Education is an evolving activity, so is the art of teaching and creation of educational infrastructure, tools and methods. R S Gull visits an upcoming initiative that is out of box from the first stone laid two years back

Mubashir and Tauseef inside the school.

Ever since he graduated in electronics engineering from Bangalore’s Gousia College in 1994, Mubashir Aslam Wafaie has not only grown his beard. After a bit of trading, he quietly jumped into education sector and created his own space. But what is remarkable is his continuous experimentation with the new ideas.

In 2004 he set up Oasis, a cruche’ that evolved into a chain. Two years later, he brought Aloha into Kashmir and now, for the last three years, he is into a new initiative: The Foundation Trust that will run the Foundation World School, a Rs 46 crore initiative that offers a “world class” education from kindergarten to twelfth. This fall, it begins, what Mubashir says, its ‘organic growth’ by admitting 400 kids up to UKG level.

“Investing and earning is just a routine,” Mubashir says, “But what is different in this project is that it is completely out-of-box from creation of infrastructure, to the curriculum and even selecting the faculty.”

Tawseef  Lone and Mubashir Wafaie

The initiative involves lot many people and almost eight crore rupees in the first stage. But it does not involve the bank. The infrastructure is owned by Aspire EduInfra Pvt Ltd, a company that engineer Tauseef A Lone heads. With an 11-year exposure in raising critical telecom infrastructure, Lone set up the company dedicated to the creation of educational infrastructure only, and offered shareholding to a number of people on basis of staggered returns. “This project has investment from 18 individuals and the company has built the infrastructure strictly on basis of the requirements a kids school requires,” Lone said. “We will hand over the infrastructure to The Foundation Trust (that Mubashir heads) and it will run the school on basis of an agreement.” Mubashir says the agreement is a long term one and may cross a minimum of two decades.

Lone hopes the investors should get their money back within eight years and then it depends on them whether they continue with the initiative or divest.

Infrastructure is impressive. Spread over 5 kanals of land on the Airport Road, it has a built-up area of 15400 sq ft, fully air-conditioned, a swimming pool, skating, cycling ring on the rooftop, wall-climbing and indoor sports area of 2600 sq ft. It even has an animal corner to help kids relate with life directly and not through TV.

For the curriculum, the Trust approached Cambridge International Examination, a non-profit of UK’s Cambridge that has 600 of Indian schools on its list of 10,000 schools across the world but none from Kashmir.

Ms Yasmine (centre) with the teachers she selected.

Selecting school head was a heady task. It failed to get the leader the managers desired and then eventually located Ms Ben M’lah Yasmine in Belgium using Skype. A psychologist with specialization in education and psychomotricity and keen interest in Kinesiology, Ms Yasmine is the daughter of a Tunasian father and British mother. She married a Raj Bagh hospitality professional in February 2012 and was shuttling between Europe and Srinagar to manage her mental health clientelé. “It was a tough process to be where I am,” Ms Yasmine said. “But it was an idea that I liked and joined.”

Ben m’lah Yasimne

During her stay in Kashmir for so many years, Ms Yasmine has found very intelligent students “who write their examinations in English but are unable to speak the language!” This, she says is because the emphasis is mere memorization. “The fundamental difference that our curriculum will make is that we will not consider a kid a student who has to start acquiring education at a time when he or she requires developing social, emotional, language, cognitive and physical skills,” Ms Yasmine said. “This system of education helps us use application based techniques to make him learn voluntarily than by making him memorize.”

“For me, more difficult was to identify and recruit the teachers,” the principal, officially called Dean, said. “We got 650 applications and we selected 96 of them, got them into six groups for serious discussions on teaching and eventually identified 17 of whom six proved the best. We appointed four of them.”

The school has already acquired some GPS-fitted buses but it has taken some conscious decisions to stay away from the crowd. “We will take candidates from a radius of 7 kms and there is no examination at all – it has to be first come first admit basis,” Mubashir says. “We will encourage parents to send lunch boxes for their kids but will prevent any junk by giving them healthy menu.”

Mubashir says the entire set up is expensive and the costs will obviously go to the parents. Admitting a ward in this school may cross Rs 100 thousand. Asked that makes the initiatives a facility for elites, Mubashir says they have decided to compensate by taking 10 percent of the overall enrolment from underprivileged sections of the society. But they are yet to evolve a system that will govern that process. “It will be transparent and clean,” Mubashir insists. In addition, we are keen to take-up at least one government primary school to extend our system of education there.

With opening of new schools and mid-session transfers banned, Education Ministry is grappling with the ReTs, some of whom might have entered the system undeservingly. But the government will have to create new milestones to get its educational set up back on rails and monitor and encourage the private sector, reports Bilal Handoo

Far from the clamour raised by Rehbar-e-Taleem’s on city streets, education minister Naeem Akhtar is a sombre man sitting in his official bungalow on Srinagar’s power road, the Gupkar, attending an array of people. His lawn is dotted with people holding papers, documents and files. They have trekked miles to reach.

Among them is a retired Inspector General of Police holding a file, insisting for transferring his nearest kin. His request faces a polite refusal: “Mid-term transfers are banned and transfer industry is dead.” To another visitor Akhter says no new school can be opened. “But a possibility of a school closing in your vicinity can be located if there is a viability.”

II

But on face of facts, figures and features, the education mess, argue experts, is beyond a tough stand on transfers and halting the mushrooming of government schools. For them, the worrying trend in education remains the existing multi-level filtration through which students are made to pass annually. The end product of this filtration process finally takes refuge at state-run schools, breeding mediocrity, and perpetuating the same cycle.

It all starts with the first filter, full of zip, at the upper strata of society constituted by moneyed men known to send their children into elite schools to avail ‘quality’ education. “This is where education suffers from the first discriminatory shot,” believes Zubair Bhat, a senior private teacher. “This is not to say that such schools shouldn’t be there, but to say, it creates a vain competition among parents, who camp outside such schools for nights to secure entry form.” In the stage-II, they pay to get their kids in. “But then nobody questions this trend,” continues Bhat. “We seem to have made a perfect peace with it.”

This Govt teacher subjecting his students at his own service.

Those not getting in the so called A-category, chooses the B-category and then the local Mohalla private schools. This is where the third filter comes into play. Those who fail to afford these three levels end up in Government School, forming fourth level. “So, the equation is clear,” says Bhat. “We are feeding the government schools with the residue of three-tier filtration.” Such students from low-income, illiterate and often disturbed family backgrounds need exceptionally great teaching to help them recover and make the best of it.

Since mainly lowest strata of society ends up availing government schooling, at least in the urban and sub-urban Kashmir, an invisible societal stigma is attached to it. There is a way out to end this stigma: Let every official, bureaucrat, minister and government officials send at least one of their kids in such schools. The quality of education could improve. But when former Panthers Party’s legislator Harsh Dev Singh brought a private members bill making it mandatory for all government officials to get their wards admitted in state-run school, he was scoffed at by his own colleagues in state assembly. Fundamental rights were invoked to oppose Singh’s idea! Later as Education Minister, he wrote many DO letters to various private schools to secure admission of his dear ones.

III

The lawmakers might disagree to agree on certain issue, but they can’t brush aside the fact – that other than life expectancy and income, education is an indicator of human development index, a measure of well being of the society. The importance of education, therefore, needs no reiteration. In Kashmir, the education is usually mapped and measured by literacy rate.

But J&K’s literacy scenario in no secret – in 2001, JK was 4th from the bottom when compared with Indian states and the situation improved only marginally in 2011 when state’s position changed to 6th, from the bottom.

Cops taking class of students in Police Station, Talwara, Jammu.

Between 2001 and 2011, the literacy rate increased from 55.50 to 68.74 per cent but it continues to be below the 74.04 per cent, which is average Indian percentage. For this, the state blames on curriculum stagnation, paucity of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and uninterrupted recruitments.

However, to keep checks and cross-checks on education, the state has a juggernaut of an education department – the knowledge delivery system. It boasts of 143103 teaching staff, supported by 16668 non-teaching staff in a network of 24265 schools with cumulative enrolment of 16.68 lakh.

Even then, in the last 5 years, very few students from the Govt Schools have made it to the merit lists. For example, in Jammu province, only 4 persons in Class 10th summer zone figured in top 20.

IV

For this poor performance, the blame was also put on the two-level existing assessment system at class 10th and 12th. The commentators call it an “educational toothache”, which hurts the whole system through its waxing and waning rhythmic pangs.

“Till the time a child reaches class 9th and 10th,” says Mubashir Khan, a High School Govt teacher, “they are being bypassed from assessment. Once such student steps in Class 10, he is usually a tabula rasa (clean slate).” And to write on this “clean slate”, Khan says, a sword of Damocles often hangs over teacher’s head. “If the teacher fails to produce 33 pass percentage in his Class 10th,” says Khan, “he faces punitive action, including explanation and suspension.”

What Khan perhaps won’t tell for the fear of reprisals is: the assessment-free educational journey of a student from primary to secondary level is responsible for his overall ‘personality rot’. “That’s why in America and Europe,” he continues, “the major focus remains on primary schooling which, unfortunately, is being toyed in Kashmir.” Somebody asked the late APJ Abul Kalam, the former Indian President who recently passed away, Khan says, “How can we achieve corruption free society?” The missile man of India known for his vision 2020 had replied: “Only two persons can help us to achieve that – one parents and second, the primary school teacher.”

But in Kashmir (known for its massive corruption), Khan says, the primary school teachers even skip usual teaching. “And then they hide their incompetence and lethargy through tailor-made cent percent results, only to stay in the race of getting the best teacher’s award.” This truism indeed seems a serious dent to the official slogan: Our mission is to educate, employ and empower.

Interestingly, all this is happening in the society that 2011 census says is fairly young. The decadal data mining exercise reveals that the state has 2.01 lakh children below 6 years, while its 12.56 per cent populace is in the age group of 6-18 years. In other words, the census says, Kashmiri society is but youthful.

But often failing to ‘catch them young’, the youthful populace becomes the part of crisis by triggering alarming school dropout rate, believed to be the bedrock of educational mess.

A multi-factorial trigger, including poor school infrastructure, no toilet facility, running school from rented rooms and poor family background is apparently fuelling this trend. The recent survey suggesting 38 per cent state-run schools lack drinking water facilities, while 26 per cent lack toilets perhaps leaves nothing for imagination.

“In Srinagar, mostly children of labourers and cart-pullers study in government schools,” Khan, the teacher, claims. “Some of these children are disturbed. And if sent to study inside rented rooms with no school-type feeling, they end up wrapping up their study.”

Statistics only support this assertion. From class 5th to 6th, the official figures say, the dropout rate is 6.24 per cent (against 4.67 per cent prevalent across India) and from class 8th to 9th, it is 5.24 per cent (against 3.13 per cent throughout India). Besides the survey Talaash conducted by the state in 2012-13 (the last known survey conducted in JK) makes this mess even more clear. Its finding says: 59061 children were out of school.

And since then, Khan believes, the number is only rising.

V

To revamp the education, the previous Omar regime had set up an expert group in 2013 to pave way to Education Policy, which continues to be stalled. Prof AG Madhosh, noted educationist and member of the group, had taken a serious note of school dropout rate at primary and middle levels.

“Schools have the best of the faculty but drop in enrolment is a serious concern,” he says. “Government rather than finding a solution to it is chasing after private schools.” The expert Group had observed little despotism, and lot of corruption in the education system.

Prof Madhosh, who himself runs many schools, says the expert Group had also recommended a set of reformative measures, including reconstruction of syllabus, change of examination system and inclusion of Kashmir history. But the recommendations were never implemented thus making the mockery of the whole exercise.

“Higher education in the state is a big mess,” he says. “If you want a corruption free society, quality-based productive endeavours you must encourage a focused privatization in education.”

VI

It is no secret that Kashmir prefers private schools known for their accountability and responsibility over government schools. Between 2008 and 2012, private schools admitted 621035 new enrolments (means 50.41 per cent students). To secure admissions in private schools, people are even ready to pay lakhs of rupees as admission fee besides hefty monthly fee. Even then, the much-talked about mess in private schooling remains the peanut salary being fed to teachers – even after putting up gruelling work hours.

A picture from Jammu region wherein students were forced by teachers to ferry logs of wood.

Bulk of private admissions were done in Kashmir (57.68 percent) followed by Jammu (39.65 percent) and Ladakh (percent), as per the last census. Notably, students go for private schooling without caring for free lunches, free text books and free scholarships offered by government schools.

Sensing the same societal importance attached to private schooling, the present dispensation has called for formulating joint inspection system of JKBOSE and the School Education Department for recognition and affiliation of private institutions. A single window clearance system is being proposed to put in place to help ease the process of recognition for such schools.

This apparent shift of focus has set off speculations around with many saying: even government doesn’t seem to have much hope on state-run schools.

VII

But to give a desperate breakthrough to state-run education by addressing the prevailing mess, Akhtar visited JKBOSE’s Bemina head office lately. It was after 12 years that any minister was inside BOSE, a key institution. In that grilling session lasting for hours, he left the board members red-faced by pinpointed a goof up in textbook that oddly states: “Water from all natural sources is impure!” Like a tough headmaster, the minister tabled some hard facts before the board. Their incompetence was assertive enough from their dropped heads.

Education Minister Naeem Akhtar with Class 10 topper in South Kashmir’s Tral.

In that BOSE meeting, the minister eventually altered the mood when he asked officials to make textbooks available to students in digital format on official web portal for easy accessibility. But many fear that the proposal might not heal the board’s Achilles Heel, which remains its poor progress card. Result of the past few years in fact show that government schools pass percentage averages around 50 percent while that of private school is about 20 to 25 percent higher.

VIII

This poor result exist inspite of the fact the state allocating annual budget of more than Rs 6,000 crore for education.

Other noticeable mess in education remains its zero pass percentage—26 such schools only exist in Jammu. Many such schools running inside the abandoned kitchens and bedrooms rented out by people were approved by governments to generate employment. But of late, complains are piling up revealing how these schools manned by daughters or spouses of bureaucrats have turned into mere gossip and backbiting centres.

The mess often peaks public imagination and triggers loath when certain unpleasant instances unfold. In many cases, teachers were caught napping in their classrooms. Some were caught on camera forcing students to massage them, while a few were seen taken out by their teachers as labourers.

