The pandemic caused by the invisible Coronavirus has started dictating a new value system as part of its etiquettes regime. In order to understand the new social order, Ikhlaq Qadri attempted creating the vocabulary associated with the virus that has killed nearly 50 thousand people, so far

A cartoonist’s explanation of the wrong priorities of the policymakers that leads to more spending on defence than on health.

It must be one of the rarest phenomena in recent days when a virus emerged the most talked about creation on earth. Trillions of dollars have already been invested in researching its different aspects as the contagion has forced the world on its knees with economies shattered everywhere. The virus, at the same time, has emerged great leveller as people in the most developed world face the same challenges as the poorest parts of the earth.

Demands for face-masks are as good in New York as in Nowhatta. Every country is seeking personal protection equipment (PPE) for its doctors to the extent that Tel Aviv used its spy agency Mossad to manage part of the supplies. Every hospital has just two demands – additional beds and more ventilators.

The virus has started creating its own dictionary. Here are some of the words that everybody must know in understanding the Coronavirus better:

Wuhan: It is the official birthplace of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 whose infection leads to a new disease called Covid-19. Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei, a province in China. It is the largest city in Hubei and most populous as well in Central China with a population of over 11 million. It is a manufacturing hub with a focus on automobile manufacturing. Al the virus’s names were given to it by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Coronavirus: It is a family of viruses that got its name from its appearance. It refers to any of the various RNA-containing spherical viruses of the family Coronaviridae, including several that cause acute respiratory illnesses. This belongs to the zoonotic viruses which jump from animals to human beings. All these viruses falling in this category are Types of coronavirus are SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. COVID-19 is popularly referred to as (the) coronavirus or corona for short. Covid-19 is referred to as the novel coronavirus because it is a new (novel) virus (i.e., it hasn’t been detected before). Novel coronavirus can be abbreviated as nCoV. When looked at under a microscope, coronaviruses appear to be surrounded by a spiky array thought to look like a corona, or a crown-like shape, hence the name coronavirus. The technical name of the virus that causes Covid-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, abbreviated as SARS-CoV-2.

Two professions are caught – doctors to prevent the virus spread and the cops to stop people from coming out.

Covid-19: First Identified in December 2019 with its origin from China’s Wuhan, Covid-19 is a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by a new Coronavirus that has spread around the world. A mild to severe respiratory illness, the condition is characterized mainly by fever, cough, and shortness of breath and may progress to pneumonia and respiratory failure. The disease has got the name from a combination of two distinct words, CoronaVirus & Disease. The number 19 refers to the fact that the disease was first detected in 2019.

Virus: Usually termed to be something “on the edge of the life” and something “in-between chemistry and biology”, the viruses can be dormant for a long time and get back to “life” once they get a host. It is an infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria, plants, and animals. Viruses are composed of an RNA or DNA core, a protein coat, and, in more complex types, a surrounding envelope. They are ultramicroscopic, 20 to 300 nanometers (nm) in length. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Viruses are also metabolically inert, which is why they only can replicate themselves in cells of living hosts. Covid-19 spreads through droplets from the mouth and nose of a person with a viral infection after coughing, sneezing, exhaling, talking, etc.

Viral Load: It is the amount of a virus in a sample, especially a person’s blood or other bodily fluids. Viral load is typically measured as the number of virus particles per millilitre. The term viral load is especially used in reference to the amount of HIV in a person’s blood. HIV is also the outcome of a zoonotic virus. The higher the viral load in droplets that one exhales, the maximum chances are that he is going to be sick.

Symptom: It is a phenomenon that arises from and accompanies a particular disease or disorder and serves as an indication of it. Major symptoms, in case of Covid-19, include fever, dry cough, fatigue, and difficulty breathing. There are instances in which the infection patient has sore eyes or a digestion issue.

Communicable: It means capable of being easily communicated, spread or transmitted. Covid-19 is a communicable disease.

Screening: It is examining a person to see if they have a disease. This frequently involves taking their temperature, asking about symptoms, and asking about potential exposures to infected people. World over the screening is taking a temperature using a thermal thermometer.

The simplest message to convey why any sort of proximity with strangers could lead to sickness.

Social Distancing: With the scare of Coronavirus around, social distancing, a practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance from other people, is a new trend in vogue. Insisted by the authorities to adopt the practice in preventing the spread of the disease, social distancing has been in use since the early nineteenth century. However, in contemporary use, the term is often used with the meaning of the avoidance of close contact with other people during the outbreak of a contagious disease to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection. The measures often entail cancelling gatherings and it is recommended to maintain a distance of 6 feet (2 meters) between people.

Fomite: A source of contamination, possible surfaces, and objects. It is an object (such as a dish, bannister, door-knob) that may be contaminated with infectious organisms and serve in their transmission. Health workers are increasingly suggesting cleaning of these things as often as possible. The virus can survive as a potent danger on a steel surface for much longer than on cardboard.

Outbreak: It is a sudden rise in the incidence of a disease that is usually confined to one area or group of people. When a lot of people get infected and start showing the symptoms, it is usually being referred to as the spike.

 Epidemic:  An epidemic is an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time. However, it is a temporary prevalence of a disease in a locality where that disease is not permanently prevalent.

When a disease starts spreading into the world, it is pandemic

Pandemic: A pandemic is an epidemic that has become a worldwide phenomenon. It is an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population. An outbreak may become an epidemic if it spreads enough, as an epidemic may likewise become a pandemic. WHO specifically uses pandemic to refer to new diseases people do not have immunity for and that has spread worldwide. The WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Epidemiology: It is the branch of medicine dealing with the incidence and prevalence of the disease in large populations and with the detection of the source and cause of epidemics of infectious disease. An epidemiologist is a person who studies or is an expert in epidemiology.

Exponential: When a disease, such as Covid-19, spreads exponentially, that generally means the number of cases of infection increase steadily but rapidly. Without containment, such exponential spread results in a large number of infections even when an area has a small number of cases, to begin with.

Everywhere in the world, the rulers are in a tight spot as people have started asking – what have you been doing for all these years.

Flatten the curve: This word generates hope. It means slowing the spread of an epidemic disease so that the capacity of the healthcare system doesn’t become overwhelmed. The curve represents the number of cases over time, and flattening that curve means preventing a huge surge of new cases in a very short period.

Community Spread: It is the extent of a contagious disease within a community, where the source of infection is unknown. It also has the specific meaning of the spread of a contagious disease to individuals in a particular geographic location who have no known contact with other infected individuals or who have not recently travelled to an area where the disease has any documented cases.

Contact Tracing:  It is the practice of identifying and monitoring individuals who may have had contact with an infectious person as a means of controlling the spread of a communicable disease. Such people, known as contacts and isolating them, if they become infected, helps slow the spread of the disease. Law requires that all the cases be reported to the public health department, however, as a part of the protocol, all information is kept in strictest confidence.

Patient Zero: Patient zero refers to the person who is identified as the first person infected with a communicable disease during an outbreak. In the case of Kashmir, the first case identified was that of a lady in Srinagar’s Khanyar.

Quarantine: A term that has gone viral these days. Strict isolation, it means a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease. Having its origin to Latin word quadraginta, meaning “forty”, which was a practice permitted by law for a widow to remain in her deceased husband’s principal home without having to pay rent to his heirs.

Coronavirus: Read What The Latest Research Says

Self-Quarantine: A voluntary quarantine, this is the practice to refrain from any contact with other individuals for some time, as advised by the professionals during the outbreak of a contagious disease. Usually done by remaining in one’s home, the person in self-quarantine also limits contact with family members. It is also being called the home quarantine.

Super-Spreader: This term is used for an individual infected with a pathogen, highly contagious and capable of transmitting a communicable disease to an unusually large number of uninfected individuals. The term for the spread of disease by super-spreaders is super-spreading.

Isolation: It is the complete separation from others of a person suffering from contagious or infectious disease. In public health, isolation happens when a person is infected with a communicable disease and is separated from healthy people. This helps stop the spread of disease. This word is derived from the Latin word insula, meaning “island.” The literal etymological meaning of the word isolated is islanded as the first hospitals built in Italy to protect the general population from the sick in the fourteenth century were located on an island.

Mitigation: Disease mitigation is measures taken to slow the spread of infection. Quarantine, isolation, and social distancing are forms of mitigation. Washing your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds is one important thing to do to help prevent the spread, or mitigate, Covid-19

Furlough: A furlough is a usually temporary layoff from work. During the coronavirus outbreak, many workers were furloughed as businesses conducting non-essential activities were closed. This was done to prevent the spread of the disease by banning large gatherings as a form of social distancing.

Immunity: It is the state of being immune from (“protected from a disease”) or insusceptible to a particular disease; the condition that permits either natural or acquired resistance to disease. Humans don’t currently have immunity to Covid-19.

Herd Immunity: Herd immunity is the immunity or resistance to a particular infection that occurs in a group of people or animals when a very high percentage of individuals have been vaccinated or previously exposed to the infection.

Immuno-compromised: It means having an impaired or compromised immune response; also referred to as immune-compromised or immune-deficient.

Coronovirus: How The Virus Scare Is Playing Within The Homes?

Incubation Period: The length of time between when an infection begins and when there are apparent signs of the disease. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is operating under the assumption that Covid-19 has a two to the 14-day incubation period, based on what officials have seen with other coronaviruses. But there are instances in which people started showing signs of disease even after three fortnights.

Contagious: Contagious is transmissible by direct or indirect contact with an infected person. Anything contagious is automatically also infectious, but the reverse is not true.

Infectious: Infectious is producing or capable of producing infection and containing pathogenic agents that may be transmitted. For example, an ailment such as food poisoning is infectious, it is capable of producing infection, but it is not contagious. However, the Coronavirus is both contagious and infectious.

Ventilator: It is a machine that helps a patient to breathe. It pumps oxygen into the lungs and removes carbon dioxide through a tube. In medicine, ventilate can refer to oxygenating the blood (i.e., supplying it with oxygen) or helping someone breathe using a mechanical ventilator. Because Covid-19 is a respiratory disease, it can cause lung inflammation, which makes it hard for patients to breathe. That’s why ventilators are necessary to help treat some patients with the infection, depending on the severity of their symptoms.

Deconstructing SARS-CoV-2

Respirator: A masklike protective device, usually of gauze, worn over the mouth (or nose and mouth) to prevent the inhalation of noxious substances or the like. This helps to filter out virus particles during breathing.

Asymptomatic: It means showing no evidence of disease.

Morbidity Rate: It is a measure of how many people have an illness relative to the population.

Mortality Rate: It is a measure of how many people have died because of an illness, also relative to the population or the morbidity that a particular disease created.

by Nazir Ahmad Gilkar and Iqra Majeed Shah

Kashmir personifies a systemic, normalised clampdown. The shutdowns are usually a 100 to 200 days affair in a year. These shutdown and lockdowns have adversely impacted the education system. With the changing times, we too must start thinking about successful alternatives for the examination system. The headway should be from the Closed Book Examination (CBE) to Open Book Examination (OBE) which is finding a due space in a given situation.

Scores of undergraduate students on Tuesday held a protest demonstration in Pratap Park Srinagar. Kl Image by Bilal Bahadur

Context

An OBE is one in which examinees are permitted to carry notes, textbooks or any other approved material into an exam situation. It evaluates one’s ability to find and apply knowledge and especially aimed at developing the skills of critical and creative thinking.  OBE can be held in the traditional examination hall or at home.

Classification

One may think of two kinds of OBE’s, the restricted type and the unrestricted type. The materials examinee can take into an OBE vary in quantum. In the restricted type of open book examinations, students are permitted to bring into the examination room one or more specific documents approved by the course instructor. In the unrestricted OBE, students are free to bring whatever they like. The only restriction for take-home exams is that it should be attempted by the examinee only.

Here an attempt is made to focus on take-home OBE. It is appreciable that many teaching-learning online platforms have been introduced for the students and Google Classrooms top the list.  Learning is to be evaluated for certification in due course of time.

Comparison

Conventional memory testing examinations must pave way for examinations that test student’s intellectual skills. This is where OBE comes in as it is more than just rote learning.

At college and university levels memorising and repeating information is not enough to create employability. It is required to equip learners with intellectual abilities and skills. The beauty of OBE is in constructing creative, comprehensive and case-based ticklish,  brain-teasing questions in building an argument. Learning outcome-based curriculum framework (LOCF) 2018 also suggests OBE introduction. OBE helps to keep the mind healthy. It places the focus on higher-level learning because OBE does not have the same emphasis on memorization. In CBE, the student mugs the information from the textbook without understanding the same and then reproduces it into the answer sheet.

