J&K is forcing exams, dooming careers and politicising education
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But the Jammu & Kashmir government believes that if "little" is replaced with "50 per cent", the dangerous will turn safe.
The government has literally applied this mantra for Class 10 and 12 students by reducing their syllabus to half for the upcoming annual Board exams.
Though the 50 per cent reduction in syllabus sounds like a discount offer, the government looks at this unusual relaxation beyond any stock-clearance scheme.
Unwilling to buy the pleas of schoolchildren that they are yet to complete even half of their syllabus due to months of unrest in the Valley, the government wants to go ahead with the final exams scheduled for this month.
Even as Kashmir is struggling to come out of its “worst ever” humanitarian crisis, which left at least 94 dead, over 15,000 wounded, and another 10,000 youth arrested, the government opines that the only way out is through Board exams.
This is being done at the cost of over one lakh students, whose career is at stake. In the age of cut-throat competition, even a fractional margin in the percentage of marks obtained can doom careers.
It can deprive a Class 10-qualified student of selection into an institution or stream of their choice; be it for admission in medical, non-medical, commerce or humanities stream. A mere 0.01 per cent less may even cause the candidate to fail.
For Class 12 students, the Boards are more challenging. And, it doesn’t need any rocket science to prove that these exams decide the prospects for one's admission to college. Preparation for competitive exams again finds roots in the syllabus for this higher secondary class.
But then, the government is reluctant to postpone the exams to March, something which is not uncommon in trouble-torn Kashmir. Many times in the past, the finals have been held in spring for varied reasons.
But why is the government concerned about the resumption of schooling alone? Is education confined to schools? What about higher education, which comprises of academic and technical colleges, and the universities, which are equally defunct in Kashmir?
Why aren’t educational activities being restored from the higher classes, when students are mature enough to find a way out? And what about an environment conducive for learning?
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| Around 10,000 youth have been arrested on charges of stone-pelting, and 5,000 are being hunted. (Photo credit: AP) |
Albert Einstein said: “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
The “conduciveness” of environment in Kashmir can be gauged from the fact that education minister, Naeem Akhter Andrabi has directed the additional Director General of Police, SP Vaid, to convert jail barracks into examination centres for detained students - around 10,000 have been arrested on charges of stone-pelting. According to a Greater Kashmir news report, a manhunt is on for another 5,000.
With no let-up in protests and strike calls by separatists, at least 30 schools were gutted in a mysterious blaze, and the police has failed to check the arson.
Amid this din over schooling, education seems to be having a different meaning for the government; CM Mehbooba Mufti appreciated the fact that she spent most of her college life relishing golguppas than studies.
She publicly disclosed this last month at a college function in Jammu. But then, not all students can afford to savour golguppas ahead of exams when roadside vendors are threatened by stone-pelters.
Though cracking jokes may add to the profile of politicians, politicising education will only mar the career of students.
There’s no substitute to education, nor can there ever be. But politicising the issue to give a rosy picture of the dire situation in Kashmir is demeaning.
If the situation is not feasible for bye-elections for the Parliament seat in south Kashmir, left vacant by Mehbooba once she took over as CM, how is the situation conducive for exams?
The ruling PDP-BJP coalition is being accused of taking the Board exams as an ego issue, where both Mehbooba and Akhter abandoned press conferences during the ongoing unrest to avoid questions on the multiple crises facing the state.
No one from the government is willing to answer how 14-year-old Insha Mushtaq, a pellet-blinded student, and many others like her will sit for the exams.
Away from schools and tuitions, due to the strike calls, how will students prepare for the exams when even the internet is not available, and nocturnal police raids leave them frightened?
But then, backed by the CM, the education minister is hell-bent on enforcing exams; Neem Hakim Khatrai Jaan!