Though such instances are only a few, but they do cut a sorry figure for state-run schools, where, as per the unequal teacher-student ratio, not many are turning up with their satchels and lunchboxes.

IX

And now with the introduction of screening test, the discourse on state education is back to rhythm. While some ReT teachers facing the test argue, “society always needs a devil to curse and this time, it has chosen a teacher,” the experts say teachers must face the test to prove their skills. It is not a humiliation, they argue, as is being perceived by some. “Rather it is the easiest way to stay alive in completion.”

A picture taken in 1955 around Srinagar city.

For most of these teachers, primary and secondary education is still an area to excel upon. Many say the present posturing of these levels of education is equivalent to a disaster. “I found most of the students of these levels quite genius,” says Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a RTI activist, who teaches at Budgam government school for three days a week. “If imparted with proper teaching, they can excel like anything.”

Teachers must make their class interesting, he says, which will eventually motivate them to be regular in their classes. “Otherwise if subjected to dull teaching sessions,” he says, “such students who mostly hail from illiterate backgrounds won’t feel for their studies. And hence, they end up severing their educational ties.” With education suffering from multiple fronts, the mess it seems won’t be an easy task for state to clear.

X

At his official residence, a countryside man with henna-dyed beard hands over a paper to the state education minister. While scanning the document, the minister breaks into a deep smile, “so, you too have come with fake certificate of some teacher?” The man walks out and the minister asks his public relations officer nearby to put the certificate on a pile of documents resting at the corner of his office.

Before another person steps in, the minister breaks into a monologue: “Quite a mess to deal with…”

For best education, lot of students seek admissions in Western universities. Some get scholarships and most of them approach banks for educational loans. Muntaha Hafizi visits the sector that had Rs 283 crore outstanding in June 2015

Students writing papers in Entrance Examinations to professinal colleges of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar on Saturday26, June 2010.
photo by bilal bahadur

After completing her high secondary from Kashmir, Anna, 29, made her tracks abroad. She wanted to study law from a foreign university, a passion since her teens.

The course fee at the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, where Anna had applied was Rs 44 lakhs. After managing most of it on her own Anna fell short of Rs 7 lakhs. “I didn’t want to lose this chance. So I took education loan for my admission from a bank,” says Anna.

In 2012, Anna graduated from the university, with a very different take on the education loans.

“It seemed more difficult than a housing loan. Last time the bank withdrew Rs 50,000 from my father’s account, without any prior notice,” says Anna.

Anna’s dad was her co-borrower when she opted for the loan. Every applicant who applies for a loan up to Rs 10 lakh, needs to have a co-borrower, who acts as a guarantor to the applicant. If the amount exceeds Rs 10 lakh, a mortgage is kept as a security.

Anna, however, complains that despite successfully completing her moratorium period, she is facing a lot of trouble. Moratorium period (time between course period and repayment), often lasts for maximum 12 months, where simple interest is paid, after which repayment of principal amount starts which is for 7 years maximum.

“I wouldn’t recommend anybody to take education loan in Kashmir, if its prospectus didn’t improve. It’s very different than what they advertise,” says Anna.

Anna currently works as a Human resource executive at Bharti Airtel telecommunications. She got her job after 2 years of her degree. Prior to that she worked at other random places. “I didn’t get a proper job instantly, so repayment was a big trouble,” says Anna.

Financing ones education through a loan needs a slow and a well planned consideration. Anna couldn’t recover the amount with ease, but there are many who have been successful in repayment of the loan taken.

“I took a loan of Rs 2 lakh, and I had pre-planned how to pay back, so in a couple of months I repaid. And it depends on your financial condition,” says Saquib Murtaza.

Saquib is currently working as an accountant in state government. A gold medallist from SKUAST, Saqib aspired to undertake Master’s in Forestry from University of Huddersfield, UK. “I received an 85 percent scholarship on my Rs 11 lakh fee, because I was a topper,” says Murtaza.

For the remaining Rs 3 lakh Murtaza applied for an education loan. After applying for a loan, he had to wait for a couple of months to get it sanctioned. He laments on how the system has turned bureaucratic.

“I had to look for someone influential to get my loan sanctioned. It’s your status that matters to them, not your intelligence,” says Murtaza. He adds laughing, “Nothing happens without recommendation in Kashmir.”

Murtaza had to wait for a month, to know the status of his loan. However, after a proper recommendation, he was helped in a couple of days.

“They say, apply and we will come to your homes. It hardly happens, and if it does, it’s for those who are economically sound,” says Murtaza.

This idea of “Banks will be at your doorstep” varies across different banks in Kashmir.

“We don’t deny loan to any student who meets all the parameters. Despite of their financial status, we extend loans to them,” explains a branch head of J&K Bank.

The basic documents required for the student loan is an admission letter, fee structure of the college, a guarantor and the basic certificates (D.O.B, state subject, last exam passed).

However, there are banks, whose first preference is to gauge the employment potential of the student.  Fearing default, certain banks are reluctant to extend loans to the students.

“There are cases where interest is not paid in between the moratorium period. And bank has to suffer a huge loss,” says Muzaffar Ahmad, manager, State Bank of India (SBI).

If the monthly amount is not paid in 90 days, the bank classifies it as NPA (a non performing asset,) wherefrom a proper inquiry is held.

“We give loan as per a priority list. We have classified our priority list in three sections: A – For IIT’s, B – NIT’s, and C – other. We do a proper assessment to see where our money could stay secure, and where could the chances of placement be high,” says Muzaffar Ahmad. “We don’t provide any loan for any sort of donations, it’s only meant for admissions.”

Whereas SBI provides education loan at 13.2 percent interest rate, it is 11.5 percent in J&K Bank’s case. The rate of interest varies across different banks.

SLBC each year forms a credit plan which all banks have to follow. There are branches which have not yet received a single application for the education loan.

“We started since last year but nobody came as such. So it’s difficult to achieve the target of Rs 37 lakhs for his year,” says Muzaffar Ahmad.

Education falls in priority sector but strict rules for liquidation and less awareness, has barred banks to meet their set targets, and has led to poor performance of banks under education sector.

Besides, to strength Monitoring Information System (MIS), education sector is now appearing under both Priority as well as non-priority Sector with specified ceiling, since March 2013.

The table shows that there has been a decline in both, financial as well as physical terms in education sector. As per the SLBC report, the advances to Small Enterprises sector dominate the priority sector, with the lowest share going to Education Sector since last 5 years.

“Students are less aware about the education loan. This is marketing for us, why won’t we give loan,” says Roohi, an Associate Executive, loan sector, JK Bank.

Multiple consultancies work in Kashmir, to help students get aware of the education loan and recruit them abroad.

“We help them with scholarships, and to consult banks in case they opt for an education loan. For 30 percent of the total amount taken, they get a maximum of 15 year period to repay the amount,” says Runum Mir, a consultancy head.

As per her survey, in Kashmir, almost 50 percent of students opt for education loan to get an admission in Masters Degree at a foreign university.

Not aware of special schemes, in education loans, students as well as banks are at a loss.

SLBC in its previous meetings observed that despite high appetite and zero rate of rejection of cases the education sector is not picking up and needs serious introspection, and banks need to give wide publicity by highlighting the salient features of the schemes among the general masses of the State so that the benefits of these schemes gets Percolated to various sections of the society.

“I didn’t know about the special schemes provided on education loans. I think it would have been a little easier for me to repay,” says Nighat.

Nighat, 23, is doing her master’s from SKAUST. Coming from an economically weak section, she had opted for a loan of Rs 2 lakhs.  “They told me that I would have to give the principal amount after I get a job, but now they are taking both interest as well as the loan amount,” says Rumaisa. “It was better if I had asked a relative or a friend.”

For girls like Rumaisa, 11.5 percent interest rate is too much to pay. Even the girl child scheme that extends loan on 11 percent interest is too lofty for underprivileged and downtrodden.

“’I appeal that there is a relaxation, so that students like me who are on their own could pursue their studies without stress,” says Nighat.

However, for students with disabilities, banks have pledged to provide loans at an interest rate of 3.5 – 4 percent per annum, wherefrom they can either pursue their studies in India, or abroad.

Faculties at SKUAST-K are up in arms against the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, who even after completing his tenure of five years seems unmoved. With the impasse over the proposed move of certain divisions to Wadora seemingly deepening, Syed Asma reports the raging controversy

Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural of Sciences and Technology – Kashmir (SKUAST-K), a leading institution for promoting agricultural research and creation of human resource to cater to the needs of the farmers has lately seen some hiccups in its functioning.

Though, being one of the oldest institutions in whole of North India, infrastructural deficit has over the years severely mired its developmental avenues.

The first campus of SKUAST emerged in Wadora, Sopore in 1960 as an agriculture College primarily for producing agricultural graduates. In 1982, the state legislature through an act upgraded it to a university with its headquarters at Shalimar campus. With the establishment of campus at Shalimar, “entire attention was transferred to the new campus and thus Wadora got neglected,” opines an old faculty member of the varsity. The campus at Wadora remained restricted to the undergraduate courses only.

In the last fifty years nothing much was put in place at Wadora and it still gives an archaic look. “The campus lacks basic research facilities even for undergraduate students, not to talk of advanced research,” said a lab attendant.

Lately a group of master’s students at the campus required an autoclave – basic lab equipment, and interestingly, they were given a kitchen pressure cooker! “Can you imagine? This is the infrastructure we are studying in. What do you expect us to learn,” says an undergraduate student with a satirical smile.

But now the university administration for past few years is trying to change the set-up and improve the infrastructure, claims Dr Tej Pratap, the Vice Chancellor of the University.

Dr Pratap has completed his five year tenure in June, 2015 and a search committee constituted has recommended names of eligible candidates for the post of Vice-Chancellor and Dr Pratap is one of them.

However, the faculty of several divisions of the institution rubbished VC’s claims and alleged that Prof Pratap has brought in disrepute to the institution. The professors further claimed that Prof Pratap has managed his appointment in the institution in the first place and is again lobbying hard for the second term.

“Even after completing his tenure of five years, Prof Pratap is still enjoying his office and nobody in the authorities show any concern,” said the professors, wishing not to be named.

 “Moreover,” the group adds, “rules were flouted during the appointment of Prof Pratap as VC who has received an honorary professorship in Tibet, while as the persons eligible for the post should have served as professor for ten years.”

Dr Tej Pratab

The proposed move of Prof Pratab to shift the departments of Agronomy and, Plant Breeding and Genetics to Wadora has been halted by a status quo order by the High Court, under a writ petition filed by some professors.

In spite of the directions from state High Court on any shifting, Dr Pratap has asked the entire faculty of Agriculture to shift to the campus of Wadora, alleged the faculty members.

It includes the Masters and PhD courses registered in the division of Agronomy and Plant Breeding and Genetics. Its undergraduate course already exists there.

The masters and Phd students of Agronomy and Plant Breeding and Genetics claimed that “they are pursuing their courses smoothly and conveniently at Shalimar campus and there is no sense in shifting them to a place that is not more than a primary school.”

Dr Pratap before joining SKUAST – K has been VC for two terms at a university in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh.

“I am not an academician; I am an expert in capacity building. Some of my friends found me fit for the post of a VC in these universities and I found it interesting,” Dr Pratap says with a smile. “So, I am here.”

Dr Pratap is academically an ecologist. He has done his PhD in ecology and for 13 years has worked in an international centre for development of mountain areas as mountain agriculture development expert. The centre is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. “We in the centre were supposed to work in several countries on international development projects and policy research. My major work is in China, I have worked in Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Myanmar,” says Dr Pratap.

As Dr Pratap started talking about his work in the mountainous areas across globe, it was difficult to stop him. “I for ten years studied China and learnt different programs and technologies that are in vogue there,” Dr Pratap says.

Dr Pratap may not have been a professor for ten years, as is required by the post of a Vice Chancellor, but he has a rich resume` to be an administrator, believes his fans in the campus.

In the last five years, Prof Pratap claims to have put in place many measures for the development of the institution. In the first place, the ICAR noted that 35 percent of the faculty members were non-PhD, which was “hampering the growth of the university”. Besides, faculty of horticulture was not accredited, because it did not exist anywhere.

“I took strong notice of both the things and made my plan of action,” asserts the VC.

He says with “due consent of the board” he changed the rules. He claims to have allowed more than 100 faculty members to take the advantage of study leave to complete their Phds.

Besides, the most difficult decision that the VC had to implement, as he says, is of establishing five different campuses – Horticulture in Shalimar, Agriculture in Wadora, Veterinary in Shuhama, Fisheries in Rangil and Forestry in Banihama. The last two were established afresh. So far, the VC has “spent almost Rs 200 Crore on improving the infrastructure” of the five different campuses.

“I am not afraid of taking chances. If this university has to grow, a few decisions are to be taken necessarily. Establishing different faculties in separate campuses is one of them,” says the VC. “This is the only way this university can grow.”

Besides, establishing the university in a proper way, a few interesting researches have been done. One of them is growing vegetables during winters in Nyoma Ladakh and growing Mushki Budji in Kashmir. Mushki Budji has helped the farmers to earn in crores last year, the VC informs.

“This is my success, I believe. This is the first and the last time, perhaps I am in Kashmir. I had to fight much negativity to work here!” concludes the VC.

From once a premier address for seeking knowledge in Srinagar DAV School is struggling to survive the onslaught of time, mismanagement and politics. The latest one being sale of one of its campus illegally by the management. Syed Asma reports

DAV Jawaharnagar, Srinagar.

Located in the heart of busy Jawahar Nagar colony the edifice of Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) School is a misfit.

The flood soaked walls, abandoned playground, locked classrooms, negate everything that once made this 70-year-old school a premier hub of education particularly for minorities in Kashmir. It gave a good fight to the missionary schools in the Valley.

Run under the patronage of Arya Samaj, Lahore till 1947, and later from Delhi, it was not September 2014 floods that ravaged DAV school. The institute is fighting a much larger battle for its survival.

The story of its fall from glory begins with the prelude of guns in Kashmir.

In 1989, after Pandits, who oversaw the functioning of DAV’s all three branches: Jawahar Nagar, Magarmal Bagh and Wazir Bagh, left Kashmir for Jammu, the roles tumbled from 6 thousand to just five students within days!