Development

OBE abhors teaching to be the transfer of information from the library or textbooks to the student minds. Teaching ideally should equip students with the ability to acquire knowledge, to modify it on the basis of new experience, and to apply available knowledge for solving problems and make intelligent decisions.

There has been some spadework on the OBE in Kashmir. Professors, N A Nadeem, AGani and Nighat Basu had deliberations upon the subject OBE at the Central University of Kashmir. Prof Parveen A Pandit had thought of plan B in 2018 to be able to work in a world of constraints. CUK has already taken up developing faculty in 2018. During 6th Post ESE workshop, the Varsity arranged a presentation on OBE in order to sensitise its faculty.

Approach

In OBE, construction of a question involves higher-order skills. This relates to structural change from CBE. Questions generally do not start or end up with adjectives, or verbs – discuss, deliberate, explain, elaborate, explore, suggest, comment, trace out, differentiate, and define. Why and how questions are relevant. A question befitting for OBE should be conceptually sound, technically skilful and operationally practical.

No doubt, the idea of OBE will not be accepted at the first instance because change is always resisted. It may consider discipline-specific electives, generic electives, ability enhance, and skill-oriented courses leaving aside core courses (under choice based-credit system) in every programme for home take OBE. The faculty will have a rich inventory of creative, fine-tuned, well-chiselled questions.

However, the OBE suffers from some operational difficulties in a given situation, which can be managed in due course of time. Some academics opine that OBE cannot be conducted in numerical courses of study – Mathematics, Accounting and Taxation but experts differ. They can also construct questions based on OBE. The sample inventory of numerical and non-numerical questions compiled by the authors is available on demand. In business education programmes at the masters level, questions are case study based. Examinees are provided with the case study and the questions asked are not based on memorization but understanding and comprehension analysis and evaluation of an operational situation in an environment. In business programmes, the examination and evaluation is done based on closed and open book systems in 2:1 mix.

It is right that OBE can be started selectively at the beginning. The universities with a small number of students pursuing its programmes can switch over to OBE. CUK has a comparative advantage in this regard. The examination process will be completed within two days, two papers per day as per date sheet notified one week ago. The ways and means can be found out in an environment of constraints provided different minds positively work in tandem.

(Dr Gilkar is former Controller of examinations CUK. Iqra Majeed Shah is a contractual lecturer (Functional English) at HKM Degree College Bandipora.)

Note: Photographs used in this copy are merely for reasons of representation and are not directly linked to the write up

Students who somehow reached home during the pandemic are being asked by their universities to return and appear in examinations. This too at a time when Coronavirus cases in the country are soaring, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

The routine scene in a Srinagar hotel where the female students who flew home during the pandemic are in mandatory quarantine. KL Image: Syed Samreen

As the lockdown is being eased, the students of Jammu and Kashmir who are studying in universities in other parts of the country or abroad are in a dilemma as the varsities have asked them to return to campuses, appear for examinations, and pay fees. This all amidst pandemic and the soaring cases of Coronavirus in the country.

On their part, the students are demanding mass promotions on the assessments of their previous examinations or delay in examinations till the pandemic flattens its curve.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a countrywide lockdown on March 25, to contain the spread of Covid-19, several educational institutions within Jammu and Kashmir and outside have switched to an online mode of education. While the government has described this as a positive shift, and compensation for conventional classes, people across the region have voiced concerns on social media that the students from the poor families and those living in rural areas where internet access is an issue are finding it difficult to access education.

The second flight carrying stranded students from Bangladesh to reach Srinagar today

“We are being told to come, retrieve belongings at the hostels that we may need for examinations and leave only to return again when examinations conclude,” said Arif Ahmed, 22, a law student at Jammu University, who is currently in Himachal Pradesh. “The university is saying that exams will be conducted conventionally and not online”.

Ahmed is worried about accommodation and the Coronavirus as he has to travel back and then return as the university hostels are still closed.

When Coronavirus pandemic marked its presence in India, Ahmed like many of his friends had not imagined the lockdown will prolong.

“I have all the books, notes and documents at the hostel. I left the hostel on March 15, ten days before lockdown. We thought lockdown will not last long and so had kept everything at the hostel.”

Students in the queue to board a train at Bangalore. KL Image

Another student from Baramulla, who is a doctor and pursuing MD at Chandigarh narrates her painful ordeal beginning with her evacuation from the hostel in March and returning home amidst pandemic. She is currently attending on her father suffering from multiple diseases but now is being asked by the University to return and appear for examinations because the lockdown has been eased.

Insha (name changed) is studying at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences Rohtak, Haryana, and had to book her tickets immediately as the lockdown was eased and air traffic resumed.

“I used to live with my family in Haryana before Coronavirus but we had to return home because of the pandemic. Now I am travelling back to the campus for examinations,” she said.

Making the parting comments, students in Kaahmir share their experience and urge people to stay home. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

Talking on the phone, the Public Relations Officer of Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University said, the exams are commencing within a couple of days and students who think they can’t appear should apply through proper procedure. “They can redress their grievances through the proper official procedure, talk to concerned deans and then only we can take the decision,” he said “As of now they have to appear for exams. The lockdown has been eased and students should have no problem in appearing for exams”.

Another student, Azhar Ahmed Najar, who is pursuing BTech (civil engineering) at Desh Bhagat University, Punjab, says that he is a regular student from Kishtwar.

Najar had to return home on March 18. The new semester had begun on February 28 but due to pandemic and lockdown, they could not complete the syllabus. Once back home he was expecting classes to resume on zoom, which to their surprise did not happen.

“How are we supposed to learn, study engineering via WhatsApp PDF, online video lectures?  Besides that internet access remains a problem,” Najar said, insisting the students were not able to properly download pictures, PDF, given the limited speed of the internet in the region. “The classes were mentally agonizing for us. We could not focus on studies”.

Over 470 Stranded Kashmiri Students Leave Madhya Pradesh For  J&K In Buses

Questioning the online mode of education Ahmed said the complex numerical can’t be understood on WhatsApp and different people have different understanding levels for which it is essential to have face to face interactions with a teacher in class or virtually.

Pramod Mandal, Controller of Examinations, Desh Bhagat University, said: “The University has not compelled students especially from Jammu and Kashmir to appear for online examinations as they are aware of the limited access and low-speed internet of the place.” The university, he said, has asked students to appear for examinations in offline mode once the situation is normal and they can come back to university. “We conducted examinations to save and compensate for the lost time during the pandemic. The virus is here to stay but we have to move on”. The director said there will be no mass promotion and students will have to appear in exams sooner or later.

Despite shutdown and lockdowns, many Kashmiri students and professionals have bagged fellowships to study at prestigious western universities, reports Syed Samreen

Mohammad Tabish

Mohammad Tabish, 29, applied for the Chevening scholarship program on the last date. Little did he know that he would be among the very few fortunate students to be selected. Tabish hails from Rawalpora and is currently working for the government in the Social Welfare department. He is the program manager in the integrated child protection program.

Tabish has graduated in English literature from Amity University, followed by masters in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs.

Tabish had decided to apply in 2018 but somehow it did not happen. He did it in 2019. Unfortunately, the time of submitting the application and the fallout of the revocation of Article 370 coincided. But this didn’t stop Tabish from achieving what he had aspired for.

“I faced a lot of difficulties in the process of my application but I’ve always been of the thought that we should try to make the best out of the little we have,” Tabish said.

In September, Tabish moved to Delhi in order to fill the forms and submit his application. “All the interviews that followed were cancelled and instead conducted online. Managing that was really difficult knowing that there was no high-speed internet available in Kashmir,” he said.

After the application was completed, Tabish was the first scholar to be announced from Kashmir. He had applied for the University College London (UCL), London School of Economics (LSE) and the King’s College London (KCL). Out of the three, he got acceptance from UCL and the KCL. He chose to study a one-year Masters in Public Policy at the King’s College London. The scholarship covers everything; from tuition fee to the living expenses.

When asked why he chose to study Public Policy, Tabish replied: “The trend is changing now. There’s more policy-based governance. There’s a dearth of experts in public policy in the Government and I see it as my goal to bring scientific and academic knowledge to the government. Chevening will help me bridge the gap.”

Scholarships like Chevening and the sorts are readily available every year, to every student across the globe who wishes to study abroad. The question is how many students know about such opportunities..

“I’ve always taken criticism positively. Yes we all have difficulties, but I believe that overcoming them is the only way ahead,” he said.

Tabish said every Kashmiri student can fulfil his dream of studying abroad. “It just takes effort and resilience. Being successful is secondary, what counts is the effort,” he said.

Husnain Mustafa Khawaja

At just 21, Hasnain Mustafa Khawaja was already the first president of Saaya– Shadow of hope’ – a  non-governmental organisation that was co-founded by him. Hasnain is the second Chevening scholar from Kashmir who bagged the award. He attributes his social work for the award. Chevening scholarship is something that does not just focus on the academic background of a student. Chevening looks for world leaders who can reap financial rewards and have an insight into what’s happening on the global level.

Hasnain hails from Bemina area of Srinagar and is a law graduate. He has completed his BA, LLB from the University of Kashmir. Hasnain carries the genes for law and advocacy from his father, Tasaduq Hussain Khawaja, a senior advocate at the J&K High Court.

At an early age and after working tirelessly during 2014 floods for the relief distribution and financial assistance of affected people, Hasnain thought of forming his own organization that would be youth-centric and would work for the underprivileged children aspiring to learn. So, he started ‘Saaya’.

“We’ve helped children financially. We have distributed books among them. I genuinely feel that there must be someone whose good wishes and prayers have led me to where I am. I’m just 25 and getting this scholarship is truly overwhelming.” Hasnain said. “The whole heart of the matter in getting any kind of scholarship abroad is, a student being extracurricular active”.

Usually, in Kashmir, the main focus of a student remains on getting good grades and excelling in exams. The number on the sheets is given the utmost priority over any other thing. While as the whole point of education is the application of the curriculum on the ground.

According to Hasnain, everyone has dreams but only a few have the urge to fulfil them.

“I had a dream of studying in London but for a common Kashmiri like me, it was really difficult spending approximately 40 lakh rupees per year abroad. And I think that if I could do it, any other Kashmiri as well can,”’ he said, insisting he has chosen the Queen Mary University of London and will be pursuing a Masters in Law with a specialisation in Human rights. “I want to come back to Kashmir and work on Juvenile rights, broadly human rights. We all know that there is a vacuum and I wish to fill it,” he said.

Sehreen Shamim

With a desire to shun patriarchy and sexism, Sahreen Shamim set out to achieve her aspirations and dreams a long time back, when she packed her bags and left to work outside Kashmir.

Shamim, 29, hails from Natipora (Srinagar) and has been offered a place in the Oxford University, United Kingdom. Shamim has chosen to study Masters in Public Policy.

”I wish to come back and frame fruitful policies for Kashmir. Studying public policy, that too in The United Kingdom will be like a dream come true for someone like me, someone who was pressurized to study the traditional subjects after twelfth grade,” Shamim said.

Shamim couldn’t handle the cultural conditioning and the societal pressure and chose to break all the fetters that besieged her. Shamim graduated from Mount Carmel College Bangalore in Economics followed by a masters program in the same subjects from Amity University.

Shamim has worked as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) official and also helped tribal women with livelihood generation. For a long time, Shamim found herself under-appreciated for the different types of work and lifestyle that she had chosen.

“I was often name-called and looked down upon just because I chose to live the life I had dreamt of,” she said. “But somehow, I had a hunch that one day everyone around would be proud of me. I just care about my parents being proud of me. They are the happiest people right now. Getting into Oxford is everyone’s dream and today, their daughter did it.” She wants the youngsters to “stand up for yourself” even if your parents are not supportive.

Sehar Iqbal

Mother of two kids, Dr Sehar Iqbal is the first Kashmiri woman to be awarded the Women’s scholarship by Saïd Business School, Oxford University.

Sehar will be a fellow at the Lady Margaret Hall, one of the first Oxford Colleges to admit women. It has been the Alma Mater of Malala Yousafzai as well as Benazir Bhutto.

Sehar has two kids under seven years of age.

From the very beginning, Sehar has had global exposure and experience and even now, after being in wedlock, she will pursue the programme at Oxford.

