Keeping schools open during winter in Kashmir, primarily to compensate the teaching days lost to summer unrest seems funny as annual exams have been held and results declared. However, if the decision is not a disaster for want of logistics, it can force a life style change in Valley. A Kashmir life report.
Perhaps the only innocuous victim of the summer unrest in Kashmir was the student. As authorities failed to break ice, it finally hit the school goer by invoking their right to get educated. The plan was first discussed at the Raj Bhawan and then approved by the MHA and finally it was the state government that tasked to implement it.
It gave the world one of the best news pictures from a conflict zone – a small school girl balancing herself while crossing a concertina wire barricade in an old city locality. The government policy forced a dent on the unrest but politicised one of the basic life activities involving the student.
And the crisis did not stop there. After the examinations were over, the government decided that the secondary and higher secondary schools shall remain open during winters. This was aimed at compensating the academic losses the students suffered due to the unrest. Since the students have completed their syllabus and passed their annual examination, the argument is being taken a joke. Many think the winter schooling is part of the preparations that the coalition government is making for 2011!
Officials are busy in implementing the directive. A middle rung officer said the winter schooling has started in 523 high schools and 272 higher secondary state run schools. Barring three higher secondary schools and around 60 of the high schools, the buildings are owned by the department. Around 245 thousand students are enrolled in these educational institutions.
“Under Rashtriya Madyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA), all these institutions have been provided with Rs 25,000 each to make the necessary arrangements,” the official, not authorized to speak to media, said. But the schools operating in rented buildings can not avail this. “Separately all the educational institutions have been asked to spend money on repairs of the buildings in case it was damaged in summer which will be reimbursed by debit to the Special Plan Assistance.” Under the plan drafted by the government in Jammu far away from the frosty Kashmir, every high school is entitled to six bukahri’s (coal heaters) and higher secondary schools can have eight. The government has asked them to opt for locally available fuel (coal, fuel wood or whatever) to keep the classrooms warm.
What about the schools that are operating in the private sector? The official says there are 330 high schools and 67 higher secondary schools operating which have a cumulative roll of 95000 students. He is not aware if the J&K government plans or actually has extended any financial help to enable them to manage winter schooling. The total exercise is going to cost the state exchequer Rs 5.80 crore.
But will these heaters that can consume up to eight kilograms of wood a day manage the situation? The task is huge and the plans of expenditure are so petty. Sonam Lotus, who heads the Srinagar Weather Centre predicts a harsh winter in Kashmir. “A weather phenomenon called La Lina is developing in the south pacific,” Lotus was quoted as saying. “Due to this it is expected that winters in Kashmir would be harsh compared to past two years.”
Reports from countryside suggest that the programme is being implemented with breach. One newspaper report from south Kashmir said there were two heaters operational in the higher secondary – one each in principal’s office and staff room!!
Reaction to the decision is already creating headlines. There were students on the roads protesting against the decision. These will grow as the mercury tumbles further with winters gaining severity in coming days. A lot of genuine issue are being raised that have remained unaddressed.
Ideally the state government should be indebted to the private schools for shouldering the responsibility of educating people. These offer better education and better facilities. Obviously the people pay for that. But for rudimentary measures like introducing winter schooling, they should get a special grant as well. Most of the private schools have taken loans from banks and have already pledged returns under different terms, and no financial institutions can finance additional investments at short notices.
They lack options, other than passing on the bill to the parents. An association of the schools have already gone public seeking support (read additional money) from parents for “running and maintaining schools during winter”. The so called elite schools did it without going public. The money they have charged from the students is already lying in their coffers. On an average a student will have to cough up an additional Rs 700 to Rs 1500 a month in addition to the tuition fees that they have already deposited for the next three months.
While the teachers in the state run institutions will get earned leave benefits for working in a period that they usually would sit at home, the teachers in private schools are not expected to get any additional benefit. Teachers in private schools are made to work a lot and paid paltry salaries as compared to government teachers.