In early 1990s, three campuses, like any other edifice belonging to minority, were occupied by Indian forces. But after a few months, the staff members, mostly Muslims and Sikh, led by the Principal Shugufta Haqani, pressurized the authorities and successfully made forces to vacate at least two of their campuses. But Wazir Bagh still remained occupied.

In 1990, after a few months of occupation, Shugufta resumed work in two campuses – Jawaharnagar and Magarmal bagh.

“I tried hard to safe guard all the assets and made every effort to maintain the status of the institution,” says Shugufta .

Though, she admits, the number of students never reached thousands as it used to be, but she has a list of her achievements.

“In almost eight years, we increased the number of students to 500 and raised a bank balance to Rs 10 lakh.”

The amount included the yearly fees of the students and the government grant of a few lakh rupees from time to time. For almost eight years, Shugufta single-handedly managed both the campuses without any support from the schools management or from the minority community.

In 1998, as the sound of bullets were sporadic in the city, the migrant Pandits started visiting valley again.

The members of the managing committee who had migrated during early 90s, says Shugufta, too showed up.

Suddenly the management led by T K Ganjoo started visiting the campus on and off. By 2000, they frequented the campus, eventually taking control of schools affairs. “They withdrew Rs 10 lakh from institution’s bank account and sold off 23 kanals of land in Alluchi Bagh,” says Shugufta. “They used the sum to renovate Magarmal Bagh campus and finally sold it off.”

The sale of land snowballed into a major controversy soon.  Interestingly the Magarmal Bagh campus property sold by the management is constructed on the state land.

Shugufta Haqani (on the extreme right), sitting with her staff members

During on-spot inspection by Dr Shah Faesal, director education, along with DC Srinagar it was found that the plot on which school is located is actually state property. Instantly education department suspended the management of the DAV Institute.

“The moment we came to know it is a state land,” says Shah Faesal, “And it has undergone a sale deed. We shifted the custody of land to Tehsildar and transferred the case to the vigilance department.”

“Going by the details we received so far. The land deed is illegal and a proper investigation will take place soon.”

He assures that they are trying to save it from the shackles of land mafia and other controversies. “I assume we will start the new admissions process soon.”

The controversy has a context and is more than two-decades old. It dates back to 1984 when principal R K Gunjoo retired and R N Kaul took over. “Kaul was selected through a fair process,” staff members of the DAV school remember, presently spending their time in the haunted campus of Jawahar Nagar.

But Kaul’s appointment triggered a controversy.  Gunjoo is remembered, by his staff, as the best administrator DAV has ever got. But they add, during his tenure, he recruited some of his relatives in the school, though all well-qualified, remembers Shugufta. Shugufta joined DAV as teacher in 1984 and is Kaul’s successor.

Kaul’s appointment gave rise to two groups, one supporting him and another one loyalists of Gunjoos. Eventually both the parties went to court, suspending the school management. The court gave an interim arrangement of two judges who would take care of the institution. They were given the charge of DDO.

Till 1989, the school didn’t lose its charm and fought decently with its internal conflicts.

After 1984’s court case, the management was suspended and five years later, mass migration of Pandits took place. The school was orphaned! A few Muslim and Sikh teachers managed the school that had a few students left.

For some time, the judges acted as DDOs, the powers were later shifted to the CEO Srinagar. The arrangement with CEO lasted till 2013 and the management headed by T K Ganjoo, son of R K Gunjoo.

And in 2007, the sale deed of Magarmal Bagh campus took place. The staff members accuse the suspended management led by Gunjoo (Jr) of having a deal with some land mafia.

“I have a reason to accuse them and they designed the conspiracy in such a way that it is difficult to believe they did it,” Shugufta, who was well-versed with the development.

Shugufta claims that the staff knew about management’s plan of selling the schools property, and even tried to stop them. But the deal was finalized during winter break when the school was officially closed, says Shugufta.

“By the time, we came to know, the sale deed was done and the things, desks and chairs, were thrown in the campus of Wazir bagh. They did not even handover the official records,” she recalls.

Countering the argument, Davinder Kaul, presently secretary of the suspended management, says, “We didn’t renovate it. It was a rented building. We just renovate its outer wall and a bit inside. Nothing much!”

And on repeated questioning, he says, “We were a suspended management in 2007 (when the Magarmal Bagh campus was sold) and the institution was then run by the CEO, kindly ask him. I have no knowledge.”

While narrating the story, Shugufta gets emotional, loses temper and says, “they ruined a reputed institution for money. They successfully sold one of the campuses but I will not let them do the same to the campus in Jawahar Nagar. I will do whatever I can!”

After 2013, when the court cancelled the management’s suspension and they joined back, everything seemed to get back on track for a few months, says Shugufta, “but in early 2014, they started hampering our work and did not even release our salaries. What made things worse was September floods 2014.”

 After the floods the school is yet to re-open. The students were given discharge certificates and the staff was shot a notice that the school has been closed till further orders.

“One fine morning we came to the school and saw a notice on the board, that the school has been closed,” says a Sikh teacher who lives nearby and has been serving the institution for more than two years. “Our salary for past year at least is due and they are not even responding to our calls and demands.”

While the staff members were discussing their grievances among themselves, Davinder Kaul shows up at the school with a smile. “What’s the issue? We have pasted a notice outside and are following that.”

“What about our salaries?” asks the Sikh teacher. “We will be fulfilling whatever we promised,” replies Kaul and leaves the room.

In a moment, he is surrounded by all the staff members narrating their concerns.

Kaul didn’t waste time in argument, he looks at them sternly, and left with a smile. “See you,” he said with a smile.

He had perhaps come after knowing that a reporter has landed in the campus and is enquiring about things, the staff apprehended.

The explanation for closing down the school is that until SMC allows them to build a concrete wall around the campus, they won’t re-open the school.

The school presently has an iron fence and it has been so since 1969. When asked why the fencing had suddenly become unsafe for the students, Ganjoo Jr replies “it is all about perception”.

“Perception of being safe? From animals?”

He replies, “I need to assure the safety of minority community.”

“You mean, you are apprehensive of getting attacked?”

“Yes there is a possibility. I told you, it is all perception. I have my own perception.”

Shugufta responds sarcastically, “How can we have suddenly become prone to attacks when this school managed to survive peak militancy era of 90s.”

She concludes, “They are looking for reasons not to restart the school.”

Concerned about the quality of education given to Valley students, three Kashmir University engineering students put a question mark on government decision to ban private teaching by public sector teachers

Students writing papers in Common Entrance Examinations to get seats in professional colleges of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar on Saturday 26, June 2010. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

Being part of the same crowd of vulnerable and uncertain student community that flocks the tuition centers and people who provide tuitions and after experiencing the miseries of this, we always aspired for this system to be accommodative to the student concerns besides, ensuring student friendly functioning and accountability.

All these thoughts used to cross our minds during our pre-college days and finally we joined a new phase and giving way to new class of vulnerable and dreamful masses, experiencing the same journey and nothing changed except the tuition fee souring new heights and tuition centers turning it into big enterprise.

Finally, the government woke up and little changes were initiated in 2013 and after that we had a change in government itself and this issue appeared to have been brought to the Centre stage with various new and innovative initiatives being suggested.

All this gave flip to our hopes and we were optimistic that some substantial changes would take place in the way our educational sector functions. A year has passed since then, new promises hitting the dailies every second day but nothing substantial has been achieved yet, except for more frequent inspections to the schools and tuition hubs which is a welcome step but far less than what people and particularly students aspire for.

Instead government seems to be more serious about barring the public sector teachers from giving private tuitions even during non-school hours than ensuring the basic requirements of curriculum are met. To make this issue even more complex, the government clubbed this with the already complex and intricate issue of unemployment by suggesting that instead of these teachers providing tuitions, they envisaged a system where government teachers would be replaced  by the selected youth from the unemployed masses capable of delivering the service, who would be selected through proper examination in order to ensure  higher benchmarks and quality education but this idea, as revolutionary as it may seem is simply impractical unless there are structural and behavioural changes which if history is to bear testimony takes ages altogether.

First if we look at the coaching centers and the way these have evolved over these years, we will find the basic reason for their rise is either the falling standard of education in our schools or the parents’ desire to make their kids learn more than what formal class rooms offer. Based on ensuring these dual needs, coaching centers and private tuition centers emerged.

Subsequently, it became a very competitive affair with some finest minds of our valley providing their expertise and students getting benefitted. As time passed, it became a big enterprise with more and more people including government teachers providing tuitions. This became a competitive area based on survival of the fittest with students choosing the best among the lot and getting themselves benefitted against a fee.

Students are least bothered, if their tutor is in government service or not. As their performance outshined the existing structure of education, more and more people flock their kids to these hubs and tuition centers became unmanageable. Their fee sky rocketed and their structures rendered incapable. Instead of recognizing their role and contribution towards students and regulating them to ensure that their fees don’t go out of proportion and capacity of people, the government initiated a process to paralyze this system by baring the government teachers from providing tuitions.

Now the question remains, what magic wand does government have to declare that these teachers will be able to deliver equally well given the limited time period and structural constraints they face in schools. Also, how can they be so sure that newly inducted people will be equally or even more efficient than time tested teachers already there? By substituting them with youth from unemployed masses to continue tuition centers, isn’t the government conceding to the fact of falling standards in education?

If we look at the present situation, we will see that students are confused about their prospectus. Even if they have joined the tuition centers after paying the huge fees, they are uncertain about the fate of their tutors and the tuition centre itself and find themselves in omnishambles.

We are yet to hear about any policy decision on the selection of people eligible to replace government teachers, neither anything about the fate of tuition centers. Schools continue to remain far behind from completing the syllabi and tuition centers rendered incapable. With most of educational calendar lost to controversy and winter already reaching our door steps. The only viable alternative left with the government is to use its own machinery, the government schools during winters and facilitate the government teachers to provide voluntary service by providing them some incentives for teaching students in their nearest schools during winter vacations. The teachers should also consider taking this a social responsibility or let the tuition centers function hassle free by regulating them on student friendly lines.

(Sajad-ul-Haq Lone, Mansoor Ahmad Sofi, and Ehsan Farooq contributed in this write up and are currently pursuing engineering degree from Kashmir University)

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

PMSSS beneficiaries, scores of Kashmiri students were expelled by Meerut University Expelled Students.

The Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students from the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir (J-K), which aimed at offering them a “special chance” to study in mainland India now has virtually no takers. Ever since its launch in 2011, the Rs 1200 crore scheme has run into rough weather. Students have been counselled and sent to colleges which did not offer courses of their choice; many youngsters have been turned away from colleges of their choice which had no information about the scheme. In a few bizarre instances, the scholarship winners were allocated colleges which did not exist.

Out of 3,742 J-K students who were allotted various undergraduate colleges across India in the academic year 2015-16 under PMSSS, so far only 1200 (about 30%) students have taken up the offer. Also, as one semester of academic year is already over, there is hardly any likelihood of an increase in this number.

Data revealed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which implements the scheme, shows that out of the 3,742 students, 1,629 were allotted provisional admission letters for engineering and technology courses and 2,113 for general courses. Out of these 1,629, too, only 900 students sought admission to engineering colleges while the rest decided to stay away.

As far as general courses are concerned, the response has been extremely poor as only 250 students took admission out of the 2,113 who were counselled and issued admission letters to prestigious colleges of the country.

PMSSS was approved in August 2011 by the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and offered 5,000 fresh scholarships every year over next five years to encourage students from J-K to pursue higher studies outside J&K. The five-year period ends with the academic session 2015-16.

While AICTE has been executing the whole scheme, an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) – chaired by secretary, department of higher education, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, and senior officer bearers from other ministries – had been set up to monitor its implementation.

Response of the students to PMSSS was very poor too in the academic year 2014-15. Out of the 2,102 students given provisional admission letters for technical and humanities colleges in the country, only 700 (about 30%) could take up the offers.

To avoid embarrassment and push up the number of admissions, the IMC had to relax the two-student-per-college-norm it had imposed in the beginning of the session in 2014, and approved scholarships for 943 more students just a few weeks ago in 2016. Colleges which violated AICTE’s norm and admitted more than 100 students were allowed to do so.

The admission norm of two-student-per-college was introduced in 2014-15 when in two previous academic sessions, 2012-13 and 2013-14, private universities eager to get their hands on the government funds for PMSSS admitted hundreds of students, reportedly with the help of NGOs in J-K. Also, when the academic session of 2014-15 began, it was decided that only UGC-approved government colleges and AICTE-approved technical colleges would admit students through counselling conducted by AICTE in J-K.

Now AICTE officials attribute reasons for the low turnout of the two academic sessions 2014-15 and 2015-16 to the restrictions imposed on education institutes in the beginning of 2014 to admit not more than two PMSSS students.

“Students of Jammu and Kashmir are culturally different students in South and Central India. Two students from one state are likely to find it difficult to adjust in an institute where thousands of students are studying. So IMC has decided to give up the two-student-per-institute-norm for the next academic session subject to the renewal of the scheme by the Cabinet Committee,” says a senior AICTE official.

PMSSS scholarship holders and their parents, however, have a different take on the problem. The drop in turnout has been caused because of difficulty in getting admissions to reputed institutes and in accessing grants, they say. For instance, for 2015-16, out of 250 students who had taken admission in general category courses in August 2015, AICTE has so far been able to disburse full scholarship to only 64 students and half of the scholarship (amount) to an equal number of students. “Almost five months have gone by since then and a lot of students haven’t got a single penny in grants. The scheme is meant for students who are financially weak and can’t pursue higher education outside the state on their own. One can imagine the kind of financial hardships these students are facing due to non-disbursal of the scholarship amount,” says Sahil Mathur, a student of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology, Vasad, Gujarat, who also has not received his grants.

Hindustan Times Education had written to the AICTE chairperson on November 30, 2015, to solve problems of students like Mathur and others and had been reassured that the needful would be done.

“In 2014-15, students were humiliated and literally thrown out of many prestigious colleges,” says Mangal Das Bhagat, whose daughter was refused admission in Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University in 2014-15. Bhagat’s daughter was allotted DAV College in Haryana in 2015-16 but fearing she would be harassed again he decided not to send her to the new institute.

Students suggest that an open help desk should be created at the AICTE office where students can walk in and share their problems with senior officials. “There was no one to guide us on uploading process. The instructions on the AICTE website are vague. We are supposed to get money for accommodation with the grant but when I submitted the rent receipt forms duly signed and authorised by my college principal, I was told that I would get only one month’s rent. To claim rent for the whole year, I now need to upload the rent agreement, but this is not mentioned on the website,” says a scholarship holder.

