, Srinagar, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said.
J&K has closed all educational institutes, including schools and colleges, due to measures imposed to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, from March 11 to March 31.
Prolonged pause
The closure of these educational institutes has only added to the prolonged pause the education system here has faced since August 5, 2019, when the Centre revoked J&K’s special status. In the past 280 days (eight months), the Kashmir valley has witnessed just 20 days of classwork, the longest ever.
Many parents and authorities of the schools have asked the J&K administration to resume the suspended high-speed 4G Internet on mobile phones so that students can access video classes online.
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“Be it curfews, post-August situation or now coronavirus scare, our children have been denied education for the last more than seven months. Online education could have considerably compensated for the losses faced by children but unfortunately, the government is not in a mood to relent or even acknowledge it,” said Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) president G. N. Var.
Internet needed
Demanding restoration of 4G Internet, Mr. Var said, “For coaching, training and education, high-speed Internet connectivity is must. If the government doesn’t want to darken the future of our younger generation, it must restore Internet connectivity immediately.”
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The newly-floated Jammu-Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari has also urged the Union Home Minister to restore high-speed mobile Internet “in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling”.
“Since all schools, colleges and universities are closed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, millions of students are missing classes, creating an unparalleled disruption in education for the region. It has posed a serious challenge to our children to cope up with their counterparts elsewhere in the country, who enjoy all other educational facilities, including high-speed mobile Internet,” Mr. Bukhari said.
Around 13 lakh students are enrolled in the Kashmir region up to Class XII, and hundreds are enrolled in around three varsities.
