by Samreena Nazir
SRINAGAR: The authorities on Tuesday ordered the coaching centres across the Kashmir to remain shut till January 27. This sent loads of students home who were living in hostels and as paying guests to manage the academic deficit.
This has added yet another precious week to the academic loss, aggrieved students said. They said that it was a deliberate abnormality being enforced in Kashmir under the garb of security.
“Yesterday a Rakshak vehicle made rounds throughout Parraypora, announcing official orders regarding the closure of coaching centres till January 27,” a group of NEET aspirants told Kashmir Life.
“Few officials from Sader police station visited our coaching center yesterday with an order to keep the coaching centre closed from tomorrow,” said Mohammad Umar, who runs the Commercian coaching Centre, Parraypora. This upmarket locality is the main coaching hub, which, off late is solely dependent on this new economy. Tens of thousands of students are enrolled in these coaching centres.
The trend was not Srinagar specific. Coaching centres in Kupwara and Anantnag were also asked to close. “We didn’t receive any official orders, but we heard about some notifications and some orders given to the coaching centres in Srinagar,” an executive of the NASA Educational Anantnag, said. “We have closed our coaching centre like all other coaching centres around.”
A student from Anantnag studying at Target PMT in Srinagar told Kashmir Life: “The coordinator of the coaching centre told us that following government orders regarding the security issues, the coaching centre will remain closed till January 27. Although the hostels are open but our parents insisted us to come home as the situation in Kashmir is unpredictable.”
The student was actually carrying her bagful of books and clothes and was waiting for a bus ride home.
Private School Association leader, Ghulam Nabi Var is angry. “Due to situations post August 5, which affected every section of the society, the operations in schools remained suspended,” Var said. “These coaching centres provided an alternative for the students and apparently everything was going smooth, to everyone’s surprise there were no student protest reported from anywhere, but the harassment from district administration and police, ordering the closure of coaching centres is totally unfair.”
“We are unable to understand why government is doing this, due to such orders running a coaching centre has become a crime, the coaching centre owners in Kashmir are insecure as they are made to suffer every now and then. We request the government not to politicize education,” Var added.
SSP Srinagar Dr Haseeb Mughal told Kashmir Life over phone that they have not issued any formal order regarding the closure of coaching centres. These may have been closed by the owners of centres due to security checking ahead of January 26 functions, he added.