(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

Down in South Kashmir’s Shopian, a teacher has become viral on virtual platform over his intriguing, innovative teaching. But the man whose classroom theatrics are already a talk of the town is on a mission to redefine the teaching methods, reports Saima Bhat

Muhammad Yousuf Rather

Some in his tribe might be inviting a bad press, but that hardly bothers a unique Shopian teacher who is already a viral thing on social media. Behind his virtual popularity is his innovative teaching method, he calls, a rhyme-art-slogan methods.

Coming from Shopian’s Aglar village, Mohammad Yousuf Rather, 47, was an unsung hero until someone posted his video on Facebook and made him the talk of the town. Now when the madness behind the method is out, Rather says the motive was to make classroom sojourn for students a fun time exercise than a signature yawning session.

It all started when he was selected as a Rehbare Taleem (RT) teacher in 2004. Since then, he says, he always challenges himself to make his classes interesting—so that all of his students remain glued and understand every bit of teaching. He mainly focuses on English language. “If the base is correct,” he argues, “then only a student can compete anywhere.”

The viral video shows him doing unusual antics with liners in Kashmiri language to which his students reply, repeat in English: ‘Cow is walking. Crow is hopping.’ He teaches English grammar using the method.

But his mastery lies beyond English. His students are too quick to tell the difference between different angles. Ask them, and they will shout out: ‘Grandmother walks forming acute angle, obese sister walks at obtuse angle and papa walks at right angle and sleeps at straight angle.’

For imparting such an understanding in his students, the teacher says, presentation is must. “When anybody teaches in friendly manner giving real life examples,” he says, “students learn quickly. I don’t think I do any different things, I just do things differently.” And it is very important, he stresses, for a teacher to impart teaching in a realistic manner.

Known as Gulfam among his peers, Rather quotes an instance of a girl enrolled in his school from a private institute. Within weeks, the girl quitted forcing him to seek explanation for her mother. “She told me that government school students cannot compete with private school students besides telling that government students can’t qualify private school entrance tests after walking out of government run schools.”

The mother’s response deeply disturbed Rather, who then decided to take the challenge head-on. After an intense brainstorming session, he concluded that he must focus on English language—the main medium of education in valley now. Language acts as torch, he realized.

Now, Rather is a proud man as his assessment was bang on. Today, his students do qualify all tests and in certain case, top them, too. “But everything aside,” he says, “my students are much better than other private school students.” Behind his belief is a solid argument. “Every year I monitor class 10 results and it delights me when I see all my students passing it in a first go when others struggle to clear it in two or three attempts.”

As a student, Rather was a first woel (class topper) deeply interested in science and maths. Despite hailing from an illiterate family, he says, he never let his passion for study to diminish. In Class 11, Rather chose Compound Arts without Math as his English-speaking classmates discouraged him from opting it. “Their weakness came in the way of my strength,” he says. “Being a poor-English speaker, I couldn’t defend myself.” To salt away his students from becoming a hurt-factor, the teacher is training them in English from the word go.

Behind his success, he says, is his simple lifestyle. Besides for this Humanities graduate of 1988 batch, ‘learning new things’ ability made State Institute of Education (SIE) to select him as one of the lecturers to change Class 11 syllabus. For a primary government teacher, it was, perhaps, a big honour.

Later when he attended the session at SIE’s Bemina headquarters, Rather attracted crowd when he displayed his famous ‘calendar-ek jaaduye khail’ technique. By using this technique, his brainchild, one can find the exact day for any date of the millennium. The feat later got him recommendation for 2011 ‘best teacher award’—he never got as some transfers in the department ensured dusting of his file.

Presently Rather is lone teacher in his school teaching 34 students. As per the Village Education Register, Rather’s village has only 45 children in the age group of 5 to 10 years. Out of these, 39 are enrolled in his primary school (out of which 5 students passed in this session) and only six are enrolled in private schools, says Rather. His own children have studied from same primary school.

“Families living jointly send their wards to government school,” he says. “First child of a family, girl or a boy, is often admitted to private school. If second child is a boy, then again, chances are 50-50. If it is a girl, then to government school, and third tou hamara haq he hai (third child of a family lands in government schools, no doubt what). But I believe those thirds study more, and better.”

To swell rolls in government schools, Rather feels better infrastructure and school buses should be pressed into service. “These additions will woo children towards government schools. But for God’s sake, abolish this midday meal scheme as it has degraded our education system.”

Away from parental check, Kashmir youth are consuming Junk Food at an alarming rate thus harming their health. Scholar Zeenat Farooq decodes the ‘Processed Foods’ and ‘their High Value’ in the fast changing life style of Valley

Processed foods are the food materials which have been altered from their original composition in any manner for purposes like increasing flavour, preservation, increasing shelf life, convenience etc. For example, milk brought from market places is processed in the form of pasteurization, a method to preserve milk against microbial growth or dry fruits are processed by means of salting which again prevents microbial growth on them and also increases their shelf like.

Food processing was initially developed as a technology to increase flavour, safety, shelf life and availability e.g. processed canned meat, canned or dried fruits or vegetables can be transported to distant places without the danger of getting rotten where it would be impossible to ship fresh ones but the same practice, as with most of the technologies in the world, has been taken over by people who, for their money making interests, play havoc with our lives.

Junk Foods

The above mentioned examples are some examples of processing foods but the term food processing, as used commonly, means changing food composition by increasing sugar or other additives to make it more tasty but more hazardous to health at the same time.

Such “bad processed foods” are also called as “Junk Foods” because of the reason that these foods rarely have any nutritional value since these contain negligible or no micro-nutrients (Vitamins and Minerals) or fibres and contain high amounts of added sugars, salts and fats  which supply empty calories and can deteriorate one’s health e.g., ice creams contain a very high proportion of fats and sugars, butter contains high amounts of sodium and saturated fats, ketch ups, sauces etc again contain very high amounts of added sugars and harmful preservatives.

If, on one hand, such foods taste delicious to our tongue and are easily accessible and convenient, these can lead to various ill-effects on our health as:

1. Extra sodium contained within the processed food products is the main culprit in imparting hypertension. In fact, the extra sodium levels contained within foods like noodles and processed meats are way above the recommended dietary limits set by the American Health Association.
2. High sugar levels which are present in most of today’s processed food products like ice cream, chocolate, cake, juice, soft drinks etc increases obesity and likelihood to develop metabolic diseases like diabetes.

III.    Extra saturated fats contained in pizza, milk and processed milk products like: Butter, Cheese, Curd, Ice Creams again increase obesity and risk of cardio-vascular diseases. In fact, some processed foods even contain Trans Fats which increase the amount of cholesterol in our body which can even lead to atherosclerosis, besides other heart diseases.

1. Processed meat like smoked and canned meat contains food preservatives and high sodium which besides contributing to above mentioned conditions, can also increase chances of developing GIT cancers if taken to excess.
2. Some of the canned foods which are preserved in preservative juices like canned fruits and curd also have a danger of getting contaminated with poisonous fungi which can remain undetected by the consumer for a long time.
3. Apart from the above mentioned ingredients which harm our health by increasing calorie consumption, some processed foods contain undesirable contaminants like the recent reports about Maggie noodles containing lead. Lead is a harmful metal toxin which impairs brain development in children and if it gets accumulated in the body to toxic levels, it can result in death. Some “claiming to be health enhancing” food products like ‘Dabur Chayawanprash’ also contain lead traces.

VII.  Some companies do not even mention exact detailed composition of the ingredients on the cartons of processed foods and may contain undesirable substances.

Our Indifference

The worst part in this case is that the demand for such foods has increased manifolds in our valley over the past decade, especially among young generation, which indeed is not a good sign for our society.

A school going child of our valley, on an average, consumes as much processed food as would cost about 20% of the salary of his father. The most surprising thing here is that our parents, even after being aware of the major health issues associated with processed foods, hardly stop their children from consuming them. They, in fact, encourage them by buying them such foods, sometimes as bribe to go to school, sometimes as part of the over-feeding schedule, as our mothers always feel that their children are hungry and even sometimes as a substitute to home-made meals.

But such a practice should be stopped as it only harms our body and imparts ill effects on metabolism.

Tailpiece

The best thing here would be to limit our daily intake of processed foods and rely more on home-made and organic foods. Processed foods can be taken once in a while but we should always use our common sense and should at least avoid taking such processed foods with undefined composition.

Also, children from a very early age should be encouraged to have more natural foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. We should not encourage them for mere taste and convenience to fall prey to the ill effects of processed foods.

(Author is a Research Scholar at the Department of Biotechnology, University of Kashmir.)

A small town girl’s month long American tour changed her idea of education and life completely. Saima Rashid narrates her experience

Afeefa and other students who studied Robotic Engineering in US.

The  moment Afeefa Farooq, an 11 standard student from Pulwama district, stepped inside Harvard University in USA, her eyes sparkled in amazement. It was a dream journey. After every step she was promising herself that she will be part of this University, no matter what.

Afeefa was not the only one who was thinking on those lines. Her group mates from Pakistan, and different parts of mainland India were lost in the same thoughts. After sometime everyone started giving voice to their thoughts and unanimously spoke. “We promise to meet at this place after two years. Not as foreign students on a month long trip but as Harvard students. We will be back.”

Afeefa was among eight students selected from across India to study Robotic Engineering from University of Rhode Island’s (URI’s). Every year URI conducts a month long Building Bridges programme for students from across the world. This programme is conducted entirely on scholarship basis.  In 2015 eight students each from Pakistan, Turkey, India and the Province were part of this programme.

“I was the only student from Kashmir in the Indian group,” says Afeefa.  “I was very excited about this trip. Not because I was going to America, rather studying in any foreign land from any foreign University excites me.”

Afeefa did her initial schooling from Delhi Public School Srinagar then joined Dolphin International School Pulwama till 10th. Both of her parents are into academics.

“I am never pressurised to study hard or get good grades. My parents always advice me to study for the sake of learning and implementing rather than getting higher grades,” says Afeefa.

Maths is Afeefa’s favourite subject.  With a headphone in her ears she spends entire day solving numerical problems. “Music sharpens my mind rather than creating disturbance,” says Afeefa proudly.

Back in America, URI Building Bridges 2015 had made two more groups to participate from SEA (Summer Engineering Academy), but with a paid participation. “We had four counsellors, two from SEA and two from Building Bridges. Entire month was so productive that we learned to move and program robots in the direction we wished.”

Afeefa recalls that one of her projects was ‘Egg Drop Challenge’. “The aim was to drop an egg from the roof and not let it break,” says Afeefa.

A month’s stay taught Afeefa that ‘America lives in practicality’. American students don’t just read books but practice them, she says. “In Kashmir we are made to blindly follow whatever is written in our textbooks. Unless we don’t introduce a bit of Americanism in our education system we cannot grow,” says Afeefa.

The other projects she worked on along with her group mates were Trebuchet Contest, Propeller Car Challenge and Propeller Car Race. “We were given a motor to make a car propeller.”

Afeefa was part of a group of three students. “My other two mates were from Pakistan and the Province itself,” says Afeefa. “The aim was to see whose car is the fastest and I won the competition. That was the proud moment for me. Appreciation from professors followed,” Afeefa adds.

Afeefa credits her success to her school where she overcame her shy nature and gained confidence. “I still remember the moment when I learnt that my Visa was approved. It was a big moment for a small town girl like me,” recalls Afeefa.

At the end of her month long stay in America Afeefa recalls how everybody was in tears. “I felt terrible when I was about to leave America. But then the hope of coming back helped me smile,” says Afeefa confidently.

 Unlike his counterparts, sociologist Bashir A Dabla (July 9, 1954 – September 2, 2015) was always preoccupied with his mission of understanding the trends in Kashmir society that people usually considered routine. He rarely stopped working despite Parkinson’s disease handicapped him for 23 years, Masood Hussain and Dr Khursheed ul Islam offer an idea of the contributions that made this academician relevant to the society

In November 1999, when Bashir Ahmad Dabla came out with the findings of his marathon study involving a universe of 4800 people, people were shocked. It found Mehr, a fundamental religious obligation and legal requirement for Muslim marriages, was paid fully in 29.97 percent cases!

The study aimed at identifying the areas in which Kashmir’s half of the population, the women, were discriminated against by the male dominated society, the study found that in 21.75 percent cases husbands paid Mehr to their wives in installments. In 28.50 percent cases, the respondent women were unsure if they have received their Mehr or not and, interestingly, nothing had been paid in the name of Mehr in 19.77 percent marriages!

Explaining the phenomenon, researchers found weak economy of grooms or their ignorance was slightly more than those consciously giving it a slip. However, the study found the percentage of grooms making the one-time payment was gradually increasing, a direct consequence of the awareness brought about by the decontrolled faith.

The second major revelation was that Kashmir society was denying women their right to inherit property in more than 55 percent cases. Explaining the trend, the study said in most of the cases either the parents had meager immovable property to share it with daughters or they were married in families which lacked any requirement to seek meager shares. While Mehr amount is a consensus between two sides, Islam’s inheritance systems are fixed and women get half of the share, their brothers get.

There were a few more shocking findings: 175 of the 789 working women said they were harassed at work place and it was physical in 38 percent of the cases. They accused their immediate officers in 46 percent cases, their colleagues in 42 percent cases and the balance harassers were outside the office. Interestingly, 28.31 percent respondents said their families were discriminating the girl child. Tragically 871 women voiced their support for female foeticide!

The institution of marriage, as per various studied that he supervised, has undergone a number of changes. In a 2010 survey that his students carried out and involved 2500 respondents, they found polygamy almost dead. Survey revealed 83.90 percent marriages were monogamous and only 8.20 percent were polygamous. This study found more people marrying outside the clan (54.80%) than within the extended family or caste (45.35%), a major shift from the past. Interestingly, it found more “upper caste” males marrying lower caste” girls were more (22.76%) than the reverse of it (14.15%). Besides, the survey found out that nuclear families are increasing.

It was his UNICEF-sponsored study on gender discrimination that prompted the then Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullaha to announce establishment of State Women’s Commission.

