Parents anxious as admin considers keeping schools open beyond December 15

Parents anxious as admin considers keeping schools open beyond December 15

Kashmir divisional commissioner Pandurang K Pole on Monday said that the administration intends to keep schools open beyond December 15 if there wasn’t heavy snowfall in the valley.

The director of school education Tasaduq Hussain Mir also expressed similar views on Sunday. The announcement has exacerbated the anxieties of parents and children as educational institutions lack heating arrangements in the valley, and temperatures have already started going below zero degrees Celsius in many places. The valley witnessed widespread rains and snowfall in higher reaches this week, and the administration also announced eight-hour scheduled power cuts from Tuesday.

Pole told media persons that school work was expected to continue at least till December 15. “Normally, there are chances of schools functioning till mid-December, but it is all dependent on nature. Maybe it can extend beyond December 15. If there is no heavy snowfall, the schools will remain open,” he said.

Every year, the government announces winter vacation from the first or second week of December for schools, while colleges would close in the last week of December till February end. But this year, the government wants to keep schools open till the end of December, or till the time there isn’t heavy snowfall.

Like last month, the director of school education on Sunday again reiterated that they were hoping to keep schools open till the weather permits. Pole said whatever we observe every year, the same thing will happen this year. There is nothing different.

“Every year when there is heavy snowfall in the city or plains, only then schools are closed,” Pole said adding, “Director of school education has made it clear that it will depend on the weather. It happens every year. There is nothing new in this.”

Parents, however, are anxious after the announcement. Khurshid Khwaja, president of the parents’ association of private schools, said that keeping schools open in harsh winter without any infrastructural facilities for heating was meaningless. “The syllabus has been completed. Our exams are now in the March session. What is the need to keep schools open in sub-zero temperatures? Our children should not suffer,” Khwaja said.

“There are no heating facilities in the government as well as the majority of the private schools. The officers sitting in the air-conditioned rooms should check hundreds of schools across the valley are without proper doors and windows,” he said.

He said that the administration has become habitual in taking decisions without consulting the stakeholders in such issues. “They took decisions like uniform academic calendar shifting exams to March session and now, the delay in winter vacations. Why aren’t parents consulted,” he asked.

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