According to Sehar, it’s just a matter of effort and desire to achieve whatever a person wishes for. She said that more and more Kashmiri women should apply for scholarships abroad regardless of their financial status or any other condition.

“There’s no ideal time to do anything. I think that I’m no different. Having children or being married shouldn’t be a determinant of what a woman deserves in life. I have a highly supportive husband who pushed me to study further. I’m thankful that I am surrounded by supportive people” she said.

Sehar is a development expert with 15 years of experience working in disaster-affected and conflict areas in India, Tajikistan and Bangladesh. Her grassroots work includes livelihood support for abandoned women, building community infrastructure and disaster risk reduction. She has consulted for agencies like the Aga Khan Development Network, American Red Cross, European Commission, the Asian Development Bank, and the Ministry for Rural Development Government of India.

In 2012, Dr Iqbal was the fellow of the inaugural class of the India Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative by the Asia Society, Rockefeller Foundation. She has a PhD in Social Sciences. She studied Human Development in Jammu and Kashmir under Prof. Jean Dreze, a world-renowned economist. She did her PhD when pregnant with her second child.

“Every woman needs to make time for her dreams and aspirations. Every mother who pursues education sets an example for her children to put their education first,” she said. “Every woman who works after marriage demonstrates commitment and hard work as the foundations of success to her children. If you value yourself your child will learn to value women.”

The post Offshore Classes appeared first on Kashmir Life.

Except for a fortnight-long reopening of educational institutions in March, the lingering yearlong security siege now melded with Covid-19 lockdown has effectively turned Kashmir into a country without access to education, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

Over 470 Stranded Kashmiri Students leave Madhya Pradesh for  their home in Jammu and Kashmir in the second week of May 2020. KL ImageJ&K In Buses

When was the last time you saw the school bus honking on the road? Recall when kids at home woke up early to get ready, wearing a uniform, and rushing towards the bus stop. When was the last time you entered the classroom, flung chalk at your classmate, greeted teacher in person?  It is a struggle to remember. It seems like an age has passed.

This all, makes Hashim Farooq, a class third student in Srinagar to miss school. He wants to switch off the phone of his parents and leave the routine of attending online classes and rush to the offline traditional classroom.

Flashback

Schools were reopened on February 24, seven months after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year as the lockdown was eased in Kashmir. Though to bring a semblance of normalcy, the administration had earlier tried to reopen schools in mid-August and the first week of October in 2019 but it failed. Parents were afraid to send their children out amid the communications blackout and tense ground situation. Instead, parents were forced to travel miles to fetch study material for their wards in pen drives. This all was done to “compensate” for the loss of academics while monthly fees from parents were also demanded at the same time.

Later in 2019, in October, the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) released date-sheets for classes 10 and 12th. Likewise, the administration also geared up for college and university exams. As students pursuing higher studies were unable to attend colleges and universities, the administration directed them to take study material from their respective departments to prepare for exams.

At the end of the year, the students appeared in exams and passed.

There are almost 11,633 educational institutes across Kashmir with more than 100 thousand enrolments up to the higher secondary level.

Students Struggle

Danish Farooq and Tanzeela Tariq are like thousands of Kashmiri students who have seen little of formal school since last year. Enrolled in the tenth class in a private school, Danish breaks into a smile when he recalls last year’s final exams.

“They were dreamlike exams. We had not completed our syllabus as schools were shut. After a few months, we went to school where we were given study material, question papers and answer sheets,” he said.  Tanzeela Tariq, his cousin adds: “We were asked to write exams at home and submit the answer sheets after a week. We just consulted our study material on our own and then wrote answers.”

Was it really an exam? The duo laughed.

Subsequently, in December, last year, a three-month-long winter break was announced in schools.

Pandemic Lockdown

Then came March and the nationwide pandemic lockdown forced educational institutions to close again. On March 11, a week before the first case was detected in Kashmir; the administration ordered the closure of all educational institutions, this time to contain the Coronavirus.

Amid the lockdown, the educational institutions switched to online classes. With downgraded internet, the access to learning and teaching is difficult unlike the rest of the country. One of the government teachers in Srinagar wishing anonymity said: “It is difficult for me to conduct classes online as the speed is excruciatingly slow as he has to upload material. The students also face difficulties with downloading of material.”

The teacher said that meaningful education has nothing to do with finishing the syllabus and burdening children with long hours in front of screens. Teaching is about interactive communication and when one can’t communicate effectively especially in a virtual mode in the absence of high speed what is the point?

In the on-line set-up, the teachers and students do not see each other, and at times they are unable to hear each other properly. Another government primary school teacher said managing digital classes are difficult and demanding. “Out of 25 students, only half of them are interested in the online mode of education. The lack of technical know-how among students and families due to age and social background, access and learning becomes an issue. I prefer conference calls or WhatsApp rather than other inconvenient apps like Zoom,” he said.

“At times students skip classes by not reciprocating phone calls or do not attend classes or have phones with parents who have their own work to do.”

Most of the students attend classes from their mothers’ phone as they are home all day.

Each districts zone receives digital data which gives information about the number of students and teachers engaged in classes and percentage of e-classes. On an average 80- 90 students and teachers are shown engaged. The protocol has been made by education authorities that all the students should be engaged. The school authorities have been directed by authorities to provide information about those who are not able to attend classes.

Going Online

One of the teachers while explaining procedures of new pedagogy said that online schooling relies on WhatsApp, Zoom, Google classes. “The teacher has to first shoot the lectures themselves and then upload them on WhatsApp. The teachers send and receive assignments from the students from WhatsApp and the links provided by schools and colleges.”

At 11.00 am, Danish and Tanzeela log from their individual phones to Zoom for three half-an-hour long classes with some breaks for refreshment. They are joined by more than 40 other students. “After attending classes, I finish my assignments,” Tanzeela said. “These days, I am preparing for online examinations.” The classes until now have been smooth for both the students owing to access and high speed at home.

Tahseen Qazi who is a higher secondary student in Srinagar, said: “I could not download the zoom for hours and when I did there is a struggle with buffering of audio and video lessons. Out of hundreds of students couple of student attends online lectures,” said Tahseen.  Last year after the abrogation of Article 370 he managed to study offline and pass but this year it seems impossible as pandemic has shut traditional offline classes and the low speed of online classes has added to his agonies.

“I am in class 12 and up until now, my books are untouched. I cannot comprehend low speed online lectures. There are almost 200 more students and whenever I attend there are very few. My teacher phoned a few days back to enquire why I don’t attend classes. Today I did but due to low connectivity I got irked and left.”

Another high school private school student Illyas Akbar, a son of a government employee, said: “My parents have appointed a private tutor in proximity.”

The parents have cleared all the fees at school and the exams were conducted online. The objective question paper was sent online and within a prescribed time the students are supposed to send them back. “Many times my heart skipped a beat when I could not log in or send as I faced problems in sending back answer sheet,” said Illyas, who had another phone at his disposal to search for answers.

In order to ensure attendance Illyas keeps his phone logged in but rarely participates in the classroom as he says he does not have patience and concentration now.

Last year many teachers, students, researchers have had to leave the state and migrate to other states as a complete communication clampdown was imposed but this time they are finding themselves in a dilemma.

Zubair Farooq who studies in 4th semester at Islamia College of Science and Commerce misses his college, “I am already lagging one semester behind.  I should have been in 5th semester but due to political uncertainty and now pandemic our semester got delayed,” said Zubair.

Keeping current pandemic in consideration and the economy that is already suffering the college has halved the examination fees of students.

Kashmiri students who have been studying in foreign universities and had to return because of the pandemic were equally flustered because of the absence of high speed. Many have had to install and buy broadband connections to keep up with the other students in and outside the country.

“Our universities are conducting online lecture,” says Salman Majeed one of the engineering students who pursue masters in Italy and attending them low-speed internet is unthinkable.

Open-air Classes

The year without schooling and successive lockdowns forced some teacher’s across Kashmir to come up with the open-air classes while adhering to standard operating procedures amidst pandemic like physical distancing, wearing masks simultaneously. The first such initiative came from congested old’ city where a mathematics teacher Muneer Alam, resumed classes for higher secondary students started classes – near the Eidgah, Srinagar’s largest prayer ground, mostly used for congregational prayers on the occasion of Eid.

Students in the ‘Open-Air Class’ at Eidgah ground in wake of lockdown imposed to curb the spread of deadly Coronavirus, in Srinagar. Muneer Alam, a mathematician has taken an initiative to teach students in an open ground of Eidgah in downtown Srinagar following all Covid-19 SOP’s, in the wee hours of a day, to avoid further academic loss of students following the abrogation of Article 370 and CovidD-19 lockdown. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

Around 50-70 students gather at the open-air venue from as early as 5 a.m. and the classes end by 7: 00 a.m. Even before the first light of dawn cracks, these students even from far-off areas of Srinagar start gathering. “The timing suited us because it’s not noisy at morning and the movement is minimal, helping to avoid any contact and maintain social distancing,” Alam said adding that to learn mathematics especially of higher classes the classroom should be interactive like traditional ones. “The morning atmosphere and open – air space is perfect for studies.”

The teacher expressed his worries as those confined and cooped up inside homes.  He said that attending virtual classes may not be able to cope up with future challenging exams competently as basics need to be cleared.

“Mere passing is not education. Many of those in higher classes have to appear in various national level competitive exams and I worry if the students have prepared and learned effectively,” he said.

The teacher believes that if high-speed internet functioned in Kashmir, students may have attended online classes more effectively and through other learning digital platforms like in the rest of the world.

The teacher has kept the open-air classes free for everyone.

Govt Initiatives

The educational broadcast by the government in times of pandemic enabled many students to learn through the medium of radio and television.

The Directorate of School Education (DSEK), Kashmir had started telecasts on March 26 through the Kashir channel of Doordarshan Kendra, Srinagar and presently two classes are aired daily covering the syllabus of elementary and secondary classes.

Earlier, the J&K government has also decided to provide 2,500 low-budget educational tablets to the students of classes 10 and 12 for augmenting their virtual learning experience.

Many of the students, Kashmir Life spoke to described disinterest in the classes via a mass medium like radio and television as they are tempted to flip the channels and also have consistent distractions at home.

GN Var, the head of Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir, a group of 4,500 private schools, said that education has come to a standstill for more than a year. Prior to August 5 last, there were summer vacations in Kashmir and then suddenly before students could return to classes the sudden lock up made them lock up schools for months. The private schools’ association, along with a group of media professionals and doctors, had filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the internet curbs.

“There are government guidelines for online schooling but our kids have access to 2G only. All the interactive software and applications in the world today are 4G based. That’s why our students struggle with the online classes,” said Var.

Defending the withholding or half-salary disbursements to private school teachers he said: “Most of the schools have limited resources and parents have not paid fees yet. In big elite schools, there are no issues of funds as the students’ come from affluent families especially government employees. The students studying in small private schools belong to humble backgrounds and have difficulty thereby managing funds and disbursing salaries.

Principal Secretary Education (J&K) Asgar Hassan Samoon and Director, School Education, Kashmir, Mohammad Younis Malik did not reciprocate to repeated phone calls.

Teachers’ Plight

The successive lockdowns have made economy nosedive thereby entailing hardships for the students, teachers, schools and parents likewise.

People belonging to private and informal sector especially transport, tourism, teaching and other sectors have been struggling with their livelihood since more than a year, and the COVID has come as a double whammy as lakhs of people have been forced out of their jobs. Despite livelihood getting hit, parents have been clearing the fees of their kids as they do not want the debt to incur. But many private school teachers on the condition of anonymity said that their salaries are either withheld or have been paid only half salary.

A young student in her living room connected with her teacher in an online class. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

Unlike government counterparts who have to teach fewer students, the onus is more on private teachers who have to deal with a large number of students and are more accountable but low paid. One of the private teachers at a leading private school at Pampore said their ordeal began last year.

“I frequently flip my message box to see if I have received the full salary, just enough to keep the hearth going. I have two kids and my husband is also a private teacher. I was compelled to do a job to support him,” she said.

Since last year almost all the teachers have been paid Rs 3000 per month. “Many months were not paid. We have been pleading to pay a decent amount as we have to struggle with this little amount. The school administration is blaming parents and limited resources,” she said.

Similarly, Shabir Ahmed, a government employee and the parent of three kids in Srinagar said, he clears the fees every month as he does not want debts to incur. “We have to keep in consideration our teacher community who depend on our fees. Why should I withhold if I am receiving my salary every month.”