Dabla’s scholarship took off from Jawharlal Nehru University where he studied Arab during which he visited various destinations in the Gulf, West Asia and Turkey. Eventually, however, he settled down in Kashmir Studies and contributing substantially. He took up Kashmir case at a time when a new situation has started impacted the society differently. His series of studies on destitution was a key contribution in making the society responsive to ‘that’ new situation and try to manage it.

The pioneering work on destitution was carried out in 1999 itself for ‘Save The Children Fund’. After the researchers interacted with 300 women widowed by the situation, the real contribution of diverse killers was understand: 63 of them lost their husbands when they were caught in the crossfire; 78 by government forces, 45 were killed in custody of various agencies, 51 were killed by surrendered militants, 15 died at the LoC, 27 were killed by militants and the balance 21 died in the bomb explosions.

With their immediate bread-earners dead, they lived a pathetic life. Nearly 47 percent of them had married during 1981-90 period and nearly 39 percent of them were in 19-30 age group. With their husbands slain, 20 percent of them were denied any inheritance and 60 percent lacked any dependable resource to fund education of their children, orphaned by the situation.

Despite remarriages not being taboo, only 8.66 percent (26 out of 300) had re-married. While remarriage was a compromise, 35 percent of them had kept their orphans with grand parents. For not marrying, widows said they will devote themselves for development of their children, instead.

Insisting that theirs’ was a “socially undesirable lot” facing “physical insecurity and sexual harassment”, the widows flagged 13 serious issues they were facing: their children lacking education,  dependence, insecurity, deterioration  in  the family environment, declining control   over children, negative impact on personality growth, lesser  chances  of getting  good  matches  for  the children, denial to inherit property.

The state of orphans was worse. Of 300 orphans covered by the same study, 27.33 percent were not going to school and 19 percent had dropped out before matriculation. 82 orphans were not in school – of them 39  were sitting idle at home,  three  were home servants, 31 were in handicraft workers, and  three  each were in  automobile  workshops,  non-government  services,  and salesmen. In return, they were getting pea-nuts despite the desire expressed by 93 percent of them that they wish to study further.

Orphans told the surveyors that death of their fathers meant a massive shift in the lives they were used to: 145 reported economic  hardships of their families,  66  felt psychological setbacks, 41 saw love and affection missing,  26 felt apathy by relatives and 22 were blank, offering no response. The ‘change’ brought in new priorities for them: 235 wanted to maintain regular income for their families, 240 to pursue studies and 148 wanted social security.

To study the diversity of Kashmir’s sociology, Dabla successfully negotiated with UNICEF, World Bank, UNESCO, Save the Children Fund, Action Aid, UGC, Planning Commission of India (now Niti Ayog) and many other institutions. Apart from routine basic sociological issues, Dabla carried out special studies in energy sector (like his ethnographic study for upcoming Sawlakote project), and disaster management.

Off late, Kashmir’s labour market has been exhibiting interesting trends. It was partly because of the adverse impact of the prevailing situation and partly because of white-color syndrome. The inability of the local manpower to grab the opportunities that the economic activity offered would create a gap that was filled by non-local workforce.

On labour issues, Dabla had two keen interests, one the child labour and second the labour migration. He was a strong believer of the fact that if child labour is banned, as the law suggests, it will adversely impact the families they belong to. Instead, he wanted better wages for them. His response to the issue was rooted in the United Nations policy shift, also upheld by the Planning Commission of India, that instead of banning child labour, interests of the child worker must be taken care of so that exploitation stops.

His ‘Save the Child Fund’ that was published as Un-bloomed Roses put the estimated child workers in carpet weaving Budgam and Srinagar districts at 18,749 and 4004, respectively. Capital city alone had around 3,000 children, half of whom had joined it when they were less than seven years of age, in automobile repairing alone. Economic compulsion was found as the single largest factor forcing children to work in hazardous sectors.

Dabla-piloted studies on labour migration into Kashmir continue to be the only reference outside the decadal census. On basis of personal interviews that his student researchers carried out, Dabla established that 55 percent of the labourers working seasonally in Kashmir belonged to Rs 10,000, a month background and in fact 34 percent of them belonged to a section of society making only half of it.  While 73 percent of them were illiterates, the rest were having some literacy. They originated from different states: 46.93 percent from Bihar, 15.33 percent from UP, 8.86 percent from Gujarat, 8.60 percent from Rajasthan, and 8.14  percent from West Bengal, in addition to some percentage from Punjab, Nepal and Jharkhand.

Almost one-fourth of them (23.85%) were unskilled. Skilled lot included 17.40 percent masons, 10.06 percent each were carpenters and painters, 3.40 percent were barbers, 1.23 percent were vegetable sellers and balance were from other professions.

Majority of them (51.16%) migrated on their own but in 16 percent cases ‘agents’ and another 10.07 percent cases, employers brought them here. Almost 17.21 percent was contract labour, already engaged with contractors working in the state.

The interesting finding on this count was the shifting patterns. His studies found that Kashmir was dependent on merely 5.97 percent of non-local labour between 1980 and 1990. It increased four times to 20.19 percent in the subsequent decade and more than doubled to 51.19 percent between 2000 and 2010.

In 72 percent of cases, respondent labourers admitted they earned better if compared to their past at other places across India. In fact 61 percent said better earnings helped them economically better. Of their overall expenditure they spend locally housing, food and transport make most of it.

Dabla was afflicted by Parikinsons quite early. He fought this condition bravely, which is challenging at a place like Kashmir given the existing medical facilities. Known neurologist, Dr Shushil Razdan commented that his working while facing a challenging disease and survival was a medical wonder. Many people would say Dabla was the Kashmiri variant of Stephen Hawking (British physicist), lacking the specially designed computer.

He would keep himself busy with the issues confronting Kashmir. Not forgetting his humble family background (Pandan, Nowhatta), where handicrafts were the bread and butter, Dabla carried out a study on the earnings of the artisans. His study suggested that almost eighty percent of the workforce was being exploited either by middlemen or exporters.

In 2009, his study indicated behavioural shifts of society towards senior citizens. Quite recently he tried to study the angry new urban child and said he was “socially sadistic” because their “social participation has drastically reduced” coinciding with the loss of “patriarchal authority”. He predicated the continued situation will lead them to be “aggressive, violent, disobedient, and careless about their future and like short cuts to progress.”

Not many people know that prior to his academic assignment; Dabla was Press Officer to the then Chief Minister of J&K Dr Abdullah and latter Chief Warden in the Aligarh Muslim University.

Dabla’s loss as a socially relevant academician would be felt in Kashmir in coming days in the same manner in which mysterious death of Iranian Sociologist Dr Ali Shariatii was felt, many years after his death. Interestingly, Dabla had worked Shariatii and authored a book on his sociological interpretations. The only way out to minimize the costs would be finding some of his bright students and encourage them follow his footsteps.

(Hussain is a Srinagar based journalist and Khursheed teaches in IMPARD. Both have been Dabla’s students.)

An examiner’s wrong evaluation pushed an engineering aspirant to suicide. A re-evaluation posthumously identified the mistake. Syed Asma reports about how peer pressures, systemic failure and parental attitude  kicks students to a cut-throat competition, opening doors for their hara-kiri

June 18, 2015, the first day of Ramzan, Muslim month of fasting, was the last day of Adnan’s life. For an engineering aspirant, it was a normal day: he went to college, cracked jokes, played pranks, and shared a few laughs. Later that day, he joined his friends for a game of football; a routine he has been keeping for some time. As the day ended Adnan headed for home. On his way back, he came to know that his first semester result is out. Despite being a topper he had secured a mere 28 marks in Physics! In order to clear the semester he had to re-appear for the same paper.

Depressed, Mohammad Adnan Hilal did not return home. His family rang up every single friend of his, but nobody had any idea about his whereabouts. He was last seen on the footbridge, near Rajbagh, the family inferred. They reported to the police and five days later a corpse was fished out in Safakadal. It was Adnan’s.

His family was shocked. Putting up in Nowgam, basically from Dalgate, Adnan was a beloved son, the oldest, in the family

Schooled at Burn Hall, Adnan secured distinction in his matriculation and aspired to be an engineer. He did not want to waste time in attending higher secondary school, so he decided to join Kashmir Government Polytechnic (KGP), Gogji Bagh and later continue as a lateral entry in an engineering college.

In the very first semester, his dream of becoming an engineer seemed shattering to him.

Days after laying him to rest, Adnan’s father, Hilal Ahmed Gilkar, came to know about the reasons of his [Adnan’s] suicide, and filed for re-evaluation of Adnan’s physics paper.  The outcome was shocking. Instead of 28 marks he had secured 48 marks and was topping the semester!

An above average student whose friendly attitude with admired by his classmates, Adnan’s low score was surprising for one and all. “We could never imagine that Adnan will ever score that low and will have to re-appear,” one of his classmates said. Her tears aren’t stopping, though she tried hard. “His result was shocking to us and would have been painful for him [Adnan].”

The “cruel” evaluation process has left Adnan’s parents and fellow students in distress and has compelled them to feel it is not a case of suicide but a “murder”.

In a rare but significant development, the Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education and Youth Services and Sports, Imran Raza Ansari, gave surprising details. He identified the evaluator as Mushtaq Ahmad Tiploo, a lecturer at Government Higher Secondary School, Jawahar Nagar. He said Tiploo is declared “deadwood” and would compulsorily retire from his service.

Government’s candid admission in Adnan’s case was received overwhelmingly. But Gilkar asks:“how a regular physics lecture is allowed to check ‘technical’papers of any engineering subject?”

Adnan is not the only one who bore the brunt of a poor system and State Technical Board is not the only case. Almost all academic institutions are lenient in evaluations that have taken toll on the students for years now.

Shazia shares a similar tale. The only difference is that her parents reached the spot on time and prevented her death.

This 19-years-old, presently pursuing her graduation in a city degree college is a commerce student. Schooled in one of city’s top notch institutions, her life took an ugly turn after her twelfth class results were out.

It was winters and she in excitement called her father, “papa come home early, my results would be declared today. I want to celebrate with you.” Shazia was an above average student and used to secure one of the top five positions in her school.

But when the result was out on the JKBOSE website, her result sheet displayed that she is implicated in an unfair means.

The moment she saw it, in shock she fell on the ground unconscious. What followed is giving her parents sleepless nights.Though her parents assert that they do not pressurize her to score more but still, Shazia’s sensitive nature has dragged her into depression. She presently is on medication and regular consultation of psychiatrists.

Interestingly, the Board authorities had lodged an unfair means case against Shazia in a subject she didn’t appear and on a date she had already finished her examination.

Seeing his daughter’s condition, Mushtaq, Shazia’s father, lodged a complaint and BOSE put his case before the Unfair Means Committee. The Committee’s order signed by Assistant Secretary, UFM, KD, reads:

“The student is ‘Let off’ against S. No. 24 [charges of using unfair means].”

That is it!

No apologies and no regrets.

A new certificate was issued in her name where she had secured distinction – 383 marks of 500.

Though Shazia seems to have resumed her normal life and is pursuing graduation but two years on, she has been taking anti-depressants.

Since then, her parents say, she is suffering from a weird phobia of examinations and results. And now is reluctant to go for further studies.

By the time government takes a serious look into valley’s education system, psychiatrists and psychologists advice the parents to rethink about their roles.

Shaista, a Mental Health Counsellor says that parents should take some time each day and talk to their children, as friends and companions! It is a necessity, she asserts.

At Mariam Wellness Centre, Shaista works in collaboration with Help Foundation. Everyday, she counsels a number of boys and girls who, many times, have restored to extreme self-inflicting measures.

Shaista found a common story. Every morning, kids and their parents leave for the school and offices, respectively. After a tiring day, they come back. The kid is busy watching television or with smart mobile phone and so are the parents.

When do they talk to each other?

“The unnecessary busy schedules and little interaction among family members is leading to depression and suicides,” Shaista insists.

Though they say the rate of committing suicides is not alarming yet. Only 2.1% of the population resort to extreme conditions but the cases of depression are increasing at a significant rate.

Minister Imran Raza Ansari (L) in a press conference while disclosing the name of the evaluator.

The pscho-analysts assert that parents need to induce “a factor of patience” in their children. Over the years, practices and patterns of nurturing a child have changed and thus some negative trends in the society are vivid.

Parents should restrain from inducing and encouraging ego of a child, so that they develop a capacity to accept the failures and loss in life.

“Failures are a part of the life but parents, now-a-days, raise a child in such a way that they cannot accept disappointments and failures,” adds Shaisata. “They [parents] provide them with whatever they ask for, even moons and stars but make them accountable wrongly.” The reason a young boy commits suicides for scoring low is that he can’t see his failure. It hits his ego!

Another major reason seen for rise in number of suicides and depression cases is the parental pressure – a pressure to score high.

Dr Nazir Chaudhary, the Medical Superintendent SMHS hospital says most of the cases of young boys and girls reach to them around the times when results are out. “The reasons are obvious…it is the societal and parental pressure to perform better.”

One such case is of Abid. He studies in a private school and never scored below 98% till his eighth standard. His parents, he says, were never happy with him.

“My teachers always praised me for my intelligence but I never got any appreciation from my parents, instead whenever I got my report card I had to skip my dinner.”

His parents would stop talking to him, he says, or even beat him. What changed him and made him disinterested in studies was the day he scored 99%.

“That day I was really happy, he says in excitement, “I thought papa will appreciate but he didn’t. He threw my report card and asked why is it 99 and not 100%?”

Since then he did not attend his classes regularly and does not show much interest in academics. “I would be bashed if I score 70% and would meet a similar treatment if I score 99%. What is the fun?” says Abid.

From past few years he has been complaining of severe headaches and doctors say it is all because of the stress.

Though Abid was good at studies but every child is not.

Parents need to know every child cannot be a topper! The psychologists say that parents and teachers need to know the capacities of an individual child.

There is a percentage of students in every class who are slow learners, they should not be placed in the competition of above average students.

“Each parent needs his ward to be on the top and score 90% which is not possible,” says Shaista, “The parent’s expectation is taking a toll on their ward’s health which they need to notice.”

