Srinagar, April 9: Stating that education was one of the institutions that make up the social structure of any society, CPI (M) leader and MLA Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami Monday urged leadership cutting across political ideologies to come together so that precious time of students in Kashmir isn’t wasted due to the prevailing situation.
In a statement issued to press here he said apart from loss of human lives which is irreparable, painful loss of precious academic days of students due to strikes, clashes and curfews is the second biggest loss. Precious academic days have been already lost in the current academic session which in long run will result in our students remaining behind in competitive exams.
“We have a short academic session in Kashmir already which is further shrunk by public holidays, strike calls and curfews. If you combine the number of shutdown calls, curfews, public holidays, winter and summer vacations, educational institutions in Kashmir remain open for less than 150 days,” he said.
Tarigami stressed that education remains an indispensable social institution and a single most potent tool of development around the globe. “Can’t all of us think to find and devise some mechanism so that education doesn’t suffer due to the ongoing unrest? Leadership cutting across political ideologies should come together and find a solution so that students don’t have to suffer for no fault of theirs”, he said adding there are several examples in world, where despite wars, unrest and other problems, leadership ensured that education doesn’t suffer.
Asking leadership to arrive on a consensus so that educational institutions are kept away from any unrest, Tarigami said: “This will need the highest degree of political maturity, strong feeling for a social commitment and support from the executive and mass awareness about the superiority education over all other affairs”.
