Education policy, plight of J&K teachers in focus

Srinagar: A video addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a six-year-old Kashmiri girl appealing for a cap on the duration of online classes was followed by a policy change by the education department of Jammu and Kashmir to address the concerns of children. Earlier, a tragic incident shook Kashmir when a young boy ended his life as his father being a teacher was without salary for two years, along with hundreds of other teachers. Soon after his suicide, again the bureaucracy seemed to wake up and decided to release the salaries for 603 teachers whose salaries were withheld, including the father of this boy, who ended his life to get the attention of the government to their abject poverty.

In Kashmir valley, the families of 603 government school teachers who were not getting the salaries since 2019, got all the pending dues almost a week after the suicide by the son of a teacher whose salary was also withheld. After the week of his suicide, the government released Rs 33 crore to all these teachers to get their withheld salaries. These teachers have blamed the bureaucracy of Jammu and Kashmir for non-payment of salaries and have claimed that it took the life of the young boy to get the attention of higher-ups in the administration about the plight of these teachers.

It is in place to mention that the government has withheld the salaries either for the pending reports from the CID department for these teachers or due to some procedural delays.

The viral video of this six-year-old girl forced the Jammu and Kashmir administration to curtail online classes and it has raised now another storm from the stakeholders who have criticized the administration for changing the education policy on the basis of a viral video.

Jammu and Kashmir Education Chamber, an amalgam of all the private schools and coaching centers, told media in Srinagar that the government should roll back this curtailment of online classes and said that changes can be made only after proper consultation with experts and stakeholders.

PSAJK president Ghulam Nabi Var told in a press conference that the government has not amended the syllabus, but have only amended the online classes, thus making a mockery of their earlier education policy. He said that the latest cap on the online classes done by the bureaucracy after the viral video of this young girl would not be implemented unless they get feedback from the parents and will also consult many experts so that long-term goals and challenges are taken into consideration. “There should be some time for the kids to play as well. There are classes and after that homework,” Mahira, a six-year-old girl who became very famous told the visiting crews and journalists at her home.

In her one-minute video posted on twitter, she has appealed to PM Modi to ease the burden of homework on schoolchildren in Kashmir. Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, while directing his bureaucracy to cap online classes for the children, has described the video as a “very adorable complaint”. In the latest amendments to the earlier orders, the school education department of Kashmir, in its fresh guidelines, has limited daily online classes to half-an-hour for pre-primary students and 90 minutes for primary and middle classes.