(Some names in the story have been changed)

From his dimly lit office chamber Dr Sheikh Javid has successfully explored the unexplored part of the universe. Saima Bhat talks to the genius physicist whose find earned him a berth at prestigious American Physical Society

Dr Sheikh Javid

There is something curiously strange about Dr Sheikh Javid Ahmad – a professor in physics department and dean research at the University of Kashmir – who loves to bury himself inside his small office cabin, and think of universe beyond an ordinary man’s comprehension. This calm, cold and dimly lit cabin is like an alternative world for Dr Javid, from where he tries to peep beyond the already explored four percent of the universe. “About 96 percent of our universe, which is made up of dark matter/energy, is yet to be explored. Rest four percent is what we know as of now. And it is this four percent that is visible to us,” says Dr Javid, who has published more than 126 research articles in international journals.

But it is Dr Javid’s valuable contribution to the ‘study of nuclei beyond the valley of stability’ that earned him a coveted place in American Physical Society (APS) in 2015. He is the first Kashmiri to make it to the world’s prestigious list of scientists which has over 60 thousand members, mostly Americans. “It is a great honour for a Kashmiri,” feels Dr Javid, whose stint as scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) and Technical University Munich (Germany), was reason for his entry into the prestigious list.

Dr Javid is the part of global scientists’ team who are trying to construct the universe starting with the nucleus itself. Dr Javid’s work has given a new direction to nuclear physics research, as several hundred papers have been written based on his original work.

Interested in studying the basic constituents of a nucleus, Dr Javid says the researchers don’t have a complete understanding of what happens inside a nucleus. “But they probe to study it under different conditions of temperatures and energies and then use a theoretical model and predict the properties of a nucleus,” says Dr Javid.

Theoretical work is also done using models and interactions which are then correlated as the interactions of these elements are not known. For this, models are constructed and then properties are calculated. Properties are also measured by experimental measurements, compared to study if the interactions agree with the experimental findings.

So far only 250 stable nuclei are well researched. “We don’t have any idea of the properties for the rest of around 3000 unstable nuclei,” claims Dr Javid.  “So far we have been able to study them using the available conventional facilities.”

Dr Javid is hopeful that in next five years they will be able to study remaining stable nuclei as Michigan State University is coming up with new facilities. “With the help of fusion kind of reaction we can construct nuclei only up to Iron (56). Beyond that we don’t know how elements have been created.  We have been using Rapid Proton Capture (RPC) process to study unstable nuclei/isotopes in nuclear physics,” says Dr Javid.

But as they move forward for heavier elements like Lead and Uranium, it changes.

Dr Javid loves to talk about his work on nuclei of an atom. While studying the properties of gaseous state elements on magical numbers, which are supposed to be somewhat stable and don’t change, Dr Javid proved that they too change. It was a big find that made APS chose Dr Javid, a resident of south Kashmir’s Islamabad district, as a fellow.

Among a list of awards and accolades Dr Javid was offered a fellowship by the New York Academy of Sciences.

Dr Javid’s journey into the world of physics began after he completed his masters (1982), and went on to do his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay (1987). “The next stop was Daresbury Laboratory in England. I did my post doctoral studies from there.”

After coming back, he started working in IIT Bombay. Then in 1996 he left Bombay and taught in universities in countries like Sweden, Germany, USA and England. “But I always dreamt of coming back to Kashmir,” says Dr Javid. Finally in 2003 he joined Kashmir University as professor in physics.

However, his knowledge has made him a sought after name in physics, as he is a visiting faculty for 14 universities across the world. “We live in a globalised world. I just need a laptop to do my work,” says Dr Javid with a smile.

Vagaries of winters have substantially reduced over the decades. But the new tools have created an unreal world around the façade of the virtual reality that is gradually taking a huge toll of the new generation, grandpas tell Shams Irfan

Sitting in a corner of their grand living room, an amazed Sara, watches her granddaughter Zainab play on an ipad. For Sara, now in her late seventies, life has always been full of surprises and struggle.  She spent her life in penury to raise five children after her husband died young. But what surprised her most is the technology.

Sitting in the same room Zainab, 7, has not spoken a single world to Sara in last two hours. “This generation is different,” says Sara. In my childhood kids used to wait for winters eagerly. Then, the sole source of entertainment for them was stories narrated by their grandparents.”

Ironically, technology has reversed roles for Sara and Zainab. After spending hours on her ipad, which was a gift from her father on her sixth birthday, Zainab sometimes finds time to sit down with her grandmother and talk. “She would tell me about the world. About new places, computers and about everything that I don’t know,” says Sara. “I wish I could tell her about what life was like in my childhood.”

Sara wants to tell Zainab how kids of her age used to sit around their grandparents and listen to stories of far off places, of tough times, of atrocities committed by despots, of hardship and pain, of great travellers and saints, of resistance and resilience, of faith and our culture and lot more.  “But Zainab simply is uninterested,” says Sara painfully. “She lives in a different world. These kids have no time even for themselves.”

Mudasir Aziz, clinical psychologist, who is working as in-charge drug de-addiction center, Islamabad, feels that parents who give too much of personal space to their kids end up isolating them.

During winter vacations 15-year-old Alisha’s day starts at 6 am. The first thing she does is to check her Facebook, followed by a look at her Farmvilla score and then by surfing the net. After quick breakfast of sugar free biscuits and tea she rushes for her tuitions. She returns at noon. After lunch she visits another tuition center.

“I get to see her only in the evening,” says Alisha’s father Basit Ali, a city businessman who deals in Kashmiri handicrafts and spends his time between Srinagar and Delhi. “When I was a kid I used to visit my maternal grandfather’s house during winter vacation. It was lot of fun. All my cousins would be there,” remembers Basit. “It used to be a grand party that would last almost two months.”

But it has been three years since Basit’s daughter Alisha last visited her Matamaal in old town Srinagar. “She is busy with her studies,” defends Alisha’s mother Rifat. “This is crucial time of her career. Once she is a doctor she can visit whosoever she wants,” says Rifat with a ray of hope in her eyes. “Till then studies are more important.”

However, Mehnaz’s case is different. Despite her busy schedule and pressure from parents to score good grades, Mehnaz makes it a point to spend some quality time with her grandmother. “I eagerly wait for winter vacation when I get a few days for myself,” says Mehnaz, who is busy preparing for competitive exams this winter, “My parents want me to become a doctor, so visiting my grandparents this winter is impossible.” Literally, she is put under house arrest because she has to appear in CET next year. “My mother even serves me dinner in my room.”

Mehnaz’s grandmother is a grand old lady who loves to talk about her youth and beauty. She would tell Mehnaz how marriages were simple and sophisticated in good old days. “It is like being transported to that era. Nobody can match her storytelling skills. I simply love to spend time with her,” says Mehnaz.

Zeeshu is 11 and she is a curious case. She is the most sophisticated child among her cousins. “It is hard to impress this whizkid,” says her contractor father Rahil Ali, who has spent most of his childhood abroad.

Zeeshu loves spending most of her time in her Hana Montana themed bedroom and has met her grandparents barely twice since her birth. “She shuts herself in her room whenever they visit. It is odd but it’s her choice. We cannot force things on her,” says Ali.

Ayesha, her teacher mother, is a complete contrast. “I don’t know when and how she turned into a loner,” says Ayesha. “It is sad but she thinks that these people (grandparents) are illiterate and have no exposure of the world. Her parameters are different.”

Last winter Ayesha tried taking advantage of winter vacation and cold weather, to strike a bond with her daughter, but internet played a spoil sport. “She spent time on the net instead of talking to me,” says Ayesha. “Even during our childhood winter used to be main connector for scattered souls. But this generation is completely different. They love to live in their virtual worlds when nature outside the four walls keeps callings.”

The journey of an old city boy from his father’s mechanic workshop to Kashmir University’s Arabic department is pregnant with pain, passion and perseverance, reports Shakir Mir

Tariq Ahangar

His youthful years were spent trying to mend the damaged cars at his father’s workshop. With no clear foresight how to make ends meet, Tariq Ahangar worked as a turner for a substantial part of his life. Hailing from a humble background, Tariq grew up as an ardent student of mathematics but later opted for Arabic.

Today he is an influential board member in Kashmir University’s Arabic Department. As a fulltime Assistant Professor, Tariq writes and translates poems and short stories in Arabic language.

But his successful career has not come without enduring his own share of hardship and straitened time. Born in 1972 in old city, Tariq grew up in a poor milieu. He studied in a local school before migrating to Chanapora locality. He joined government higher secondary school Jawahar Nagar as non-medical student.

Across Kashmir, back then, the socio-political order was seething with unrest. “Due to turmoil, I couldn’t concentrate on my studies,” Tariq says. “I would go to college twice a week because things were not conducive.”

His three sisters studied while father toiled hard at a motor workshop in Batamaloo. His homemaker mother would manage the household chores. It was therefore difficult to eke out a living. “Even genealogically we are very hard-working people,” he chuckles. It was thus he left the need to earn money.

Tariq finally decided to get apprenticed to his father at the workshop—welding snapped metal, and fixing spear parts. The daylong slog fetched him a frugal 400 rupees. All his income would empty out for domestic expenditure.

Today, sitting across the table at the departmental library in Kashmir University, Tariq speaks at length about his remarkable journey. He is dressed immaculately; brown leather tuxedo and black pants. He jabs away at the air, trying to explain things while occasionally caressing his thick beard with hand.

“Later I developed interest in Arabic language,” he recalls in retrospect. “But I couldn’t get direct admission in MA Arabic because it wasn’t my subject during graduation.”

Tariq enrolled himself in a diploma course in Arabic, necessary to gain admission in post-graduate studies. “Diploma was sort of a bridge course,” he says. “Back then at KU, there was a depleted staff. But under the stewardship of Prof Peerzada Bashir I grew up as a consummate student of Arabic.”

Tariq secured 80% marks in his exams. He was later rewarded with a gold medal. “All these achievements boosted my confidence,” he says.

Years later, in 2000, Tariq got a whiff about the National Educational Test (NET) that would have made him eligible for lectureship. In cold December morning, he appeared in the exams. “Only two persons from university passed the test,” he says. “…me and another student from the English department.”

His serendipitous moment came a year later when Kashmir University’s Arabic Department advertised a post for a teaching assistant. As many as 10 candidates appeared for the interview. “Some of them were PhDs while many MPhils,” he says.

In a sheer luck, Tariq got selected for the only one vacancy that University had advertised. For the next two years, he faced two more interviews – and then even passed them – in order to retain his job as a teaching assistant.

Later, he applied for the permanent post. Out of 17 candidates vying for the single post, he was selected. “I could not rein my happiness,” Tariq says.

Since then he has been since serving as assistant professor in the department. Tariq has translated many poems and short stories from Arabic language. He wrote many short stories of his own. His first short story was published in 2001 entitled Da-ul-Kalb (Heartache).

He has also written a litany of research papers published in many reputed journals. Currently he is a member of Board of PG studies, Board of UG studies and Incharge Students activities. “I am thankful to my mother for all the achievement I have had,” Tariq concedes.

His aging father has now relinquished his mechanical job. Evers since he secured a job at KU, all the responsibility has been rested on his shoulders while father rests at home. And workshop? “It was sold out long ago,” he gleams.

It has been a long time since Reyaz Punjabi demolished the office of Kashmir University Students Union thus closing the chapter of active student activism. Young generation is utilizing the spaces that situation offers them even in places far away from Naseem Bagh, reports Bilal Handoo

Shehla Shora during a demonstration in JNU.

The “rousing reception” that he received at Aligarh Muslim University in late eighties is one of Syed Ali Geelani’s “cherished memories”. Students, mostly Kashmiris studying there, carried him on shoulders from Railway station to Kennedy Hall where he made a speech. The ageing ‘hawk’ could feel the AMU in 2010 when he visited University of Kashmir.

Days later, in the dead of the night on May 17, the varsity officials razed the Kashmir University Students Union’s (KUSU’s) office to ground. The act was brazen, so was the manner in which it was done on the order of poet VC Reyaz Punjabi. Officially, this destruction was termed “mandatory for campus development”. But everybody knew the objective was to shut the narrow opening for student activism in Kashmir’s highest seat of learning.

Students did not take it easy. “This Punjabi and his stooges must know that if they won’t allow students of this campus to exercise their rights,” a ring leader sporting long hair and stubble rose to speak to a KUSU gathering of ‘mourners’. “Then, we will take this campaign far away outside the Rumi and the Sir Syed Gates.” Unwittingly, the young man sounded foresighted.

Soon minor student Tufail Mattoo fell to state action. The first place that erupted in reaction was the varsity. In immediate follow-up, students studying in Punjabi’s controlled campus packed their bags and were home.

Others studying at other places, stayed put. Kashmiri students in Delhi took the campaign against the killings and vociferously held number of protests. Amid killings, clampdowns, curfews, curbs and clashes, these students could gather the sizeable support for the issue which till then was being fed to larger Indian audience through selective media gaze.

“For the first time since joining liberal universities like JNU, I could feel, yes, we can speak for ourselves,” says Mushtaq, a JNU graduate. “Unlike Kashmir University, JNU offered us a new student friendly atmosphere to raise the issues close to our heart.”

At Delhi, everything was different. There was no witch-hunt unleashed by the campus administration. Back home, some cops and IB guys had suddenly began frequenting the homes of KUSU supporters. Apart from terrorising our families, says Maroof, a former KUSU member, cops would interrogate and warn us of dire consequences, if we continue activism. “For this,” continues Maroof, “Punjabi – acting as a typical clerk of a Delhi – was responsible.” Once witch-hunt turned into a literal lynch-hunt, many ‘politically conscious’ students preferred Delhi over Srinagar.

But when Delhi sent tremors to Srinagar by the dawn of February 9, 2013 by secretly hanging Afzal Guru, many campuses rocked in reaction, especially the JNU. It offered an instant crash course in Kashmir, Afzal Guru and Azadi.

AMU

In 1995, when retired IAS officer Mehmood-ur-Rehman was appointed the AMU VC, the first hostile crowd he faced was from Kashmir. Knowing fully well his actions as head of state’s home department, especially during the siege of Hazratbal, Kashmiri students were the first to write the graffiti: ‘Mehmood-ur-Rehman, Go Back’.

Rehman lived his Kashmir experience in Aligarh. Shortly after taking over, he abolished the students’ union but revived it in mid-’97 when he promptly nominated Zamir Ahmad Khan, a civil engineering student who has several criminal cases pending against him, as its president.

KU campus.

