While a debate is going on about extending or not the summer vacations in schools given the undying heat-wave, the bigger picture is being missed by most of the debaters and that is our educational infrastructure. True, this summer Kashmir recorded some extreme heat, it hasn’t happened many times, it may or may not happen in future but the chronic issue that faces our academic calendar is the harsh winter. During winters, our schools are closed for months due to these weather conditions. However, Kashmir is not the only place in world that has harsh winters, there are so many others. Take, for instance, Canada, during winters, temperatures are too low compared to Kashmir but the schools close down just for two weeks. The question is that why, given a bit increase or decrease in temperatures, Kashmiri parents demand vacations?
Reason is simple, our schools are not meant for either heat or cold wave. These are just structures, built randomly to accommodate as much students as possible. Majority of the schools, both government as well as private, lack even the very basic facilities. How many schools here have access to pure drinking water? How many schools have proper electricity connection? How many schools have fans of air conditioning or any other way of keeping class rooms cool during heat wave and warm during chill?
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When the Education Minister of J&K says that academic calendar can’t be mended in accordance to every day temperatures, she is right. Students have to complete the syllabus in a given timeframe. But the question is, Ms Minister, is education so important that parents would risk the well being of their children. Most of your school buildings are in dilapidated conditions, window panes are missing, roof-tops are dripping, there is no drinking water available and still you want small children to sizzle in these ovens during rising temperatures and freeze during winters.
Fact of the matter is that the education has never been a priority for any government in Jammu and Kashmir. The respective governments, as vote-bank politics, have had been ordering up-gradation of schools, creation of colleagues in the past, however, after decades, the infrastructure of these schools has not been upgraded. And as for as newly created colleges are concerned, most of these have very limited faculties.
The problem with the governments, that be, here has been that while making policies about schools and education, they fail to take on board the academic experts, teachers and fail to appreciate the issues that students are facing in the lack of basic facilities in the schools. A bureaucrat, sitting in a cozy room decides when schools should open and when these should be shut. And irony is that the children of these “top officials” don’t study in these government schools. The educational setup is rotting and therefore, Ms Minister, visit the schools in rural and fa flung areas, see the condition of school buildings and other infrastructure, gather a team of experts and come up with a plan to make our schools all weather schools.