Recently Abdul Rashid, General Secretary Houseboat Owners Association had appealed to Parents Association of Privately Administered Schools to waive off school fees for the period of August 2019- June 2020 as the tourism sector and the people associated with the business are out of work for more than a year.

One of the well-known intellectuals who laid the base for the modern education in Kashmir soon after the partition died on August 18, at the age of 97. Lawyer Agha Faisal Ali, who has written a history on the influential Qazilbash family, offers an idea about the institution that Kashmir lost in Agha’s demise

Prof Agha Ashraf Ali (1922 – 2020)

In 1944, when Agha Ashraf Ali was appearing for his MA History examination at the Aligarh Muslim University, he was disappointed with his performance in the paper on the French revolution. He left the examination halfway and appeared again in 1945 securing the first position and was awarded the Morrison Medal. He always craved for excellence in education.

However, his academic journey was not that easy.

The Muslim Block

Agha’s first public speech was in 1941 when he was a student at SP College. As Secretary of the college’s Historical Society, he addressed a gathering of 150 students. The news of the first speech news reached Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad who were the most known political faces of Kashmir. The same year, Agha floated the Muslim Block in the College after being inspired by the Forward Block of Subash Chandra Bose. Agha became its president and Syed Mir Qasim its secretary.

This development took place at a time when Quit India Movement had started. Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah asked Bakshi to make Agha understand that the formation of the Muslim Block will not be in the best interest of the students. After a few days the then principal of the college, Avtar Krishen Kitchloo went to see Agha’s parents, Begum and Agha Zaffar Ali Qizilbash. They were told that if the Muslim Block was not undone, he will be rusticated from the college. Under pressure, the Muslim Block was rolled back and it gave a “traitor” label to Agha in the College.

On October 2, 1941, Dr Zakir Hussain delivered a lecture at the Jammu and Kashmir Students Federation Annual Conference, in the SP College, Srinagar. This lecture had a tremendous impact on Agha.

Youth, Dr Zakir Hussain said, was not “attainment”, but an “opportunity” that must not go by. Agha fell in love with Dr Zakir Hussain as the speech became a turning point in his life. He was nominated for “all-round best graduate award”, an honour he never received.

In 1942, Agha moved to AMU for masters in History. It was there, he was taught by the brilliant Professors of old English. In 1946, he moved to Jamia.

No Friends

Born to Qizilbash Aghas, an aristocratic Srinagar family with Afghan descent, Agha’s first bitter experience of the privileged life was when he was admitted to the Mission School Fateh Kadal. There, all the children would sit on the floor and Agha would sit on a chair, a specifically commissioned privilege. This privilege landed him in a situation that nobody in the classroom wanted to be his friend. In later years, he gave up this privilege but the experience left a deep impact on his mind. He got disillusioned with the feudal system.

Agha Qizilbash Manzil sold, Neelam Cinema Lane, in 1940, later used as the first Teachers Training College for some time. Interestingly, Agha Ashraf taught in the same premises later

The third son of his parents, Agha was adopted by his maternal grandfather Khan Bahadur Aga Syed Hussain, the first matriculate from Kashmir, who was a minister in Maharaja Hari Singh’s darbar. He grew up as a pampered boy and was a nickname in the family as Phal Kath.

Agha’s mother Begum Zaffar Ali, Kashmir’s first woman matriculate, was a teacher and eventually became Chief Inspector of Schools Kashmir in 1952. His father, Agha Zaffar Ali along with his half-brother Agha Firdous Ali and cousin Agha Abdullah, were registered as Jagirdars of the joint family estates in the revenue records till 1950.

Agha’s brothers Agha Nasir Ali and Agha Shaukat Ali became civil servants in India and Pakistan respectively. Agha chose “to become a teacher”.

He taught History at Jamia Millia Islamia in close association and under the guidance of Dr Zakir Hussain, who later became the President of India. It was in Jamia, that Agha met Mahatma Gandhi in 1946. The same year, Agha married Sufia Nomani, a resident of Rudauli near Lucknow. It was a love marriage.

To England

In 1950, Agha went to England and specialized in academic diploma in comparative education, educational organization and administration. He was influenced by the philosophy of Martin Buber and greatly inspired by socialist ideas. For the last three months in 1951, he visited schools in France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark in order to understand the system of education there and the way of teaching. Later that year he returned home.

Soon after, Agha was appointed as officer on special duty to the then Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. At 28, he was appointed as Inspector of Schools, Kashmir in 1952. From the very first day, he started rebuilding the educational edifice in Jammu and Kashmir. In his own car, he drove to Kargil – an officer visiting the area in 16 years, to find the teacher sleeping and the children reciting, “CAT – Cat maanay Choohaa”.

Mrs and Mrs Agha Ashraf Ali with their three children at the time of Agha receiving PhD in 1964 in the USA

Agha’s autobiography Kuch Tou Likhyay Ki Loug Kehtay Hein has many interesting anecdotes. In the autumn of 1952, he received a group of students led by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed with a plea that they came from poor families and cannot afford private tutors during vacations. The next morning Agha was in Bijbihara School at 10 am. The headmaster, Ganga Dhar Raina and teachers were summoned and told that they will not avail the vacations and continue teaching students. Results were encouraging: of the 11 students who appeared in the matriculation that year from the school, two managed to pass. One of them was Mufti Sayeed, who later became the Chief Minister.

Perhaps that was the reason why Mufti as Chief Minister wanted to return the favour by offering Agha a berth in the Legislative Council and Education Ministry, an offer Agha politely declined.

Teaching Teachers

In 1954 Agha was made the officiating principal of the Teachers College of Education that incidentally operated from his own family’s ancestral house. Later he was taken as principal of the National Extension Training Centre, where there were 200 village-level workers who were being communication skills were honed.

Kandahar’s Qizilbash

Once in government, rulers and policymakers hardly see the specialisation of individual officers. He would be shifted as an officer, not as an expert. He put it beautifully in his own autobiography: “The irony of it all; from Culture to Agriculture, from character formation to castration of the bulls, and to top it all, (from) the dissemination of knowledge to the artificial insemination of the cow…….”

When Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq became the Education Minister, Agha was asked to join back as Inspector of Schools. He insisted he will stay back as head of the TT College, a position he retained till 1960.

In America

In 1960, a Fulbright Scholarship led Agha to move to the United States of America along with his family to complete his education. He was enrolled at the Ball State Teachers College, in Muncie, Indiana, where he did his PhD in comparative education thus becoming the first PhD of the Ball State Teachers College, the USA in 1964.

After his return in 1967, Agha was appointed as officer on special duty for a brief period. Instead of becoming the Director of Information, he stayed in the education sector. His efforts led to the setting up of Department of Education at the University of Kashmir. He applied for a professor’s position, which eventually he became and started heading the Education Department in 1968.

Greater Father, Great Son: Agha Ashraf Ali with his son Agha Shahid Ali

From 1971 to 1972, Agha was a member of the Bhagwan Sahai Committee on Education which was headed by JP Nayak. In 1973, Agha was appointed as Director of training and curricula from 1973 -1975, in which all training was under his guidance. He used modern methods to train teachers and to frame the curricula of schools and colleges. He was also given the temporary powers of the Chairman Board of School Education which till then was the exclusive domain of the education Minister. In 1975, he became the full-fledged Chairman of the Board and in the subsequent five years, he made sweeping reforms. Till then, a student failing in one subject would fail in the entire examination.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah wanted him to head the University of Kashmir but some opposition led him to become the Commissioner of Higher Education in Jammu and Kashmir. There, he was caught between politics and his idealism. According to the details in his autobiography, Agha was about to expose a larger birth certificate racket that would have marred the careers of many teachers in the education sector. Finally, he resigned himself without claiming that his own date of birth was wrong and that he has superannuated.

Prof Agha Ashraf Ali

In December 1982, he accepted Dr Farooq Abdullah’s requested to take over the department of Education. After many decades, he got back into overhauling the system. Agha was tipped to head the University but it was resisted. So he was appointed as the Chairman of the Competent Authority of J&K. In 1992, he resigned citing open nepotism and interference in his official duties.

Agha’s wife Sufia Agha, who also worked in education, died in 1997. Their eldest son Agha Shahid Ali, the world-famous Kashmiri poet, died in 2001. Agha is survived by his son Dr Agha Iqbal Ali, and two daughters Dr Hena Ahmed and Dr Sameetah Agha. They all are professors in various American universities. Owing to the pandemic, neither of them could participate in their father’s funeral.

(The author is a cousin nephew of Prof Agha Ashraf Ali.)

Teachers recount the travails of delivering online lectures at 2G speed, reports Umar Mukhtar

Open Air Online Class without a teacher on a hillock in Lachipora Wildlife Sanctuary. This is the place where students from a number of villages go daily to manage better 2G internet access. KL Image: Sheikh Mustafa

At 8 am,  Rafia, a school teacher, keeps her cell phone connected with a charger fixed to a wall. This is in anticipation of her online lecture delivery to the students of Salfia Muslim Higher Secondary Institute Srinagar, where she is employed.

 After the Covid-19 lockdown was implemented, all educational institutions were shut for an indefinite period. To cope with a seemingly unending lockdown, educational institutions switched to a virtual mode of teaching. So, teachers connected to students via online.

In Kashmir, teaching online is an uphill task, as no high-speed internet is available. This all has to be done in 2G mode. So, Rafia gets herself ready for the classroom half an hour earlier. But she is always nervous while delivering the online classes. She does not know if anyone will pop up on the other side of the screen.

Rafia has been teaching her online classes from April. Every day, she delivers lecturers to three online classes. The months-long experience of Rafia is unexpectedly scary. She says such classes are “horrible and humiliating” especially for a private school teacher.

Pathetic Parents

In June, while teaching via online mode, she spotted a student by the name of ‘Redmi 6.’ “Who is this Redmi 6,” Rafia asked repeatedly. After some time a mature male voice answered. “My child is playing outside. I will take his class; you teach me and I will teach him later on.”  

Sharing another such incident, Rafia says she got a call at 11 in the night from a parent. “My child was not present in the last day’s examination. Can you take his exam?,” Rafia remembered the father of her student saying.  “I told him that this is not the appropriate time to call. I told him to call at 10 am and I will take an exam for your child. Following day till 4, he didn’t call me.”

At 4 pm, the parent called her again and urged her to give their child some more hours to prepare. “I will call you in the evening,” the parent, Rafia said, told her. “I told him to ask your child to prepare at ease, I am going to take his exam the following day.” Rafia did not get the call again for the examination, so far. “I seriously doubt the intentions of such people. It is very tough for a teacher to go through all this.”    

Bullying Virtually

Parents apart, teachers face bullying by the students. Most students take online classes non-seriously. Abid, known as John Sir in his school is a teacher at Holy Messenger at Pulwama. He never tolerates indiscipline in his class but students now bully him online and he cannot figure it out who is doing what. “Students don’t take classes seriously and we cannot do anything,” Abid said, adding if they ask a question for the feedback to a student, they mostly excuse by saying, “sir, you are inaudible and leave the class.”

Virtual Classroom

“Sometimes, they make us repeat one single line for ten times, citing slow speed,” Abid said. Still, John sir believes that the female teachers are more bullied than their male counterparts.

Irfana, a teacher at Radiant School is teaching the lower primary department students. She literally has cried once when during her class someone in the background said: “yem che darbedar madme, yeman chunne kama kaara khen. Ketchen taam pounsen hind bapath darbedar gamche (These teachers have no work. This is why they are doing this job for peanuts”.

Once delivering the lecture, a parent of some student asked if she could repeat what she had taught three days earlier. “My son had gone to a relative’s place to attend a marriage,” she was told by the parent. But Irfana politely said it is a class of 40 students. “Sorry I cannot repeat that in this class,” She told the parent. This reply of Irfana infuriated the parent and he started yelling at her saying how dare she say no to him.

“I will buy your school if I wish to. I will show you your place,” the parent, she said, told her.  “This all was happening in front of the third standard students. Imagine a teacher being humiliated in front of her students,” Irfana said in a choked voice.

Irafana said that once she heard a student who had accidentally kept his microphone on telling another guy, probably his cousin that he was going out with his parents and, in case, madam asks for him, tell her he has gone to the washroom.”

After finishing her class, she called his parents and told them what their son did. “They laughed and said, madam, he is a child,” Irfana said.   

