Maintaining that a generation of Kashmiri youth can’t be kept away from education for too long, the Minister for Education, Mr Naeem Akhtar today sought the support of different sections of the society, including the separatist leadership, in restarting the schooling.“While all of us are anguished over the loss of precious lives of youth and grievous injuries during recent disturbances, we have to think about that for how long we can keep our children away from schools amid present paining situation,” Mr Akhtar said in his message on Teachers’ Day being observed today.The Minister said unfortunately education has become the biggest casualty of the prevailing unrest and “it is our collective responsibility to think over the terrible consequences of the loss of education of our children.” He said like drinking water, rations, electricity and other basic amenities of life, education is fundamental to the very existence of a society, and every right-thinking person in Kashmir including the separatist leadership shall have to seriously think over the issue, before it is too late to recoup the academic massive loss.
The Minister said while the Kashmir’s affluent class has already started shifting their children outside the State for education, it is the middle class and the poor whose children are losing out on education because of the prevailing situation.Hailing the teachers of Jammu and Kashmir for facilitating massive turnaround in the State’s educational sector during the past 2 years, the Minister said due credit goes to the teaching community for bringing this turnaround and the need of the hour is to keep this momentum going so that J&K’s youth cam compete with their counterparts from anywhere in and outside the country.The Minister said that a new training programme has been launched for the teachers today which will further sharpen their academic skills to the benefit of the students.