The career of many of the students arrested on charges of stone pelting has been marred as most of them are unable to sit for their annual examinations.
Students arrested on charges of stone pelting during the four months of unrest in the valley, languishing in various jails and lock ups are probably witnessing the worst phase in their academic career. The uncertainty of future and losing one full academic year is becoming a matter of great concern for all of them.
For 15 year old Harris Rashid, who had to appear in his 9th grade exam this year, life has suddenly changed. He will now have to appear with his juniors for the same exam, the next year. “He wasn’t arrested while stone pelting. He had gone to buy bread in the morning, during the deal hours. The police just caught hold of him and bundled him into their vehicle,” said his mother, Posha Begum.
“We pleaded with the station house officer (police officer) to let him appear in the examination, but he wouldn’t listen. The exam starts at 9.30 in the morning and at the police station we were let in by 11.30, so the exams would have been over by then,” said Posha.
All the students detained on the charges of stone pelting are in the crucial stage of their careers. But the students who are to appear in their 10th and 12th board exams are certainly in the decisive stage of their academic careers.
Most of the parents whose children have either been released a few days before the examination or who are still under police custody are very worried about their future. “I am apprehensive whether he will pass the exams. He was released just a few days before exams,” said a father on the basis on anonymity, whose son was arrested on charges of stone pelting.
Life for Asif Nisar, 17, a student of class 11th is no different. His parents say he was arrested while he had gone out to meet his friend and booked on charges of stone pelting. “He was arrested on 17th of September outside his house in the old city,” said his mother.
The family of Asif has been requesting the police to bring him to the central jail in Srinagar where he could at least appear in the exams at his school which is also in the down town area of Srinagar city.
An application letter send by the board officials to the central Jail Kupwara has however, helped Asif to sit in the exams in the jail premises but that’s just not sufficient. “The jails officials allowed us to send him books, but I can’t say how much can he study and concentrate. He has appeared in one of his papers but he has been harassed during the exams also,” said his cousin, wishing anonymity.
“I am only worried about his academic year. It’s not a joke to lose one academic year. If the police bring him to the Srinagar central jail, It would be at least better,” said Asif’s mother. Though, a positive change was evident from the behaviour of the police towards the alleged stone pelters, who were in the detention and constantly missing school lectures and private tuitions.
As per the official reports, the Station house officer of one of the police stations in the down town area of Srinagar was also allowing books to students whose exams were approaching. According to the sources the SHO was himself tutoring the students. This trend however, didn’t last long or wasn’t followed at other police stations in the valley.
“I was in detention for some time and no books were allowed in the lock up. I am trying to make most of my time. But I am not sure about passing with good marks,” said Tauseef Ahmed Bhat, 18, a student of Class 12.
The reopening of classes after an almost five months of shut down was seen as a good step by all the sections of the society. This was done keeping in view the career of students. Though, now it seems some students have not been so lucky.
“We have released all the students who were involved in stone pelting prior to the cabinet committee meeting,” said the Inspector of Police, Kashmir division, S M Sahai.
The 8-point proposal given by the Government of India, to address the unrest in Kashmir also includes the release of stone pelters. However, the students arrested for stone pelting may lose one full academic year, till situation in the valley gets better. The police is of the view that none of the students in the police detention were prevented from taking their exams.
“Nobody was prevented from taking exams. May be some of the students don’t want to take exams and they are accusing the police of not allowing them to sit in exams,” said Sahai. “When we arrest people on charges of stone pelting, we don’t know whether they are students,” he said.
Relaxing Exam schedule
This Board of School Education, and Kashmir University have relaxed the schedule and pattern for exams in view of the prolonged summer unrest which devoured most of the schooling session. Students have been given freedom to choose from a whole range of questions given to them in the exam papers.
The BOSE officials say that this year there has been no relaxation in the syllabus. “We have not given any relaxation in the syllabus. We have just given a wider choice in the question papers. We have widened the vertical and horizontal choice given in the papers every year,” said Secretary board of school education, Dr Sheikh Bashir Ahmed.
This relaxation, officials say, has been given in order to save the career of thousands of students who lost about four months of their academic session.
“There is a wider choice in the exams. This year the BOSE has set up papers in a way that only those who have read the whole chapter can do well,” said Irja Haroon, a student of 10th class.
“In the exam halls there is no leniency whatsoever. The wider choice in the examination has made it easy to prepare for the exams after losing so much time to curfews and shutdowns in the valley,” Irja said.
“I prepared only 50% of the syllabus. Due to wider choice in the examination, it was easy for me and I did well. The paper wasn’t too tough either,” said a student of Commerce, Tauseef Bhat.
There have however been very few cases of copying in the board exams this year say the board officials. The exams should be fair and transparent, the board officials say.
“We send vigilance teams, cross vigilance teams and other law enforcement agencies to monitor the examination. The district administration and the police also help in keeping a check,” Sheikh Bashir said.
In order to check the interference from public, Section 144 is also imposed outside the exam centers. “If some people resort to unfair means we have a different rule for punishment. We have also been educating the students against the use of unfair means through print and broadcast media,” Bashir said.
Exams of the candidates who have not been able to sit in the examinations due to unavoidable circumstances in the valley would be held separately after scrutinizing the reason behind it. “If any student is not able to sit in examination, we first see the reason behind it and if the reason is solid and logical and beyond the control of the student we re-examine them,” he said.
We always believe in student friendly action, the official said.
The University of Kashmir has also changed the pattern of the exams this year. For all the students doing bachelors in various courses, the combined paper has come as a surprise.
“We will have combined papers. Just one paper for both botany A and B and same way for chemistry and zoology. If a student wants to just pass the exams, he/ she can prepare just 50 percent of the total syllabus,” said a student of Bsc 2nd year at Women’s college M. A road, who didn’t wish to be named.