There are interesting things also happening in the online education system. One official said his teacher wife was unwell and the students connected to her phone. “She had no strength to teach but students were keen to have the class,” the official said. “It was then that my daughter suggested that she will teach the students for the day. The class was a success and it changed into a crisis. From the second day, the primary class students started demanding that – ‘why can not Didi teacher us, Mam’. Asa result of this, now both the Mom and the daughter teach the same class – sometimes both on daily basis.

Judging Teachers

To err is human. If a teacher makes a mistake, some parents humiliate them there. “It is not students whom we are teaching. It is basically judges, scientists, police officials, lecturers who are there. We have to be very cautious now. They want us to teach the kids of their level which cannot be done,” said Irfana.    

What is missing in the online mode is the classroom ambience. A teacher used to exercise control over the students. Now that is missing, so parents’ role is critical, teachers believe.

A young student in her living room connected with her teacher in an on-line class. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

Imran Ahad, a government school teacher says that though he has not experienced any such incident till now but has heard of many such stories from his colleagues. “There is no other alternative, online is the only way to learn, especially at a place that is frequented by shutdowns,” Ahad said. “As a society, we need to give it a larger acceptance and sync it with the physical classroom education.”  

Sharing his colleagues’ experience Ahad said that he was told by a parent if schools are really concerned about the studies of children, why don’t they give them phones then.

Ahad attributes this attitude of parents to their frustration with the ongoing situation. “They find the teachers soft targets and vent their ire on them,” Ahad said, adding “as a society, it is the high time to react, value teachers for their effort”. Ahad, however, said that some things need to be addressed at the official level as well. “I know what it takes to manage a class on 2G speed,” he said.

(Some names have been changed on request)

So far, Kashmir’s public discourse surrounded the loss of school days and the sluggish 2G in the education’s online circus. Silently but surely, the situation has reached a level that now schools are on distress sale. Some have already been sold if not shut. Caught between the debt-trap and income loss, the development is going to hit the education sector severely impacting the next generation, reports Khalid Bashir Gura and Umar Mukhtar

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurates Women’s T20 Cricket Tournament on September 19, 2020

Everybody knows that education is the key sector that has borne the maximum brunt of the reading down of Article 370 fallout followed by the pandemic. Initially, the impact was assessed in terms of the number of school days lost. That was impacting the students, who tried to stay educated using the sluggish 2G.

As the crisis prolongs, the impact is manifesting itself from the other side – the crisis is now decimating the institutional infrastructure in the education sector. Now a number of private schools are on the verge of closure. Some are literally on sale, partially, if not wholly.

Most of the educational institutions remained closed for more than six months in the wake of the reading down of the special status that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed for over 70 years till August 2019. It was only in late February that the educational institutions resumed classes only to be closed again, this time due to Coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, after more than six months, the government reopened the schools for classes 9 to 12. But quite a few students showed up due to the Covid-19 scare. Parents are unwilling to oblige the government given the gradual spike in the pandemic cases. Jammu and Kashmir has already lost more than 1050 individuals and the September witnessed doubling of numbers in comparison to August.

In the deserted building looking decked-up from outside, the crisis inside is creating stories of loss and tragedies. These stories hardly come out.

PSSAK President G N Var addressing a press conference in Srinagar on Friday February 22,2019.

Amid all these months, Junaid Younis, 32, a resident of Bandipora who had completed his MBA from the University of Kashmir had started a primary school in 2019. Younis, however, had not evaluated the worst-case scenarios that are too common in Kashmir. Pandemic was nowhere around when he put his plans to practice.

His heart was always in the education sector. Instead of serving as an employee, he wanted to impart education, create an institution and teach the new generation. However, the lack of resources was a perpetual tension. So he decided to work in the private sector while simultaneously preparing for government a job. In subsequent years he had to subsist on peanuts from private companies.

“I tried to prepare for many government examinations but they disillusioned me,” said Younis. “Most of the vacancies have court stay order on them, some had back door appointments”.

Having started his career as a career counsellor to support his livelihood,  Younis’s journey was not as easy. After doing proper market research of the surroundings he lived in, he came up with an idea of starting a school at a rented building, in a small village of Ashtangoo, in Bandipora. Even though there are many government schools in the area, Younis felt the need to start a private school to impart quality education.

“There were very few students who were able to pass high school due to lack of quality education,” he said as he envisions instilling dreams of higher education in the students of his school.

Younis wanted his school to be affordable for diverse backgrounds so that even poor children will also have access to quality education.

Prior to starting school, Younis faced many impediments in getting official approval as he was made to run from pillar to post like his search for a government job. After the education officials inspected his school and gave it the approval, he started with an admission of Rs 1500 to his primary school with a monthly fee of Rs 320.

“Initially my target was 40- 50 students but more than 70 turned up to avail admissions,” he said.  “The school started operating from a small rented building with Younis paying monthly charges of Rs 7000 to the proprietor.”

He hired a staff of 5 teachers with good educational qualifications besides non-teaching staff and driver for a minicab was also employed. “I was in deficit but hopeful,” said Younis.

“Many affluent people from the area sent their children to far off places like Srinagar for basic education but not everyone can afford to send their wards to far off places or pay exorbitant fees,” said Younis who wanted to give them hope through his initiative.

Kids on way to school

Finally, Younis seeing his dreams come true as the primary class students were starting to enrol themselves, and the school started to function in February 2020 from the rented accommodation. But only after two weeks, the schools were made to shut again, this time due to pandemic.

This was the second major shock to his initiative. Earlier, when Kashmir was locked down in 2019, Younis’s fledgeling initiative was pushed to an existential crisis. He responded strongly to the crisis and waited for the situation to change. After a few months, as the lockdown was eased, the response to Younis’ initiative was met with enthusiasm in his area. Having worked hard at personal marketing and convinced many willing parents of the importance of quality education which he was planning to provide, his effort appeared to be succeeding.

As the pandemic raged,  Younis ‘school faced its litmus test of ensuring education and managing expenses. “I was worried about how I will ensure education as well as payment of the expenses. I could not even ask parents for fees as most of them were not in a position to pay due to crippling lockdown,” said Younis. “They were not earning anything so asking them to pay was impossible.”

When the entire world was getting online education by sitting at home and the student of the Kashmir too with their share of struggle with the 2G speed, most of the enrolled primary students of his school had no access to phones. The challenge was how to reach them amid lockdown.

“Initially, I along with my teachers started preparing written assignments for students so that education is not compromised and I along with my teachers delivered them to their homes,” said Younis. “Once the assignments were collected back, the teachers were disappointed with the output. Later community classes in villages were started in the open spaces by teachers”.

At one point of time in the unending lockdown, Younus ran out of the resources. Since the school is shut and he had to pay salary to his staff and manage other expenses Younis sold his cab that used to bring kids of poor families to his school from far-off areas.

“I had no money to pay to teachers. I sold the only cab that I had bought to ferry kids,” said dejected Younus.  He used the money to meet the expenses required for operating the school. As the lockdown has been eased, and the schools have started to reopen, Younis is hopeful with his Hope School.

Just A Test Case

The struggle of Younis is not exclusive as many like him across Kashmir are struggling to manage their expenses and are selling their school assets to bear the expenses.

“The private schools are on sale. They are selling their assets. More than one hundred schools are on sale, especially after successive lockdowns,” said a source privy to the development. This source is in the education sector trying to find buyers for the assets which have become impaired owing to the prevailing situation.

“Most of these schools were started by people who had opted against availing government jobs or were unemployed. They had availed loans to start the schools and are now crumbling under expenses to keep them functional,” the source, talking on the condition of anonymity said.

Most of these schools are selling the property as banks are seeking repayment of the outstanding loans. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had put a moratorium on the repayments for six months. The interest accrued on these accounts for the last six months has added the debt burdens of all these accounts. The government is not willing to pay the interest and it has become a larger liability for these enterprises to manage. Since the schools are not earning anything, they find it very difficult to manage the repayments.

As the schools are still closed and the education is online, most of the schools are struggling to meet the expenses of managing the hired staff, teaching as well as non -teaching.

This situation has triggered a new business for special brokers who are finding buyers for these assets, managing distress sales. A broker who is in the process of selling a school said that a boarding high school spread over 10 kanals of land in Srinagar with more than 150 students enrolled in it, is on sale. “Another private higher secondary school has more than 250 students enrolled in it. It is spread over 4 kanals of land and costs around Rs 3 crore,” he said.

His basket is quite huge. He has one school that costs around Rs 7 crore. “This will normally be a property worth Rs 15 crore but the gentleman has to pay Rs 2 crore to the bank and is willing to sell it at this petty price,” he said.

Frequent Crisis

This is a phase, Kashmir’s private education sector has been witnessing quite often. Earlier phases were in the unrests of 2010, and 2016. Earlier the second phase came after 2014 floods. Now the sector is in the midst of fourth such phase. Insiders said it is more dangerous.

Lt Governor e-inaugurating 15 infrastructural projects of the School Education Department

Schools owned by the individuals and the families are facing a serious crisis, especially because their operations were debt-funded. Now they are all in the soup.

Insiders said that most of the schools have sent home most of the staff and those still on payrolls get barely half. “Wherefrom will they manage all this?” one promoter asked. “These are pure commercial exercises.” Some of them, who still want to retain the staff they have invested in, are trying to fund the running costs by selling part of the assets. Some are keen to accept partnerships if it infuses new cash to extend the life of these institutions.

However, the schools run by the charities or groups are still surviving. “We made an appeal to the parents that whoever has assured source of income must deposit their fees and people did it,” one manager of a major school in Srinagar periphery said. “Since we know the parents of the students we teach, we are aware that a section of the parents have no incomes. We are paying out staff half the salary and they operate from home. We did not face any major crisis, so far.”

“Right now 70 schools are on sale,” G N War, who heads Kashmir’s Private Schools Association said. “At least half a dozen have already been sold in recent past.” These include two schools in Budgam with a good reputation having an enrolment of 1000 and 1800 students respectively.

“Till 2014, there were 12 schools teaching CBSE syllabus and the major franchisee chain Kashmir as the private schools numbered around 3200,” Var said. “Now the non-local chains and the CBSE schools have gone up to 142 and our numbers have reduced to 2710. In fact, the numbers have gone down to around 2650 because around 15 schools have already closed down.”

The crisis started after the 2014 floods when, on basis of a complaint to a group of Srinagar schools, the High Court issued a general order asking parents not to pay fees for two months. “It was made applicable to the schools that operated in areas where there was no flood and this proved a death blow to most of them. That marked the fall of the education sector,” Var said. That laid the foundation of economic un-viability of the schools in Kashmir, mostly in the periphery. That time, even a section of parents were willing to pay in areas not impacted by the floods but people eventually took the order route to deny the same to the schools.

Var believes there are only two per cent of schools that are in a position to survive the crisis like unrest and upheavals like August 2019. “Almost 20 per cent are on breakeven and most of the rest are struggling,” Var said. “Falah-e-Aam runs 285 schools but is not able to pay its staff for around year now.”

Nobody knows how many more will be locked once the world bids goodbye to the Coronavirus.

Impairing Part

Most of the schools are facing a crisis on two fronts – the debt funding of their transport fleet and rent. In certain cases, the schools have debt-funded the construction of their premises as well.  In the past decade, the school owners were lured to the fascinating packages by the banks to acquire their own fleets. Since all the A-category schools had their own fleets, the B and C category schools jumped in to erase the distinction. This gradually landed them in the debt trap.

The banking sector data available suggests that by the 2019 fall, the overall advances to the education sector were at Rs 533.86 crore. More than two-thirds of this credit belongs to Jammu and Kashmir Bank. This, however, may not include the hefty loans that have funded the transportation part of the education sector and are necessarily including the advances that individuals availed for studying in better institutions.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha with representatives of unaided CBSE School. PiC DIPR

Now the entire fleet is grounded since August 2019. It hardly moved out of their parking lots. The schools have to pay the insurance and other dues to various regulatory institutions in the government. This is in addition to the debt-servicing. As transport was rarely used in last more than a year, almost eighty per cent of the schools have sent their drivers home.

“Initially, we were paid for six months almost half the salary,” one driver, who was with an old city school for more than two years said. “Two months back, I got a call from my employer saying that the management is not in a position to pay. I am helplessly unemployed. Now I am planning to withdraw the CP fund if there is anything.”

Admitting that most of the operations are debt-funded, Var said the parents owe the private schools Rs 450 crore on account of fees and other dues. “I think it must equal the liabilities that the sector has right now,” Var said. “We have a cumulative fleet of more than 2000 vehicles.”