But unlike students who were able to maintain some sort of activism, it was a no-go area back home, completely under blanket ban. Then, a youngster from Barbarshah, who later rose to become a police officer, was at the forefront of student activism in Jamia Milia campus. “It was a different atmosphere there,” Altaf Khan, now SSP Shopian, recalls his Jamia days. “Unlike Kashmir University, students outside J&K could express their point of views and would fight, raise and debate on different issues.”

But these selective, small group-protests within and outside the campuses then were devoid of what was happening in Kashmir. Then campus politics was the dominant factor. But in Kashmir University, the blanket ban, was even denying the same.

Year 2007 was historic as a change took over. Then, VC KU Abdul Wahid allowed KUSU to constitute, function in the varsity. For a while, the “old man” at top seat seemed sagacious to students. He even promised them fair campus elections. But before that could have happened, Punjabi succeeded him.

By 2009 when the campus rose up to protest the Shopian double “murder”, Punjabi banned KUSU’s activities. He ignored repeated pleas by the students that they would like to stay apolitical body. Then, Punjabi had the “media projection” of being the last wise-man of Kashmir, a position he used to the hilt.

Interestingly KUSU was banned when then chief minister, Omar Abdullah, stressed: “Students activism is the need of the hour.” Even Rahul Gandhi arrived to show solidarity with students. Within days of his departure, a youth wing of Congress, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) was launched in KU. Soon NSUI in collaboration with the university arranged a Delhi tour of KU students. The tour, in which students met various Congress leaders, had been kept under wraps to ‘covertly’ push NSUI’s agenda.

For a change, Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora conducted student elections in the fall of 2011. Since then, there has not been any election.

“We have a different situation in Kashmir,” Punjabi told The Hindustan Times on May 21, 2010. “JNU or JU have only mainstream political parties but Kashmir also has separatist presence.” In the same interview, Punjabi said he would allow students’ politics only “if they build KU administration’s confidence through literary and cultural activities”.

Keeping the vow of the former V-C in mind, the students not only participated in cultural and literary activities, but also organized the annual intra university youth festival, Sonzal. But the ban on KUSU never softened. Instead, the varsity said they have provided a better forum, Kashmir University Students’ Welfare Association (KUSWA) other than KUSU to students to express their point of views. But the move was read “treacherous” by students, especially KUSU supporters.

Shehla Rashid Shora during a JNU protest.

It was in this gridlock, a blogger from old city gave vent to her views: “There is no forum where Kashmiri students can voice their problems… The prevailing political situation in any place inevitably affects the youth- in terms of its actual impact and its more long-lasting psychological impact.”

Today the blogger is lady mover and shaker of JNU, who goes with the name of ‘Comrade’ Shehla. Originally Shehla Rashid Shora, she is a graduate with Computer Science from National Institute of Technology. Last year, she was elected as the vice president of JNU Student’s association. She is the first woman student to win an election of the JNUSU.

What Shehla couldn’t do in Kashmir, she did it in Delhi. Currently, the prominent voice of the ongoing agitation at JNU, she is an eloquent speaker. Often seen making speeches to Left-leaning gatherings, she took over as the student leader in JNU after her president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested.

“They ask us what do you want azadi from, what type of azadi do you want,” Shehla said during a recent demonstration at JNU. “Today we will define this azadi … this entire country wants azadi from WTO, from casteism, from discriminatory laws…”

Shehla and others in her tribe could manage to stir a storm in a liberal space in JNU unlike KU. “There is space and culture in JNU and other universities,” says Mushtaq, a scholar in JNU. “There are some student groups in JNU campus, which advocate right to self determination to Kashmiri in particular AISA.” Other than AISA, there are SFI, NSUI, DSU and ABVP active in JNU.

But back home, the voices are still calling for the revival of students’ activism in Kashmir. “You can’t deny space to student activism,” says Noor Ahmad Baba, social sciences professor. “If you do, then you are stopping manufacturing of future leaders.” Even the former education minister called for taking a lead to have a “formal students union” in the varsity.

The idea was if the Naeem Akhtar’s godfather and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed could start his political career as a student politician after serving as a court member at AMU, then why not a student in Kashmir. Some people sometimes think that had not AMU been around, what would have happened to Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Mufti Sayeed, Syed Mir Qasim, GM Sadiq – all have been the alumni of AMU.

In comparison the AMU, KU is just a school where KU boss, says KUSU, is not still able to make a distinction between his laboratory and the top chair. “I support student activism,” says Dr Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi. “But not at the cost of the institution.”

KU campus.

Back to AMU, when Mehmoor-ur-Rehman invited Dr Farooq Abdullah to inaugurate the main gate and agricultural department in 2000, Kashmiri students rocked the campus with “Go back, Farooq” slogans. Behind the rage was the sense how Dr Farooq was ruling Kashmir since 1996. The protests threw Farooq’s programme haywire.

But cynics in Srinagar say that denying the young certain rights at home and granting the same beyond the Banihal Tunnel has got its own consequences. Right-wingers might have their own agenda to manage the left activism and squeeze the “Republic of JNU”, but it was Kashmir that lit the mess in. For most of the last week, the media and the politics is following what happens in one of India’s prime academic spaces. It is high time for the managers in Kashmir to understand how long the universities can be reduced to primary schools and what are the costs involved?

(With additional reporting by Saima Bhat and R S Gull)

By Yasir Wani

The movement of renovating the education system has gained pace with innovative circulars from the directorate office. Intermittently, something new is coming from the education department. This is in fact a good omen and if the same passion is maintained, renovation of education system is inevitable.

In spite of these veracities, the needs and demands of teacher community should get key attention. We have to recognize that they are the key stakeholders of this revolutionary process. Their motivation is directly linked to the success of this movement.

As is obvious, the motivation by coercion will lead us to a conflict and the only way out is treating them as being the best human resource which needs special attention in the education policy of the state.

In this regard, I questioned a lot of teachers and did a little bit of research to inscribe how the system can be made more effective.

Human Resource Management (HRM)

The contemporary Kashmir educational institutions are found lacking in the practice of HRM. A separate cell of Human Resource Management in the department of education headed by a professional HR manager is the need of the hour.

Human Resource Management has revolutionized the world in every capacity. Today, the business world cannot afford to ignore this concept and same is the case with education department. The private schools have already initiated this change and I have seen this constituent part getting roots in numerous private schools which directly adds sweetness to their success stories.

Unless and until we don’t know the importance of Human Resource in this modern world, we cannot be a successful nation.

KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

Money as a Motivator

In spite of the other basic facilities, money acts as a key motivator for performing a task. Money is the basic need as stated by Maslow in his Need Hierarchy Theory. But in our state, the case is altogether different. Whenever public employees are seen protesting on streets for their salaries, it is the teachers, which directly affects the education system.

The new education policy cannot flourish unless and until this issue of salaries is resolved once for all wherein ‘the-on-time’ salaries should have a special mention.

Non-Teaching Tasks

Teachers claim that they are asked to do a long range of non-teaching tasks which takes them away from the class. The teachers are the booth level officers maintaining the records of election.

If I have to get an election card, I have to waste the precious time of teachers. They have more concentration in the management of Mid-Day Meals (MDM) than education. A number of surveys are being conducted by the teachers.

Already deficient schools have to assign clerical positions to one teacher which again adds salt to the injury, et al. The new education policy should free teachers from these non-teaching jobs, too.

KL Image; Bilal Bahadur

Teacher-Student Ratio

The teacher-student ratio has also been the cause of concern in government schools. This is directly connected to the quality of education in our state.

In this grim scenario, teachers being engaged in non-teaching activities, training, et al again adds to the grim picture of the education system. The new education policy should not only define the teacher-student ratio but do necessary steps in filling the gaps with fast track recruitments.

Regularization of Teachers

Those who have been recruited on temporary basis (ReT) with the condition of engaging them on permanent basis after 5 or 6 years are being ignored. This has resulted in protests, leading to de-motivation of teachers which has badly affected our education system.

Currently, the teachers are being recruited under the new recruitment policy which also guarantees their permanent position after few years. In order to avoid any such “unknown” circumstance in the future, new education policy should address this issue so that current cases are resolved and future happenings can be averted.

Passing the One Who Fails!

Those who fail in an examination up to 8^th are to be passed according to the education department. Though it is also backed by logic, but it has its faults per se. Especially for the teachers, this is a demotivating factor to carry out their work.

Psychologically, teachers get depressed and demotivated by these types of guidelines. A middle path has to be found in addressing this issue too which should also be a part of the policy.

Proper Infra-structure

It is also one of the key motivating factors not only for teachers, but also for students as well as parents to get lured to government schools. Somewhere teachers teach in rented schools, somewhere in open air, somewhere schools are without windows/doors.

The tale of our native village (GMS Panzoo Verinag) is something different. A well-established building has been completely constructed on a new design. But teachers still teach in rented building because road leading to the school demands a restoration (only few meters) and non-availability of water (requiring few thousand rupees). If the half of the rent the department is paying for the building would have been spent on the repair of few meters of road and getting water connection, the condition would have been different. A proper infrastructural map that a school must have needs to be the part of the policy.

Yasir Wani

Appraisal

The teachers that give their best to the students need to be appraised with rewards, promotions, et al. Apart from monetary motivation; teachers also need non-monetary motivation too. New education policy should clearly specify about the performance appraisal of teachers.

(The author has an MBA and PG Diploma in Islamic Banking & Finance.)

Born to disabled Sozni artist parents Shabir Mir picked up threads and a needle when he was just 11 to work his way out of poverty. Saima Bashir tells his story

Shabir

Shabir Ahmad Mir, 27, is a self-made man. His journey from small Najan village in Beerwah, Budgam district, to Srinagar’s Kashmir University and beyond, is full of intricacies.

A look at his resume and you will know why Shabir is special: qualified JKSLET (in 2013), NET, GATE and UPSC (in 2015).

With Shabir’s kitty full of options, he aspires to become a geoscientist. But that is not all. Shabir can do Sozni work on Shawls with equal ease!

“I started working on Shawl alongside my parents when I was in class 5. But it was purely for fun-sake then,” says Shabir.

Within a few months, much to the discomfort of his father, who wanted him to study, Shabir has attained near perfect with needle and Shawls. His first earning was Rs 25. After his father’s intervention, who didn’t want his young son to lose his eyesight, Shabir quit Sozni work.

But a few years later, Shabir’s father fell ill, and the burden of running the household fell on his young shoulders. “Both my father and mother are handicapped. They cannot move without crutches. So I had to do something for our survival,” says Shabir.

Shabir’s younger brother was too young to be pushed into Sozni work that has shattered many dreams in this village. “Despite his illness my father was reluctant to let me do Sozni work. He allowed but on one condition, ‘you will never leave your studies’,” recalls Shabir.

Thus began Shabir’s next innings with needles and Shawls. “This time it was different. It was not for funsake like earlier. I had to work, earn, and feed my family,” says Shabir, who started with five hours a day routine.

Within few months, Shabir had to rearrange his timings: up to nine hours a day, as bills of his father’s medicine started mounting. “I could feel the stress in my eyes. I would study at night and work all day,” says Shabir.

Shabir would earn around Rs 100 a day by working sixteen hours at a stretch to complete a Shawl. “For me it was a huge amount. By now I have learned how to survive within limited resources,” says Shabir.

However, it pained Shabir’s father Abdul Rahim Mir, 55, who wanted to send him to a boarding school, to see his son drain himself out for sake of family’s welfare, but there was no other option. “I took Sozni work because it needed no investment and could be done from a small space. It suited me. I was able to study as well,” says Shabir.

But there were times when Shabir had to make difficult choices. “The choice was between survival and dreams,” says Shabir.

During his class 10 examination, the agent who used to give work to Shabir came up with an extraordinary request: ‘you have to finish this Shawl within two days. It is important’.

Shabir worked throughout the night at a neighbour’s house, where other Sozni artists would assemble to work under a voltage bulb, and delivered the Shawl on time. “I was the only kid in that group. They all would respect me for my dedication,” recalls Shabir who went on to pass his class 10 with good grades.

After clearing Class 10 exams, Shabir started putting extra hours so that he can save enough money to join college. “I literally worked round the clock,” says Shabir.

During those tough times, Shabir would get up at 6 am and work straight up to evening. Then after offering prayers, he would start working on the Shawl once again till midnight. “Sometimes, when I needed extra money, I would work till early hours of the morning,” recalls Shabir.

After passing his Class 12 exams Shabir wanted to try his luck in competitive exam and become a doctor, but once again livelihood came in way. “I couldn’t appear in entrance test even once,” says Shabir with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Instead he joined college in Srinagar. “I calculated that MBBS would cost me a lot which I was not in a position to bear. So I dropped the idea,” says Shabir.

College life was difficult for Shabir as he had to shuffle between his village and Srinagar regularly. “I used to rush back home after college everyday to help my handicapped mother with household chores. Then afterwards I used to sit down and work on Shawls,” says Shabir.

Other reason for skipping college on and off was his inability to manage bus fare, Rs 7 a side. The bus would drop him at Batamaloo stop, some two kms from his college, from where he would walk. “My limit was Rs 15 a day. After bus fare I would have just one rupee left, meaning no lunch or tea during college hours,” says Shabir.

It was during those difficult times Shabir tried his hands at professional cooking. “I worked as Wazaa (professional cook) for at least five marriages in Srinagar without telling my parents,” says Shabir, “The intention was to add to the income.”

Three years and many hardships later Shabir finally graduated from Amar Singh College in geology. In the meantime Shabir has managed to save enough to educate his younger brother, who is currently doing bachelors in education. “Whenever I felt short of cash, I would bunk college and take extra work from my agent,” recalls Shabir. “Though, I never liked skipping college, I had no other option.”

After graduation when Shabir joined Kashmir University to pursue masters in geology, another challenge was looking at his face: how to manage expenses? “It was not like college, books would cost thousands of rupees. Then there were other expenses as well,” says Shabir. To manage his expenses Shabir, who along with a friend was living as tenants near the campus, started doing odd jobs after classes.

One day Shabir asked his landlord, a wholesale cement dealer who would get around four truckloads every week, ‘How much do you pay labourers for unloading a truckload?’

“Rs 400 a person, he replied,” recalls Shabir. “Then I asked him, ‘what if I and my friend will do the same for Rs 300 each?’”

