Iftikhar Rashid Wani
Education commission (1964-66) in its report states that “the destiny of India is now being shaped in her classrooms. It is true that the students of a country are its soul, its spirit and its life. The greatness of any Nation at any given time depends upon its student, because a child is born with skill that enables him to function in his particular role. It is the school that teaches the child his/her particular role in the society and duties that go with him”. Currently we are running a number of schemes which are meant to have zero percent dropout rates in our society. Even now we have legal protection for a child to get free and compulsory education from the government.
We are optimistic when our directorate of school education Kashmir achieved one lake new enrolments. We celebrated that with much fun and fare. Most of the students adieu goodbye to private schools to get quality education from government schools. The government of India also took some brave steps trying to safeguard the schooling and their utmost priority was to keep our schools open. The students in the age groups of 15-18 were asked to get vaccinated. Schools were directed to achieve the target however it was the enthusiasm of students who took the shots voluntarily with only the hope to continue their schooling. The process was sailing smoothly for most of the time. Government schools were adamant to achieve the cent percent target of vaccination for their students. Meanwhile Government of Jammu and Kashmir also announced free winter coaching and winter camps for every class from 15th December 2021 at designated schools.
The decision of the Government to announce winter coaching and winter camps for all classes was a blessing for the student community. As per the reports there was 100 percent enrollment for this free winter coaching. Students were provided with the best faculty and all the infrastructural facilities were provided to them free of cost. Everything was going on as per the plan and every stallholder was trying its best to get the desired results and to fulfill the mission of the government of Jammu and Kashmir but unfortunately Covid 19 struck again. The emergence of omicron and other various mutants of the virus had halted life. While no one was prepared this time for the pandemic that hit the world and our country again in the form 3rd wave, it again forced us to close everything. The COVID era is responsible for generating negative impacts on every field of life not only in our country but across the globe.
These are responsible for generating tectonic shifts in several domains. The educational sector is one of them. With forced lockdowns, stay at home and being safe being the norm, the educational sector is witnessing diminishing progress in every parameter. The education system just like the past became the most disrupted sector. It is beyond any iota that disruption of the educational system and its impact on future generations is irreversible. The loss can never be compensated. Particularly in Jammu and Kashmir where we lack the infrastructure and the alternatives education system will never be pre Covid 19 period. Now Schools are closed and classes have been suspended. Since our education system is dominated by classroom study, the present scenario has made the functioning of the educational institutions very difficult. All educational activities like examinations, school admissions, entrance tests are being held during this period. As the days are passing by with no immediate solution to stop this outbreak, the closure of schools and universities is hugely affecting the learning across the country including our state.
The structure of our education system i.e. learning methodology, teaching techniques & assessment methodologies, is quite affected, resulting in a shift to online education with most focus on virtual education to accomplish the set aims and objectives. But only a handful of schools and universities could adopt such methods and the low-income private and government schools are quite disorganized to adopt the same, thus resulting in a complete educational shutdown, I wonder what the future of our students is. Particularly in rural areas where most of the students have limited or no internet access and many students may not be able to afford computers, laptops or supporting mobile phones in their homes. The lockdown has hit the poor students very hard as most of them are unable to explore online learning according to various reports. But where there is will there is way I am hopeful that this stage will not remain permanently. As we have already achieved a considerable percentage of vaccination to our students and the government has permitted the gathering of 25 persons why cannot we operate the schools with twenty five students of a particular class on a particular day with full CAB. We can prepare the teaching learning material and distribute it among the students. Parents have a great role in keeping their children focused. The illiterate parents can take the help of teachers of their own locality. Everybody has a responsibility for mitigation of miseries, let us be resolute to fight the pandemic at community level, together we can defeat the corna and make it possible to have routine and normal schooling once again in near future.
Author is Lecturer at Govt. Higher Secondary School Mantrigam Bandipora and can be reached at iftikar.wani@gmail.com
