The Private Schools United Front (PSUF) has severely criticized the government decision of postponing all examinations in the Kashmir valley.In a statement issued to GNS, the front said that despite only a small proportion of schools getting affected, government has put in jeopardy the academic year of all the students. “90 percent of school students and 80 percent of all college students remained unaffected during these floods, but government has en masse postponed all the exams,” G N Var, general secretary PSUF said. “This is sheer injustice for the entire student community.”
The front claimed that by the end of August all schools had almost finished their syllabus. “The syllabus was completed and two term exams were also conducted, so now was the time for exams only,” Var said while advocating a different approach to deal with the situation. “There were other options like conducting symbolic exams or considering performance in previous terms for class promotion.”The front accused the government of taking up a politically motivated decision to benefit just few schools. “There are some so called elite schools which were destroyed in these floods and to accommodate them, they have simply sacrificed the time and effort of lakhs of poor students,” Var said. “It was a one sided political decision and government never consulted any other stake holder like any school association or the parents body.”The front said that by postponing the exams the government has literally rendered all the schools defunct. “As of now we have finished the entire syllabus at our schools and this government decision has rendered us without any work,” Var said. “It is better government simply shuts down all educational institutes in the valley as now we have nothing to do at the premises.”
The front said that the schools are not entirely against the decision but it lacks a rationale. “Our October session already creates problems for our students and they can’t compete in various exams like JEE,” Var said. “Now if government would have decided that October session will be replaced with March-April session permanently, then it makes some sense and we may agree.” The front said that due to this policy, the current academic session of students would be lost and the next session of students would be very short thus affecting them two ways. Var also asked for making semester system mandatory for various classes mandatory from next session to remove the anomaly, which hinders the progress of Kashmiri students.The front asked government to come clean on the decision. “They cannot treat a Nursery Student at par with University students, sanity demands some change,” Var said. “If they won’t modify the decision to accommodate our concerns then we will approach high court and we have ample evidence to prove our point,” it threatened. (GNS)