SRINAGAR: Senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Education Minister Naeem Akhtar has strongly criticised the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE), alleging that it has been reduced to a centre of mismanagement and mediocrity, endangering the future of students.
Akhtar, in a statement, called for an immediate overhaul of JKBOSE, highlighting reports of administrative failures, including significant errors in textbooks. He cited the recent controversy where the word “State” was arbitrarily replaced with “UT” in textbooks, leading to absurd distortions. In a glaring example, even the phrase “State of Mind” was changed to “UT of Mind,” sparking ridicule and concern.
“What could have been dismissed as laughable is, in reality, deeply alarming. The future of our children is being handled by those who lack the basic academic competence to proofread the curriculum,” Akhtar said, urging Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to intervene.
The former minister also decried the chronic non-availability of textbooks, which has forced students to rely on second-hand materials. He said that even during the harshest regimes, education in Jammu and Kashmir never suffered such neglect and that the denial of proper learning resources was tantamount to denying students their right to education.
Akhtar also expressed outrage over the removal of cultural and literary icons from school curricula, including revered Kashmiri saint Sheikh-ul-Alam, as well as celebrated poets Allama Iqbal and Agha Shahid Ali. He said Sheikh-ul-Alam’s teachings embodied the essence of Kashmiri culture—tolerance, inclusivity, and love—and questioned what purpose could possibly be served by erasing such figures from textbooks.
Adding to the controversy, reports have emerged of fundamental errors in JKBOSE’s newly published Disaster Management and Road Safety Education textbook for tenth-standard students. A glaring example is a passage under the subheading Fainting and Losing Conscience, which itself is incorrectly phrased instead of Fainting and Losing Consciousness. The textbook defines unconsciousness as “a UT of the human body,” a bizarre and erroneous replacement of the word “state.” The reckless auto-replacement of “State” with “UT” has resulted in sentences such as “Fainting is a UT of human body” instead of “Fainting is a state of human body,” “This UT can lead to the death of the victim” instead of “This state can lead to the death of the victim,” and “UT of shock” instead of “State of shock.”
A parent, struggling to explain the garbled text to his child, said he had to consult Google and even ChatGPT before ultimately finding an older edition of the book. He questioned how so-called academicians could be so careless and asked whether this was what children were now being taught.
Akhtar further criticised JKBOSE’s decision to deny examination forms to students from a private school, calling it a heartless act. He said the institution may have lost its mind, but it should at least have a heart. He added that these young students had excelled in competitive exams despite all odds, and now they were being punished with bureaucratic indifference.
With examination season approaching, Akhtar urged the Chief Minister to take immediate action to restore credibility to the education system. He said the current board was unlikely to manage the exams smoothly and that a high-level review was imperative to ensure fairness and efficiency in the examination process.
Amid growing concerns over its credibility, JKBOSE continues to face accusations of academic negligence and a commercialised approach to education. Critics argue that its push to mandate the exclusive use of BOSE textbooks in all schools, including private institutions, is driven more by profit than by educational integrity.