Intervention Required

In Kashmir, mostly in the urban and semi-urban spaces, the private education sector is the main mover and shaker in the education sector. Owing to the better economic situation and the failure of the state-run education sector, most of the parents prefer enrolling their wards in the privately run institutions.

Var said they teach around 625 thousand students, almost half of the cumulative enrolment of the state-run schools.  “We employ 67000 people including 4700 teachers,” Var said, insisting the overall costs in a year do not exceed Rs 1000 crore. “The government spends Rs 12000 crore for teaching 14 lakh students across Jammu and Kashmir. While every scheme and facility is available to them, private schools have no say – even the yearly teachers’ award for the best teacher is select from government-run schools.”

The situation is getting all the more difficult as the key indicators of fresh enrolments have started declining already. In the last meeting of the Project Approval Board, functioning under the Human Resources Development, it was revealed that the number of new admissions across the schools – private and state-run, has declined by exorbitant 175 thousand. The numbers of the out-of-school kids in 2018-19 was a mere 19000. It has grown almost 10 times.

Even the drop-out rate has surged. In the case of students from the majority Muslim community in Jammu and Kashmir, the drop-outs were recorded at 14.30 per cent at primary level, 13.10 per cent at upper primary, 23.70 per cent at the secondary level and 26 per cent at the higher secondary level.

If the government is interested in helping the private sector to stay afloat, it may have to intervene quickly as the Sikkim government did. The education in Kashmir is already suffering. Unlike other parts of Jammu and Kashmir, the private education sector is being seen a totally commercial exercise and not a service.

An inspirational story of a boy from a very humble origin who fought odds and to finally study in a prestigious global university, reports Saifullah Bashir

Mohammad Burhan gave up many opportunities only to grow in a line he had decided for his future.

He is Burhan, 27, whose life is interesting and whose story is an inspiring one. Despite a lot of ups and downs in his life, he secured his admission in one of the world’s best universities without spending a penny from his pocket. His ultimate goal is to become a scientist.   

Mohammad Burhan was only six years old when his father passed away. As a result of the death, the family faced enormous difficulties.  Burhan’s siblings were minor and there was no source of income. After some time his uncle married his mother and he became a mentor to Burhan.

At his school, Burhan was an average student. He used to secure more than two-third per cent of the marks. But poverty remained part and parcel of his life.

“In my primary classes my parents used to implore teachers to let me study for free”, said Burhan. Despite all these hardships, he qualified his twelfth class with 80 per cent of marks. Later, he decided to study Mathematics and Physics. And to everybody’s surprise, he qualified All India Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and got rank 28 in Jammu and Kashmir in architecture.

Burhan opted to go for mechanical engineering. He got an opportunity to choose the college where he wanted to study. Finally, he opted for LPU (Lovely Professional University) but the problem for him was how to pay his tuition fees. He took an education loan from a commercial bank. By 2014 he walked out of the institute with a bachelor’s degree.

Though he completed his degree, the family was in a dire need of financial assistance. Burhan had to repay to the bank as well. His family comprises of two brothers, a sister, mother and step-father. Burhan said he didn’t study to earn money but at the same time, money is the material elixir for life.

 Lands In A Job

 Burhan got employed at a Construction Company in Srinagar as a mechanical engineer.

“I used to earn Rs 30,000 a month and as a bachelor, it meant a lot for me”, Burhan said. For three years, he worked in the company but remained a reluctant worker. “I remained tense and depressed. This was not something I liked doing. My goal was something else.”

 Due to this mental agony, Burhan finally resigned. It shocked his parents and relatives. Some even scolded him. “This company was becoming a barrier to the achievement of my goal. So, I resigned,” Burhan said.  

Burhan did not listen to anyone. He decided his own course. “I sat alone in a room, worried, confused and scared,” he said. “Then, I started studying for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) examinations for 40 days and finally I qualified it.”

In NIT

Burhan got a seat in National Institute of Technology (NIT) and in many other institutions. He refused to take admission there and went to Hindustan University, a prestigious university located in Chennai.  Again the issue of tuition fee aroused. “I would say that I am very lucky. There was a time when I did not have money to pay tuition fee but I never lost hope,” he said. “Whenever I needed help, Almighty intervened.”

 Burhan got a scholarship through the National Scholarship Scheme and completed his Master in Aeronautical Engineering (M.tech).  

 In France

He did not stop there. He applied for advance Masters in France and qualified another examination and got one more scholarship from the French government. “I used to get 750 Euros per month just to study”, he said. It was during his studies in France, Burhan travelled to Spain, France and Germany. Finally, he completed his advance masters in France and won the gold medal.

Mohammad Burhan is a scientist who is fighting odds to keep going.

In 2019, Burhan flew home. He decided to join some job until he got his degree. His programme was to go back to France for research.

You Are Kashmiri?

Burhan applied at an international airline as a flight dispatch engineer but there was only one vacancy. It was extremely difficult to secure that position. He had to crack five competitive interviews. Fortunately, he cracked all of them and filled the vacancy.

“There was no limit to my happiness. I thought let me collect some money and then leave for France”, Burhan said.

Burhan received appointment letter and other documents and on September 10, 2019, he was supposed to join the office. He reached Chennai International Airport but was not permitted to join his job. “When I reached there, Managing Director told me that you are from Kashmir and they had orders not to let Kashmiris do the job there,” Burhan said, insisting on every single word.

 In DRDO Instead

Though this was extremely disappointing,  the setback didn’t break his will. He remembered that there is a scientist in defence Dr Ramanijachari, who has also worked as an assistant with APJ Abul Kalam. Burhan got in touch with Dr Raman and he sent his profile to the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for an internship. For this, he was criticized by his who told him that getting into DRDO was not everyone’s cup of tea.

 The request was accepted by the DRDO and after the police investigation, he got a green signal. Burhan worked in defence in the department of aerodynamics for eight months and returned home.  

His profile was getting too strong but on the family front, he was facing the music because they wanted him to do some work. But he stuck to his decision. He applied for research in many foreign universities but there was no serious reply from any one of them. The rejections did not bother him.

A Neighbour’s Call

It was at this crucial juncture that one of his neighbours told him that there was a job-seeking visa in Germany and that one had to just apply for a visa and do the job there. Burhan went to Chennai for an appointment.

Another unexpected development took place. At the embassy a woman, probably a staff member told him that he should complete The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination and that will enable him to easily go for a research programme.

There was very less time left for the particular language examination. After 15 days of day-night study, Burhan scored seven out of nine. This score was enough to get a visa.

In Queens’ Finally

Now Burhan applied for doctoral and post-doctoral research at Queens University Belfast, which is one of the 100 top universities in the world.

Queen’s University is not a private but a public university of Belfast. Burhan has to pay for his studies.

“It was another challenge for me”, Burhan said.  He applied for scholarships and got three out of five. “My tuition fee is Rs 20 lakh per year and it was absolutely impossible for me”.

Securing admission there was not easy. He went through multiple interviews, written tests and succeeded.

Burhan had unshakable faith in God. So the intervention came. Kashmir Education Initiative (KEI), an NGO, arranged around Rs eight lakh for him. With the scholarships and help, Burhan’s dream came true. He has started studying from home since October 1. Visa has been issued and he will work as an assistant research scientist at the Queen’s. “It was something that Allah had planned for me. Without His help and will, it was not possible”, Burhan said.

In Kashmir, the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University is linked to two towering personalities, both named Sheikh Abdullah. While one, almost every Kashmiri is aware of, the other Sheikh Abdullah is hardly known despite his immense contribution to the Muslim women of India, reports Saima Bhat

Sheikh Abdullah with his family in Aligarh

In the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Abdullah Hall, is the most sought after place for female undergraduates. A universe in itself, it has everything that more than 3000 inmates require to feel homely. Comprising nine girls hostels, it has two canteens, a gymnasium, a basketball court, an auditorium, a well-equipped computer, and a reading room, besides all the essential shops. Within this space, students have an independent private life.

Behind the solace of these young girls in Abdullah Hall is a struggle of a man known as Sheikh Abdullah. He fought fiercely to ensure a place for girl education and is considered to be the pioneer of female education in male-dominated British India.

Sheikh Abdullah

A reverted Muslim, Sheikh Abdullah was born on June 21, 1874, as Thakur Das in a Kashmiri Brahmin family in Poonch. Dr Nasreen Ahmad, in her Muslim Leadership and Women’s Education Uttar Pradesh, 1886–1947, suggests that Sheikh was born in Bhantani village, where his paternal grandfather, Mehta Mastram was a Lambardar (Village Headman).

“Thakur Dass was a Kashmiri Brahmin whose father had embraced Sikhism,” writes Avtar Mota in his blog Chinar  Shade. “The ancestors of Thakur Dass had moved out from Kashmir and shifted to Poonch during the Pathan rule or even earlier.” He believes Das’s grandfather was a landlord.

Not knowing much about his ancestors, however, Dr Nasreen writes that Das’s early education started with Persian, after which he attended a Maktab in Poonch. Every day, he would trek 5 miles to learn Sanskrit and Persian.

While being in school, he attracted the attention of Hakim Numddin, the court physician to then Maharaja of Kashmir, who had come to Poonch to treat a member of the royal family. Poonch rulers were cousins of Kashmir Maharaja.

The Hakim offered his family that he would train him in Unani medicine in Jammu, to which the family reluctantly agreed.

Hakim Numddin, Dr Nasreen writes was a leading Qadiani of his times and under his influence, Thakur Das converted to the Ahmadiya sect after which he was named Sheikh Abdullah.

As young Sheikh moved to Lahore for secondary education, he attended the convention of the Mohammedan Educational Conference. There, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s speech impressed him.

After qualifying his tenth class in 1891, Sheikh went to Aligarh with a letter of introduction from his mentor Hakim to Sir Syed Khan. Subsequently, he was admitted to the first year in law school. Dr Nasreen writes that it was in Aligarh where Sheikh renounced Ahamadiya faith and became a Sunni Muslim.

While in college, Sheikh’s interactions with Sir Syed inspired him to write and get into community service. “Sir Syed used to entrust the boys with responsibility; the names of Aftab Ahmad Khan and Sheikh Abdullah figured at the top. Because the latter in a way spiritually identified with the Movement, he was appointed as a librarian,” Writes Dr Nasreen.

After completing LLB, Principal Beck who was also the Secretary of the Movement suggested that he should set up practice in Aligarh. “He accepted, stayed on, and became active in the Old Boy’s Association.” He was a member of the university court from 1920 till his death.

In Aligarh, Sheikh found a new home and family. He became a member of the Duty Society, a select group of Aligarh students founded by his friend, Aftab Ahmad Khan, to raise funds for the college. Eventually, a north Indian ashraf adopted him. Soon he was married.

Book on Women Education by Dr Nasreen Ahmad. This is the key research about the contributions that Sheikh Abdullah made to education in India.

AMU- The Idea

Post-1857 mutiny, reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan felt the need to involve Muslims in the governance structure and other affairs of public importance. It was an indirect outcome of the British India government decision in 1842 to replace the Persian by English as the court language.  It was almost a denial to Muslims to be in government.

Sir Syed wanted Muslims to acquire proficiency in the English language and Western sciences if they wanted to maintain their social and political clout, particularly in Northern India. He began to prepare a foundation for the formation of a Muslim University by starting schools at Moradabad (1858) and Ghazipur (1863). His purpose for the establishment of the Scientific Society in 1864, in Aligarh, was to translate Western works into Indian languages as a prelude to prepare the community to accept Western education and to inculcate scientific temperament among the Muslims.

In 1877, Sir Syed founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh on Oxford and Cambridge pattern after his trip to England. His objective was to build a college in tune with the British education system without compromising its Islamic values.

The college was originally affiliated with the University of Calcutta and subsequently got affiliated with the University of Allahabad in 1885. Near the turn of the century, the college began publishing its magazine, The Aligarian and established a Law School. By then, a movement for upgrading it into a university.

Demand, Deliverance

After the college was established, Dr Nasreen writes, northern India was witnessing a phase of reforms. Taking a cue, Muslim reformers were also advocating for female education but with a condition of purdah. Few thought that purdah should not act as a barrier. They included Syed Mumtaz Ali, Nazir Ahmad, and the Nawab of Bhopal, Begum Sultan Jahan. Ashraf Ali Thanwi in Bihishti Zewar, Nazir Ahmad in Mirat ul Tjrus, and Altaf Hussain Hali in Majalis un Nisa, strongly advocated female education.

