Srinagar, Dec 29: The students of Kashmir valley were yet to overcome the academic losses suffered post abrogation of Article-370 in 2019, the outbreak of COVID-19 in March-2020 proved to be a double-whammy for them.
From online classes- on low-speed internet- to tele and radio classes, the students of Kashmir complained of lagging far behind in comparison with the students of other states of India.
The students told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that though pandemic led to the closure of educational institutes across India, but among all the students, Kashmiris were the most hit as they couldn’t attend and understand all the lectures being conducted online on a low speed internet.
“The students of other states were continuously attending the online classes, however, the students of Kashmir valley barely could understand the online lectures being conducted at school and higher secondary level. Most of the time, the online video lectures were buffering because of the low speed internet,” the students said.
Meanwhile, the teachers at government-run-school said that in this academic year, less than 20 regular academic activities were held.
“Due to the non-availability of high-speed internet, the students of both government as well as private schools couldn’t get the education they deserve,” they said.
Another student said that in the name of tele and radio classes, “it was a mockery of quality education”.
“The education department had made a mockery of the tele and radio classes. The mechanism devised by the department was a sheer failure, no student benefited by these classes,” he said.
Another teacher said, “In this academic year (2020), besides online classes, only 15-20 academic classes were held following the re-opening of schools after winter vacations in the last week of February-2020.”
Officials at School Education Department told KNO that it has successfully compensated the academic losses suffered by the students.
“In the backdrop of COVID-19 outbreak, the School Education Department has conducted teleclasses and radio classes to compensate and complete the syllabi of the students,” the official said.
An official said that the online classes were also conducted and in case the students were inaccessible to online or teleclasses, the students were provided with study material and assignments.
In the meantime, another student said that in the academic year 2019, less than fifty per cent of educational activities were held in colleges and schools of Kashmir following the abrogation of Article-370 in August 2019.
The officials of school and higher education departments said that in the previous academic year, the educational establishments were supposed to remain functional for at least 180 days but less than 100 academic days were held.
In the beginning of the academic year 2019, the schools and colleges re-opened on March-16 following the winter vacation of more than three months from December-6-2018 to March 16-2019 and on August-04 all establishments were closed.
The educational institutes in Kashmir Valley in the year 2019 witnessed at least 10 days of public holidays, 21 Sundays, 10 days of summer vacation and 70 days of winter vacation—(KNO)