The landlord, understating their necessity, agreed without any fuss. “Initially it was completely different from what I used to do. This was actual labour. But then I got used to it,” says Shabir, who would unload trucks in the dead of the night earning around Rs 4000 a month. “This amount helped me complete my studies.”

But even during most difficult times Shabir never thought of leaving studies. “After all I had promised my father that I will never leave my studies midway,” says Shabir.

Once back home from university Shabir would keep his books aside and take a needle and start working on the Shawls. “This way I could manage my books, fees, bus fare etc,” says Shabir.

In second year of his post graduation Shabir had to visit Karnataka with his classmates for a month long field trip. Though, the trip was sponsored by the department, every student was supposed to bear cost of his/her meals on their own. Shabir took Rs 3000 along. “I told myself that Rs 100 is my limit for the day,” says Shabir. But life in Karnataka proved quite costly for poor Shabir, as breakfast and two simple meals would cost at least Rs 200.

“I used to skip taking either dinner or lunch so that I do not run out of money,” recalls Shabir. “My friends would visit good restaurants and shopping malls, but I knew my limits.”

Around same time, another challenge was looking at young Shabir’s way. His mother Syeda Bano, 52, had to undergo an emergency surgery. This unexpected situation drained Shabir of all his savings. “I worked round the clock to manage the expenses,” says Shabir.

Once out of university, Shabir started working with a local private school earning Rs 1800 a month. “Even that was huge amount for me. I had managed my house for just Rs 1000 a month,” says Shabir.

Next Shabir got a job to teach at degree college Baraumallah on contractual basis. “This earned me Rs 18 thousand a month, a ten-fold jump,” says Shabir with a smile on his face.

In the meanwhile Shabir qualified JKSLET, NET, GATE and UPSC.

After qualifying UPSC, Shabir is set to go on a nine months training in June 2016. “I qualified as geoscientist,” says Shabir with a smile.

But till then Shabir is busy working on Shawls to keep his agent in good humour. “I cannot sit back and relax.”

Director School Education Dr Shah Faesal, an IAS topper who wants to be remembered as an Iqbaliyat scholar, tells Saima Bhat that it is a good sign that education is back in public debate

Shah Faesal

Kashmir Life (KL): Directorate of School Education is in news since you took charge. Any particular reason?

Shah Faesal (SF): This post is both important and challenging for me. It is in news quite often because it has 40 percent of the J&K’s total recruitment, one lakh employees in Kashmir division alone. Thus it touches everybody’s life in Kashmir in one way or the other. Another reason for being in news is that people have started taking pains viz-a-viz education. It generates lots of debate now.

KL: What are the challenges?

SF: Biggest challenge is the size of the department in itself; we have around 11,500 schools in Kashmir division, around 70,000 teachers, and almost 14 lakh children. But ironically, in spite of the investment, our learning level, pass percentage and dropout rates are not optimal.

As per National Achievement Survey and the surveys done by Pratham and Acer reports, our learning levels in English, Science and Math are terribly low. I think outcomes, teacher accountability, personnel management are our challenges.

It is a fact that directorate of education is reduced to a transfer industry. Even if ten percent of my staff opts for transfer it means around seven thousand teachers knocking at your door, which consumes our valuable time and resources.

Then there are still schools which do not have adequate space, for a middle school you have only 3 rooms, when you actually need 8 rooms, which means two or three classes are being run from the same room. Another pressing issue is of Pahari speaking people. They need to have teachers who can speak Pahari language and are good in other subjects as well, a rare combo.

KL: What are the achievements so far?

SF: I am happy that people have started to discuss our achievements, and at the same time are scrutinizing our performance closely. Education is back in public debate. It is good to see people ask questions like ‘how and where you are spending tax-payers money’. The scrutiny is more intense because people know that most of the students in government schools come from poor families. Influential and moneyed class has long ago moved their children to private schools. So in a way we are the custodians of children from poor and underprivileged class.

Right now our focus is on the implementation of policy of consolidation. We want to have quality schools, rather than too many schools. Let us have a few good schools than too many bad schools. We are shutting schools which do not have good infrastructure. Teachers are asked to move to the nearby schools so that we can give them proper PTR (Pupil Teacher Ratio).

We have achieved very high levels of enrolments and dropout rates have reduced to a large extent.

KL: What happened to the ‘model schools’ initiative?

SF: It was a flagship programme of the department and we began with around 100 schools. Idea was to provide very good infrastructure in these schools for which a token provision was kept in financial year 2015-16.

Lot of work is already done. Many schools got high tech computer labs and smart classrooms etc. Training of teachers in these schools is done in a better manner.

These schools are provided highly qualified and specialised staff so that they can serve as models for the local cluster, then the model can be passed on to the schools down the cluster.

KL: Quality of books and syllabus is still an issue in government schools?

SF: No doubt in that. There is a lot of adverse feedback coming about the quality of text books particularly at elementary levels.

Discussion is going on that should we adopt CBSE or  NCERT text books directly. Matter is actually under the consideration of J&K BOSE and I think they are seriously considering the revision of text books. In near future you will see a decision on it.

KL: Are you thinking of any reforms in present examination system?

SF: Yes, we are considering some reforms. This year we might introduce competency based exams for Class 1 to 7, where our learning level is quite low. In these classes exams are conducted in-house, but under the new system questions regarding basic competencies in certain subjects like Math, English and Science will be asked.

KL: Is there a system where teachers are held responsible for poor results?

SF: An incentive system is already in place where low performing schools are penalized, or put on notice. This year, there were 22 schools where Class 10 result was zero. But rather than punishing them straightaway, I listened to their side of the story first. After two-way discussions, I put these teachers on show-cause telling them if they don’t improve then action will be taken against them.

KL: Tell us about skill improvement of teachers.

SF: Out of 4500 teachers we appointed in last six years around 60 percent are BEd, meaning they are already trained.  For rest, we conduct continuous skill up-gradation programmes. This year, we fully utilised winters for training of teachers in subjects particularly Science, English and Maths.

In addition to this, I want teachers should inculcate the book reading culture, particularly english literature, and history of Kashmir.

KL: Are private schools money making machines for government officials?

SF: This is a big issue. I have recommended to the government that the period of recognition and management committee approval should be enhanced for private schools.  It will avoid unnecessary interaction between the government officials and private schools. Unnecessary interaction breeds corruption, red tapeism, and creates problems for the private schools management.

KL: There are no takers for government schools in cities. Is it? If so, why?

SF: Urban enrolment is actually a serious concern. At times people feel like we have given up on Srinagar, but that is not the case. We are very much present in Srinagar as students from poor families start with us. As the performance of government schools is improving, there is reverse migration happening as well. I think the signs of change are there, it may be insignificant or small but the change is there.

KL: Since 2011, 8 committees were formed to draft an education policy, what is its status now?

SF: It has been almost 20 years since last education policy was framed. But at the same time there is need for thorough discussion as new policy will stay effective for next 30 years.

Things are changing fast, thus education has to be modulated to respond to those changes. That is why it is taking time.

KL: What is the teacher student ratio?

SF: It is 1:30 or in certain schools it is 13:1! We have declared some schools as ghost schools, where there are no children but only teachers. Around 2000 schools have been collated.

Problem is that the manpower has not been rationalized. There are schools where we have too many teachers, and same time there are schools without teachers. But now we are consolidating quality while rationalizing the resources.

After seen being cradled by Omar Abdullah in March 2012, the cloned Pashmina goat Noori went out of sight instantly. Four years later, Noori is now mother of two kids besides an inspiration for Kashmiri scientists to push the envelope further, reports Shakir Mir      

Dr Riaz Shah is among the most accomplished scientists at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, SKUAST-K. At 45, he can walk with aplomb. Having led a team of experts who successfully produced first cloned Pashmina goat in March 2012, Dr Riaz catapulted Kashmir straight into the international limelight.

As a doctoral student at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal, Riaz had invested painstaking efforts and expertise in developing the first Buffalo clone Garima many years ago. It was for the first time he switched to comparatively easier and cost-effective technique; different from the one utilized to produce Dolly, world’s first cloned sheep in 1996.

Buoyed by the success, Dr Riaz submitted a proposal jointly with the NDRI to the government of India. He hoped securing assistance for furthering research in Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, a key technique that later went on to make the project Noori happen.

“While NDRI continued to carry out its research on Buffaloes, we zeroed in on a different species,” Dr Riaz says. Their reasons to choose a Pashmina goat over other animals for research purposes were profound. “It is of our native place,” he says. “It has a tremendous economic importance.”

Pashmina goats are exclusive to Ladakh region. They are found at an altitude of above 10,000 meters thriving in cold and arid conditions. It is precisely from their breathtaking feature, meant to stave off harsh winter, that we get Pashmina wool, a soft, delicate fiber worth fortunes in the market.

The goat grows its undercoat months before the winters start drawing nearer. Rearers comb its wooly coat to extract the prized fiber. With just Rs two crore disbursed into his kitty, it was not a cakewalk for Dr Riaz to spring Noori into existence.

“I had to grapple with a series of problems,” he explains. “The technique unlike at NDRI was not standardized here. At Karnal, they had a well feted laboratories and farms. They had the expertise as they had produced two Buffalo clones before. Things for us were not as easy as they were for them. Their work was just to multiply the animal by way of cloning. By contrast, we have to start from the scratch because we had nothing. Not even an incubator to culture the cells. We build a state of the art lab first where we could carry out an advanced research of this scale.”

His team purchased a flock of goat from Ladakh where their numbers of good quality males are believed to have been on decline. It was partly from this reason too that Pashmina goat was earmarked for research. “Cloning has this added advantage that we can have the desired gender of the clone.” Dr Riyaz says.

Subsequently, Rs 2 crore funding package for a four year period breathed a life into his project. From a sufficient amount, he erected a laboratory first before roping in a finest battery of research scholars and scientists who helped him materialize the development. In process, Riaz says, they also learned how to skillfully preserve an embryo and transfer it into recipients.

In next three years, the near-miraculous development happened. Scientists isolated an egg cell from a goat before extracting out its innards, creating space for administering the DNA, a biological rulebook, of a Pashmina goat.

Once the DNA integrated, the egg cell was rammed into skin cells of a Pashmina goat, giving rise to an embryo that would further journey towards becoming a fetus. “The new offspring was an exact duplicate of the Pashmina goat whose DNA had been extracted from its skin cell,” Riaz says. “Its coat was so lustrous that my colleague Prof Maqbool Darzi named it Noori, meaning light.”

The effort was repeated many times in the future in order to assess its efficiency but to no avail. “But we have nonetheless standardized the technique which was a major stumbling block to overcome,” he says. Dr Riaz is in want of more number of recipients and additional technical manpower. He had tried to approach for further funding. “That is still under consideration.”

When the word about Noori went out, swarm of media jostled its way in. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah cradled the newly born Noori in his bosom, attempting to fossilize the achievement because it happened during his tenure.

But three years down the line, the halo around the success of Noori faded. Media attention ceased to linger and to many minds, Noori withdrew into oblivion. Recently, Noori along with its newly born kid was put on display at SKUAST Shalimar campus during a star-studded event.

But behind the close doors, Dr Riaz is assiduously working out a new chapter in the research. The phase two of the project is likely to usher in a new era of scientific progress. The scientists are attempting to tamper with the DNA of to-be-cloned animals. The technique will enable them to reorient their genetic code, responsible for physical features, in line with their own expectations.

The transgenic animals will have capacity to deliver the way scientists want them to. “Some years ago we heard about designer babies where doctors interfere with the DNA of the new borns and make them grow as their parents wanted: particular eye color, hair color or any desired feature. In the next phase we are attempting pretty much same with the animals,” Dr Riaz says.

He hopes to incorporate some gene of a particular interest into the animals to bring about the desired features. The technique is envisaged to serve a dual applications of commercial and research purpose.

“For instance we are planning to incorporate certain genes producing blood clotting factors,” he says.

There are certain diseases where blood clotting Factors are being injected into the patients to control the blood flow. Those clotting Factors are very expensive costing about 40-50 thousand for each dose. “There are people suffering with diseases who need such medication,” he says. “People have produced such Factors in transgenic animals.”

The production cost is greater if these Factors are produced conventionally. Scientists hope to replicate that model at the Animal Biotechnology Center in SKUAST-Kashmir.

Likewise, Dr Riaz is also banking on producing hormone Insulin using the same method. Insulin is extracted from many animals through their pancreas. A very meager amount of Insulin is drawn out from dozens of pancreases. “Alternatively if we are able to introduce a gene leading towards the production of Insulin in the milk of a goat, and gene will express itself and from one liter of milk we can extract a lot of it,” he says.

If successful, the development might well result into a watershed change. Scientists at the SKUAST are also looking forward to modify the gene to accelerate the production of Pashmina. “But we need to see if the incorporated gene is expressed at first place,” he says. “If we are successful into making that happen, then we can incorporate other genes as well.”

Their first aim is to produce a transgenic goat. Towards this end, the department has submitted a proposal to the government of India three-four months back to govt of India to fund this project. They will also explore reasons for factors responsible for early embryonic death. “What happens that not all the embryos develop,” Dr Riaz says. “Early abortions take place. Once we transfer an embryo into recipient we can find as to why that happens.”

Another technique that SKUAST scientists seek to replace by augmenting the efficiency of cloning is the Artificial Insemination. “The efficiency of Artificial Insemination is around 30 per cent,” Dr Riaz says. “Out of 100 cases only 30 make it to conception.”

Artificial Insemination has its own set of downsides where the researchers get half males and half females. There is no certainty about the gender of the offspring desired to be produced. “In case of large animals like cattle, males are not usable,” Dr Riaz says. “Earlier they were used for ploughing or but now tractors. So male cattle are less preferred but to have females is important to economically viable,” he saying while trying to emphasize the need for evolving technique where gender of an offspring could be selected at whim.

“Currently, in case of cloning, efficiency is less than 5 per cent. We are aiming at increasing the efficiency of cloning process so that it replaces the Artificial Insemination,” he says.

If Riaz succeeds in increasing the efficiency of this technique more than 20 percent, there are chances that Artificial Insemination could be replaced and instead scientists can directly go for transferring of clone embryo.

“That way we can high milk yielding varieties of cows, higher in body weight and even higher Pashmina yielding goats,” he says. “Some goats produce less than 200 grams and some up to 600 grams. We can have choice to choose the second one,” he adds with a grin.