The newspapers also supported female education. The first women’s Urdu magazine Akhbar-un-Nisa of Syed Ahmad Dehelvi also supported the idea. Those supporting it, Dr Nasreen argues were seeking basics of religion, reading and writing skill, elementary mathematics, and basics of household management to be taught to women.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s publications Tahzib ul Akhlaq and Aligarh Institute Gazette also supported female education after the 1880s but within “limits” as Muslim intellectual believed that if women are educated they will become “irresponsible”.

“In his testimony before the Indian Education Commission of 1882, Sir Syed maintained that a little education was enough for women. Until more Muslim men received a sound education, Muslim women would have to wait: The present state of education among Muhammadan females is, in my opinion, enough for domestic happiness,” writes Dr Nasreen. But Hali disagreed, wrote a counter and started a couple of schools for girls in his home town of Panipat, which were run by the women of his family.

File image of AMU

Sheikh Abdullah thought differently. It is believed that Hali’s poem  Chup ki Dad in praise of Muslim women was,   written on Sheikh’s request. It was first published by  Sheikh in his Urdu journal for women, Khatun in December 1905. “In it, Hali reiterates many of the ideas he had originally espoused in his Majalis un Nisa: Women are the true strength of the family and the community, but lamentably many of them are kept in ignorance; thus women’s education is vital for the regeneration of the Muslim community,” Dr Nasreen writes.

Sheikh Abdullah’s daughter, Begum Khursheed, who was a celebrated Indian actress known as Renuka Devi. She died in Pakistan in 1989.

By 1880, Sir Syed had rejected the idea of a school mooted by the government. His argument was: “It was not possible for Government to adopt any practical measure by which the ‘respectable Mohammadans’ may be induced to send their daughters to Government schools for education. Nor, he claimed, could Government bring into existence a school on which the parents and guardians of girls may place perfect reliance.”

Sir Syed’s opposition to modem education to women was his belief that they should stick to the traditional system of education as it helps them in their moral and material wellbeing and protects from difficulties. He believed educating boys would automatically improve the condition of men and women.

This all, however, did not impact the strong movement for the female education that started after 1888. In the Third Annual Conference of the Mohammadan Educational Conference held at Lahore, a resolution said: “The Mohammadan Educational Conference unanimously agrees to the proposal that Muslims should establish schools for the education of Muslim girls. These schools should be in accord with Islam and of the ways of the Sharif section of the Muslims.” It was passed despite Sir Syed’s opposition. MAO College Principal, Dr Nasreen quotes Sheikh saying that Sir Syed went even to the extent of believing that the girls studying in schools and colleges would become “immoral”.

Theodore Beck, who had grown hugely influential within and outside the college, threw his weight behind the movement.

Sir Syed Ahmad Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University

Sir Syed started mellowing down. On November 15, 1884, Beck chaired a debate on the issue at Siddon’s Union Club. The motion over which the debate took place was cleverly worded, apparently taking the Sir Syed line: “Spread of female education in India is to be desired but by home tuition and not by schools and colleges.” It was defeated by a narrow margin of three votes.

Sir Syed never opposed female education ferociously and never supported the idea clearly. The movement for Muslim female education did start in his but intensified only after his death in 1989.

In 1891, a resolution was proposed by Moulvie Syed Karamat Hussain. In 1896, for the first time, a special 6-member Female Education’ Section in the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental Educational Conference was created.  They all were sympathetic but hugely conservative. In subsequent years, Moulvie Mumtaz Ali, one of the members, opposed Sheikh Abdullah’s efforts to establish a girl’s school at Aligarh. Mohsin-ul-Mulk, another member, refrained from openly supporting the endeavour. Mohsin-ul-Mulk, yet another member, prevented Sheikh from presenting a resolution for the establishment of a girl’s school at Aligarh in the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Educational Conference in 1904. Much earlier, Sheikh had been denied a berth in the panel along with Ghulam-us-Saqlain.

From Begum Abdullah’s biography, Dr Nasreen writes that in 1902 Shiekh was elected as the member and secretary of the Female Education Section. It was the same year he had married Waheed Jahan, from an old Mughal family of Delhi in which women’s education was a tradition. Her father Ibrahim Mirza, had taught his daughters Persian and Urdu and had also permitted an English woman to teach them. Together, the Sheikh and Begum Abdullah began a campaign to open a girls’ school in Aligarh.

In 1906, the couple founded Aligarh Girl’s School in the midst of opposition but support from Nawab Sultan Jahan Begam, the ruler of Bhopal –a grant of Rs 17,000 with an additional monthly allowance of Rs 250. That was a promising start and there was no looking back.

Girl’s School

The idea of starting a school for Muslim girls took shape in 1903 in Bombay during the Muhammadan Anglo-oriental Educational Conference. But the place could not be decided.

After the conference was over, Sheikh contacted Maulana Mumtaz Ali, Editor, Tehzeeb Niswan (Lahore) and Mehboob Alam, Editor, Paisa Akhbar, (Lahore) to establish a normal school at Lahore. But both of them responded negatively and Sheikh took it upon himself the stupendous task of establishing a school for Muslim girls in Aligarh.

To know the public response, he asked his wife to call a conference of educated ladies in her house to discuss the problem of Muslim female education. When ladies gathered, prominent among them were Mrs Razaullah Khan and Sayeed Ahmad Begum, all of them were in favour of female education. It triggered a lot of criticism locally with their detractors saying that methods of the English were going to be practised and schools would be opened for girls who would attend it without observing purdah. The other allegation was that in the proposed school, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ girls would meet which would be detrimental to the interests of girls coming from good and decent families.’ Moreover, fears were also expressed whether such a school would succeed in giving proper training in ‘Islamic culture and decency’.

But it did not impact the missionary zeal of Abdullahs’. Instead of being discouraged, in 1904, Sheikh took a bold step and started a magazine entitled Khatun for mobilizing public opinion in support of women’s education and in the general welfare of women. He was supported in this effort by Saiyid Sajjad Haider, Syed Abu Mohammad, Moulvi Ehteshamuddin and Moulvi Enamul Haq. The first issue of Khatun came out in July 1904 and it created a furore in Urdu journalistic circles. Other magazines and newspapers started opposing its publications by saying that Khatun was a naturi magazine and was being published with the aim of abolishing purdah.

The hostile propaganda against Khatun alarmed Mohsin-ul-Mulk, who was then Secretary of the Board of Trustees, MAO College. He advised its publication be stopped. Sheikh convinced him to write for it, instead. The publication continued till 1914.

Finally, the resolution to establish a girls’ school at Aligarh was unanimously approved in the All India Muslim Ladies Conference held in Aligarh in December 1905. The leaders of the Aligarh Movement initially were not supportive. Mohsin-ul-Mulk refused permission at the last moment to use any building of the MAO College to hold the Muslim Ladies Conference and the exhibition of women’s handicrafts.

The Struggle

As Abdullahs’ hard work started bearing fruits, around 50 girl students were enrolled in the school in the first three months. He informed the then Lt Governor about the progress and Miss Ganja was asked to inspect so that she could assess the situation and report to the authorities.

Reportedly when she saw the dedication and involvement of Begum Abdullah and her sisters, she was impressed and said that they were doing the kind of work that is usually associated with missionaries. Within a month after the receipt of Miss Ganja’s report, Sheikh received a sealed envelope from the government, which contained a grant of Rs 250 per month and Rs 17, 000 for the infrastructure.

On October 25, 1906, Sheikh started the school in a small house in Mohalla Bala-e-Quila of Aligarh town after some alterations were done to ensure seclusion.  Once the school premise was ready, another struggle started to get qualified teachers. So Begum Abdullah together with her two sisters had to take the responsibility of a major part of the teaching at the school.

To ensure the safety of girl students, Dr Nasreen writes that at least four men were employed to take the girls in two carefully covered dolis to their homes and bring them to the school. One female peon was also employed. The curriculum included Urdu reading and writing, basic arithmetic, needlework, and the Quran. The school building itself was walled on all sides so that purdah could be properly observed. Many times the school, students, or the staff of the school were attacked by the opponents of women’s education.

Mumtaz Aapa, the first principle of AMU’s Women College

Soon after this school, on November 7, 1911, the foundation stone of the first girl’s hostel was laid in presence of Lady Porter, wife of the acting Lt Governor of the United Province. The construction was completed in 1913. Later on, the Begum of Bhopal inaugurated new buildings. It became the first Women College in Aligarh. In 1937, the Aligarh Women’s College became a part of the Aligarh Muslim University.

To ensure all security to the school and then college, Abdullah Begum became herself the warden of the hostel and all outside works were done by Sheikh himself. They were so involved personally with these girls that those girl students started called Begum as Ala Bi and Sheikh Abdullah as Papa Mian.

In 1949, when Maulana Abul Kalam Azad visited Aligarh for the annual Convocation, he was highly impressed by the role being played by Women’s College for the spread of modern education among girls. He announced an annual grant of Rs 900 thousand for the college.

The high school was established in 1921 and later gained the status of an Intermediate College in 1922. With time, in 1937 it was elevated to the status of an undergraduate college as part of the Aligarh Muslim University. Many literary figures were among the early alumni of this college.

A staunch believer in Hindu Muslim unity, Sheikh stayed back in India after the partition. He also served as a member of the United Province Legislative Council. He was conferred with the title of Khan Bahadur in 1935 and a Padma Bhushan was awarded to him in 1964. After taking the degrees of BA, LLB, AMU awarded him the degree of LLD in 1950.

At AMU, Abdullah Hall has also instituted annual Papa Mian Awards for girls who excel in academics. In 1975, Films Division, Government of India made a documentary on Papa Mian and his contribution towards women education in India. It was directed by Khawaja Ahmad Abbas.

After the death of Sheikh in 1965, the struggle for the college continues. It was only in 2014, that the students from the Women’s College stepped into the university’s central library, Maulana Azad Library. They had been barred from accessing the library since 1960, owing to “infrastructure issue”. AMU’s girls’ hostels that permitted only one-day outings for women now allow women to go out thrice a week. In March 2019, the Women’s College hosted its first-ever Women Leadership Summit. The institution now has a women’s field hockey team.

But there have been many instances when the students of this college voiced their concern against the strict rules where there are 107 teaching and 75 non-teaching staff members.

With his almost entire life spent in Aligarh, Sheikh Abdullah lies buried at the same place, he once lived, loved, and lauded.

Arrested while in the first year of graduation way back in 2013, a young man has cleared his graduation, acquired a law degree and is pursuing masters in political science, reports Umar Mukhtar

On December 3 morning, Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Sopore heard about the results of the LLB programme at the University of Kashmir. He experienced a rush of mixed emotions: Among the candidates whose result was announced was Feroz Ahmad, 28, his younger son, who has been in jail for the last seven years.

Ahmad was arrested in 2013 in a militancy-related case. “He was in the first year of his graduation when he was arrested,” said Dar, Ahmad’s father.

Back then, during the intervening night of April 17 and 18, Dar’s house was raided by the army and police. They asked for Ahmad, who was not at home at that time.

Certificates of Feroz Ahmad Dar who did his graduation and bachelors in law while in jail. Pic: Family

“He was in Srinagar to get some study material,” said Dar. Dars’ were locked in a single room while their house was thoroughly searched. Dar said that his elder son who was at home was assaulted.

After hours of searching, the forces left the house, but he was told to present his son the following day at the SOG camp Sopore. “I called my son and told him about the incident. I also asked him to come home early,” Dar said.

 The following day, Ahmad reached home early.

Dar along with a neighbour, a retired tehsildar took his son to the SOG camp. “My son had no idea why he was asked to report there. In fact, he told me that it would be some misconception that they were looking for him,” said Dar.

Ahmad was detained and his father was asked to wait outside.

“We were told that they have to ask something to my son and would release him in some time. We waited outside the camp for the whole day, but my son was not released,” Dar said.

According to Dar, his son was very much focused on his studies. “He wanted to be a doctor but he could not qualify for it.”

Soon after Ahmad was detained, he was sent to Baramulla jail. His father and his relatives used to meet him there. For the first year of his incarceration, Ahmad was shying away from everything and used to talk to his father about the process of his release only. But with time as Ahmad accepted his fate and knew that he would not be released anytime soon, he asked his father to deposit his form so that he could pursue his graduation.

Dar, who is not literate had to take the help of other people to deposit his forms and seek permission from the authorities. “Seeking permission from the authorities was really an uphill task. That too for a man like me who does not know how to read and write. At times I used to take my relatives along and sometimes used to get help from the strangers.”

