In Kashmir, can politics be kept out of education

Teachers register migrant students from border villages at a government school on the outskirts of Jammu on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

Nazima Shah, an undergraduate student of Srinagar’s Moulana Azad Road Government Women’s College, was to appear in the second semester examination from July 19 this year. Seizing a two-week long summer vacation, she like other students was studying hard at home to prepare herself for the “trial”. But the Valley erupted following the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the Internet-savvy poster boy of militancy, on July 8. The unrest escalated with each passing day and there seems to be no end in sight to mayhem.

“88 days and still counting,” she said and complained that the Kashmir University has not notified even once for the pending exam. “Why aren’t the University authorities taking the issue seriously It is matter of two precious academic years of ours,” she said. “I and other students of my batch were supposed to finish our respective degrees by the end of 2017 but here we are still in our first year,” she said attributing the academic loss also to the 2014 floods in the Valley.

Ms Shah termed it “irreparable loss” and said that the Valley’s students are in a state of “bewilderment” which has greatly affected them psychologically.

The turbulence triggered by the killing of Wani and which has, so far, claimed the lives of more than 90 people, mostly in security forces’ firings and other actions, has thrown life completely out of gear in the Valley.

Though people, particularly the labouring class, are struggling hard to make both ends meet and majority of the Valley’s over seven million population seems to have learned to live in the prevailing circumstances, voices are being raised to keep education sector out of the purview of the separatists’ “protest calendar”. Chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, and the state’s education minister, Naeem Akhtar, have over the past couple of months repeatedly gone public with their fervent appeals to all stakeholders to allow schools to function. “It is the question of securing the future of our children. Politics must be kept out of education,” Ms Mufti said recently.

But the separatists differ and have questioned the government’s very right to show concern over the education becoming a casualty in the consequence of the ongoing unrest. “How can a government that presides over murder of children pretend to be their well-wisher ,” they asked.

The Valley’s schools and other educational institutions were already closed for summer vacations when Wani was along with two other militants killed in an encounter with the security forces in Kokernag area of southern Anantnag. The incident triggered widespread protests and, in first two days, as many as 21 people, mainly youth, were killed in security forces’ firing on protesters and stone-pelting mobs, augmenting anger and igniting more protests and violence in almost every nook and corner of the Valley.

As educational institutions like shops and other businesses and transport services remain shut since, the students have suffered enormous loss of studies. Almost 50 per cent syllabi remain uncovered, no practical classes could be held for the senior students and the term examinations had to be cancelled. Even final examinations of Class 10 and Class 12 have been deferred by two months and now scheduled to be conducted in November-December.

However, some elite schools including Delhi Public School managed to hold examinations for higher classes at makeshift centres. Also, junior students were provided with video lessons to enable them to complete syllabi while sitting at home. Many of those who could afford it have sent their wards to Jammu, Delhi and other places of convenience to continue their studies in congenial atmosphere. Back home, social groups and other concerned people have set up tuition centres in different localities including in private houses, madrasas attached to mohalla mosques and other accommodations where volunteers including college and university students are holding classes for students “free of cost”.

But the authorities have termed the “stop-gap arrangement” as “deficient” and “not a suitable way out or proper solution” to the crisis. Mr Akhtar has asked people to “seriously ponder over what is going to be the future of our children if they are forced to stay away from schools like this endlessly”. He asserted, “The history is witness that even during wars, major conflicts and extended agitations across the world, education was never allowed to get disrupted.” He also said that while the affluent class can afford to send their children outside the Valley for schooling, it is only the middle class and the poor whose children are being denied the right to education in Kashmir.

The issue was discussed at a meeting convened by governor, N.N. Vohra, at Raj Bhavan here recently. The meeting deliberated on possible steps that could be initiated to make educational institutions particularly schools in the Valley functional again. The governor expressed serious concern over the “irreparable damage” suffered by students at all levels, particularly school students from the closure of the entire educational system due to the unrest.

Mr Akhtar, accepted the governor’s suggestion that the departments of school and higher education shall work out a plan of action for every possible step being taken to make up for the loss of working days in the schools and regarding the schedules of the forthcoming examinations at all levels. Subsequently, schools in the areas which are dominated by security forces particularly in the border districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipore were opened and the local residents were “persuaded” to send their children to attend classes.

Also following a directive issued by Mr Akhtar, the J&K State Board of School Education (BOSE) announced to hold the annual examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 from third week of November. However, the decision has drawn flak from sections of the population including students who at places took to the streets to protest saying that the situation on the ground was not any encouraging for their appearing in examinations. They pointed out that dozens of students have been killed, hundreds blinded and maimed in shotgun pellet use by security forces and are lying in hospital beds and many others have been jailed on charge of being part of stone-pelting mobs. Some of these protests were, however, politically motivated apparently. “We are ready to sacrifice our future for freedom of Kashmir”, read a placard at a one of these protests. Another said, “No examinations till Kashmir issue is resolved.”

The alliance of key separatist leaders-Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik —which is spearheading the ongoing stir, too, has lashed out at the government’s plans to hold annual examinations of Class 10 and Class 12 from mid-November. It accused Mr Akhtar of wanting to help the state to continue with its “charade of normalcy” by conducting the examinations. “He should first create an enabling environment. On the contrary, he got the schools, colleges and universities occupied by the occupational forces. He cannot guarantee the safety and security of our beloved children who have been traumatised by the same forces across the state,” the alliance said in a statement here on Monday.

“This worthy and the most vocal in the hatchery of collaborators, in early 1990s, used to extol virtues of freedom through his write-ups under various pseudonyms and today he not only supports but is on the forefront of providing a shameless cover to the Indian brutalities by parroting frivolous assertions about education, ethics and society,” the statement alleged. Making a scathing attack on Mr Akhtar, it added, “He and other turncoats like him are today’s Mir Jafars, but they won’t stand for long before the sweep of truth coupled with people’s political consent”.

Taking a dig at the government’s repeated announcements of conducting exams and opening schools, the separatists asked, “How dare they lecture us on the virtues of education and its importance to our future How wicked are these Indian stooges to feign sympathy for the future of our children Their brutal conduct during the past three months has blown their cover of deception. Also whatever they peddle as concern is their confusion about education and literacy.”

Ms Shah begs for a “quick way out” and asks “How will the University authorities conduct examinations of five left semesters in a span of one year ”. Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a professor on international law and human rights at the Kashmir University, acknowledges her concern but blames the state authorities for using education as a political tool. “We’ve seen that the candidates’ appearance in medical and other professional examinations and those held by the UPSC recently were seized and shown as a sign of the situation returning to normal and local population’s rejection of the resistance movement. For this official media and also some private TV channels were used by the government which complicated the issue,” he said. “Who is politicising education ” he asked but was optimistic about the Kashmiri students coping with the difficult situation and proving their mettle “as they did in the heyday of insurgency”.