Perhaps Delhi Public School in Srinagar is the only private school that has started its centrally heated system. Reports said the students have paid – upto Rs 700 a month. Even the teachers have been asked to contribute. All other schools including the missionary schools are yet to take a call on it. In fact, students of one of the so-called prominent school are routinely protesting against winter schooling.
“I told my daughter that she should tell her teachers to switch off the heater in the class room at least half an hour before the class work is over,” said Mohammad Yousuf, whose daughters are students of an uptown private school. “I was shocked when she said that heater is tall order, the windows of my classroom even lack glass panes and the students have asked for polythene sealing of the windows.” This was despite paying the mandatory Rs 500 a month.
Winter schooling will alter the way teachers and students would remain engaged. A number of students would not be able to move out. Teachers will have limitations to go to the tuition shops. Private coaching centres will have less business. Possibility of cold related morbidity will go up because of changing temperatures within and outside homes/schools.
A lot of female teachers whose husbands work in the government at influential positions and are used to moving to Jammu during winters will have to stay back in Srinagar. Well, if the Commissioner and Director Education – both female officers, manage to counter pressures that has already started building.
Even within the teaching fraternity, the initiative has triggered tensions. Teachers who teach the students up to the middle level will stay home and those tasked to teach the higher classes will have to be in the school. Feeble voices are there against the visible discrimination and there are no answers from the government.
Those teaching higher classes say they are overloaded as they are tasked to evaluate the question papers of various board examinations as well. In all the educational institutions there is a division between the two groups and a race for changing the time table is going on. Finally the headmaster and the principal seem to be yielding powers outside the classrooms as well!
Managing cold in classrooms in such a huge number of institutions at such a petty cost is a tall order. What will eventually happen, at least in the peripheral institutions, is that the students will contribute to create their own arrangements. It has happened in the past and it is destined to happen this time as well. Or simply the students and the teachers will enter into a deal and close the school!
For parents the most crucial question is whether their wards especially in the twelfth standard will get a proper education. It is a crucial year for them as most of the students make their career choices after class 12, especially in science streams who number around 75000. Usually they choose the best coaching centre and pay for the tuitions.
Invariably the students from the rural areas rent rooms in the city to study at these coaching centres. Most of the teachers in the higher secondary schools are non local. Can they make it deep into the villages and teach at a time when PWDs snow cutters get frost and sleep? With a frosty winter around, a smouldering smoky bukhari in the classroom and a reluctant teacher murmuring the lessons, can he or she make the best of the 76 days that is at the core of state’s policy making?
Winter schooling is nothing new. It was piloted for three successive years ending 1992-93. It did not create an impression that would make it a successful story. But what is the problem in experimenting again?
Life does not stop anywhere across the globe with winter and snow. Unlike Kashmir there are no infrastructural bottlenecks but let this season be used to identify the problems Kashmir society will face.
If the government ensures that winter schooling should be a success it still needs to have a very high powered group that will visit the schools and raise a demand for managing the basic requirements other than the tin bukharis that are being manufactured in Srinagar.
It must have a proper vigilance system and obviously it has to have coordination with the municipal and other developmental agencies which are responsible for keeping roads open. The government intends to spend less than six crore rupees to keep more than 1192 institutions (including the private schools) open involving 340 thousand students. It is a tall order. If it manages to keep them functional for 67 days and it requires Rs 100 crores, it is worthwhile to do that. But the planners in the government seem to be busy in penny business.
With the success of this experiment are linked a number of small economies, habits and styles. Less number of families will move out so they are unlikely to spend more, especially outside the valley. Teaching shops will face a bit of crisis and they will suffer for want of teachers and candidates. Markets will not report the routine grim situations as activity makes money move. More importantly, the people living in Kashmir will start thinking against winter being a lean season. That can have a huge impact on the way we live the life.