However, despite all odds, Ahmad did not give up on his studies. In 2016, he passed his BSc from Baramulla jail and simultaneously completed his Diploma in Human Rights from IGNOU.

“I was worried that jail will ruin his academic career but my son showed courage and steadfastness. He did what he was best at,” Dar said.

There are many such examples where youth were arrested, put behind bars, and acquitted after decades. They are then in no position to start their careers again. Their education and families are affected. In a recent example, a person was acquitted after 23 years. He lost everything including his family members over the years.

Later, Ahmad was shifted to Central Jail Srinagar.

After completing his graduation, Ahmad opted for the law. He started studying law and got his admissions in LLB  at the University of Kashmir. Finally, in the year 2020, Ahmad cleared his degree in the second division.

The news of Ahmad’s clearing his law exam has made Dars’ happy. All of their relatives and neighbours are coming to Dar’s home and wish them.

But Dar doesn’t know which degrees his son has secured, he just knows that these degrees would at least somewhat help him once he will be a free man.

“I know his hard work will not let him be dependent on others,” Dar said.  “Though I am happy that my son made me proud despite being in jail but his health has deteriorated over the years due to torture. That is killing me inside. He cannot stand on his own; he has to take help of a walking stick to get to his feet”.

Not only his health but his incarceration has taken a financial toll on the family. Dar was a class IV employee in a government department. He retired a year after his son was arrested.

“After my retirement, I spend all my savings to get him released, but till now I could not get him out,” Dar said in a broken voice.

Ahmad’s mother has also developed heart ailments. “I do not remember a single day when she is not talking about Ahmad. She cries and wants to see her son again. This condition has wrecked her health,” said Dar.

 He added that most of his savings are spent fighting her son’s case. Ahmad is now pursuing his Master’s in political science through IGNOU.

The family members of Ahmad have appealed the LG Manoj Sinha and police department to show some mercy on their son.

A woman in Jammu sets up a library on her property to encourage students to read and gradually it is emerging a model for societies where families lack enough of space or the situation for the students to study, reports Umar Mukhtar

The Reading Room in Jammu’s Bhathindi locality. It is a novel concept that gives students something that they lack otherwise, an environment to study. KL Image: Special arrangement

Albert Einstein once said: “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”

Uzma Abbas, a young law postgraduate is providing this address to the readers at Bathandi in Jammu. She has opened a library for those who want to study without any interference and want to have a reading environment.

Abbas hails from a small hamlet at Soaf Shali in Anantnag.. She has done her schooling in her own village. Later she studied law at the Dogra Law College in Jammu. In 2016, she completed her LLM, received a gold medal for scoring the first position, married in Jammu, and settled there.

Near her home at Bathandi was a multi-story structure, a hereditary property of her in-laws. A year after her marriage, she came up with an idea of opening up a library on the top floor of the building.

“It was during our examinations that I along with a few friends used to go there and have discussions. I was always thinking that there should be some space to sit where we can have discussions,” Abbas said.

So, finally, in 2017, she started work on her dream project.

Uzma Abbas, a lawyer, who is behind the innovative Reading Room initiative.

The Library  

This Library is not a typical one where there are shelves full of books but rather a reading room where Abbas provides students with a chair, table, and ambience for reading. Apart from the furniture, the students have access to free WiFi, water cooler, a free of cost photostat and round the clock electricity. Also, a portion of the floor is kept as a prayer room. There is also a separate prayer room attached to the library. A playground is also available for the students.

“Students need to refresh themselves in order to focus on their studies. This is not a normal playground but we keep it strictly open for just one hour for a student,” Abbas said.

The students also get meals free of cost there. “I have been a student myself, I know how hard is it for a student who is preparing for some examination to get up and prepare meals in between. So, I have kept the meals here free of cost,” she said.

A student can also have noodles or coffee there but has to pay for that.

“Taste is payable but need is not payable. We cook food for almost 30 students every day here,” Abbas said.

In 2017, when Abbas opened the library, it could accommodate around 80 students. “The initial response from the students was modest as there was no concept of a place like this in our society. It was totally a new thing to a place like Bathandi,” Abbas said. “But with time as the word spread the students kept coming”.

Abbas had to enhance the seating capacity and the place can now accommodate around 200 students.

“Right now there are only 100 students enrolled to ensure the Covid SOP’s are being followed properly.”

A student avails of this facility at the rate of Rs 26 a day.  “My sole aim is to provide students with the best reading ambience and not to earn from it. This gives me inner satisfaction to see students studying and working hard.”

Abbas entertains even those students in the library who cannot pay Rs 26 rupees a day. “A guy who is enrolled here in the library can bring other two guys who face financial constraints. They can avail the facility here.”

Abbas says that it is not now Bathandi specific but students who are putting up in the Jammu city come to this place and study there. “There are also students from Kashmir valley and Pirpanjal region who come here.”

For Abbas seeing students leaving the library and achieving their goals gives her satisfaction. Also, when she sees girl students leaving the place after completing their studies, and their parents are waiting for them, it is a ”proud moment” for her.

“The library is located in an area where mostly the middle class or poor people are living, so somehow I feel I am giving something to the society,” said Abbas.

She is currently pursuing her PhD in Law at Jammu University.

The building has a library on its top floor and a school in the basement, a bank on the first floor, and an online exam centre on its second floor.

But the execution of Abbas’ idea has had its own roadblocks. Initially, she did not get a good response even from her family.

“It took me almost four months to convince my husband about this idea,” she said. “But even he took his own time in supporting my endeavour”.

The rudimentary shifts dictated by the Fourth Industrial Revolution has posed newer challenges to societies across the globe. Dr Mehboob Makhdoomi, who was educated in the West and worked in the consultative educational sector, is planning a university with peoples’ cooperation to address Kashmir’s knowledge deficit. In this write-up, he explains the motives, intentions and rationale for the initiative

A photograph showing Dr Mehboob Mukhdoomi with Dean Eberly College of Business and Technology, Dr Robert C Camp, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA

Jammu and Kashmir is a politically turbocharged region where every activity is looked at with suspicion. To make it worse, there are two competing and fiercely contesting narratives that compel people, to compartmentalize those who proclaim to do ‘something’ for the people – in one bracket or the other, at the psychological level. This is not the fault of people though. We have been betrayed time and again by such ‘messiahs’, and these people speak from experience. Fortunately, it is the politicians who have hoodwinked us till now, not anyone in the name of education, which is an apolitical tool to bring social good. This is the raison d’être of this write-up.

I have dreamt of coming up with an international standard university in Kashmir. I could have done the same by accepting investors without any hassle, but I chose no owners for this project. Not that I am against privatization, but if the sole objective of such a venture is profit-making, the superlative quality that has been envisioned will surely take a hit. This is why a capitalistic model may not be germane here. One may have called it a gift from this generation to the next, but I find ‘gift’ to be a misleading term simply because it is not; we owe it to them.

2 Key Reasons

There are two reasons why I am determined to go for it, taking a personal risk.

One, having worked as a quality specialist of higher education overseas for the past seven years and studied at some of the best universities in the world, I clearly see that years of education that our teachers and students work so hard for is not going to fetch them what they expect. I say this over and over again that the jobs our students are being trained to do have either become or will become extinct in a few years. The entire landscape of education has metamorphosed. It is painful to see these smart students moving towards a dead-end in herds.

Two, for some reason, money seems to be only the means of sustenance, not a success parameter. The true gratification that one could derive is from giving, not taking. If all of us just keep piling our personal resources, where is collectivism? It is the social impact that we should strive to create. To think about ourselves and our children is important, but to limit our lives just to that, tantamount to merely being animals.

World Economic Forum (WEF) says 75 million jobs will be displaced from 2018 to 2023 but the rapid evolutions of machines and algorithms could create 133 million new roles.

Humans are expected to rise above their basic animalistic instincts and exhibit higher consciousness. Having a higher purpose in life gives us a sense of fulfilment as we contribute to something that is bigger than us. The idea of ‘settling down’ that we teach our kids is profoundly flawed. This essentially means that we ask them to find their source of income and hang in there till they are alive like other creatures do. This is what drives many people towards thinking on a collective level, even if it is a risky path.

An Idea Of Future

Coming onto the details of the first reason, as per one World Economic Forum (WEF) report, 75 million jobs will be displaced from 2018 to 2023 but the rapid evolutions of machines and algorithms could create 133 million new roles. The skills required for these new roles are nowhere to be seen in our higher education. With an inexorable advancement of technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) that we are in, the whole scenario of the global labour market is changing- with machines and algorithms proving to be efficient alternatives to the human workforce.

I had mentioned it in one of my previous articles that according to a World Bank report, 69 per cent of the jobs in India can be replaced by automation. High-speed mobile internet, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and cloud technology are all set to drive businesses by 2022, as per WEF. One investment intention survey shows that 85 per cent of respondents said they are likely/very likely to adopt big data analytics, in the next three years.

As far as artificial intelligence is concerned, 71 per cent of total task hours were performed by humans in 2018 compared to 29 per cent by robots. Interestingly in 2022, it’s estimated that for the same tasks, only 58 per cent will be executed by humans while the machine’s share would spike up to 42 per cent.

As far as artificial intelligence is concerned, 71 per cent of total task hours were performed by humans in 2018 compared to 29 per cent by robots. Interestingly in 2022, it’s estimated that for the same tasks, only 58 per cent will be executed by humans while the machine’s share would spike up to 42 per cent. So, some of the roles that would be in high demand are AI and machine learning specialists, Big data Specialists, Process Automation Experts, Information and Security Analysts, User Experience and Human-Machine Interaction Designers, Robotics Engineers, and Blockchain Specialists. Onto the core business side, it would be the digital marketers, Social Media Specialists, roles that require human skills like Sales and Marketing professionals, Customer service, Training and development, People and Culture, and Innovation Managers.

New Market, New Roles

Some may argue that they are not into any of these fields, and that they would not be impacted by the new age technology. We must understand that the First Industrial Revolution came up with factories powered by steam; the Second Industrial Revolution was brought about by the use of electric power for mass-production; the Third used electronic and Information Technology to automate production; the Fourth is driven by the convergence of the digital, biological, and physical innovations. The emerging technological breakthroughs in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, the Internet of Things, Autonomous Vehicles, 3-D Printing, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Materials Science, Energy storage, Quantum computing, Big Data Analytics, Cloud computing power this revolution.

This entails that notwithstanding which field of study you want to get into, you would have to do it in light of the current trends, just the way everyone had to be computer literate during the IT revolution. If you are in finance, Fintech is the fusion you have with technology. If you are a surgeon, robotic surgery is where robotics meets your traditional skill. If you are into natural sciences, biotechnology is where the tech intervention transpires; not to talk of the fields like engineering where digitization rules the roost.

We do not simply lag behind but we are not on the right trajectory of education. We still expend our energy and finances to excel in fields which do not exist. This necessitates the advent of a disruptive institution that goes along with these disruptive technologies.

A Risk Worth Taking

Elaborating the second reason, people are so entrenched in the idea of ‘settling down’ that initiatives like ours hardly make any sense to them. To many, such ideas are so alien that it does not even register.  It is unfortunate as this is one of the main teachings of Islam. In an atmosphere, where money or politics define the world around us, it is hard for such people to digest that someone gives up his sense of security for nothing. This is not because people have not given it up before, but they did it to achieve more and more for themselves, not for others. This is where doubts or even worse, conspiracy theories seep in. The point is, conspiracy theories should also be tenable and make sense. In this case, there cannot be any political angle in making a school, college, or university. Our cause cannot be motivated by money as there is no dearth of legitimate options for us if that was the reason.

Dr Mehboob Mukhdoomi

Nevertheless, it is a wonderful feeling that everyone we wanted onboard is with us. The Higher Education Department too has shown alacrity and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with us, based on merit. However, if other governmental agencies want to learn more about us, they are welcome to do that.

I find it pertinent to mention that ours is not a new project. We registered our educational trust in March 2018, and have been working since then. The universities in Malaysia and the US have also signed an MoU and Letter of Interest (LoI) respectively for the student exchange programme once we are all set. We cannot be held hostage to the past political experiences, and transferring those feelings to apolitical educational initiatives which are in our best interests, cannot be a valid argument. This belongs to all of us. We welcome everyone and need your skills to make this dream into a living reality, Insha Allah.

(Ideas expressed in this write-up are personal. Kashmir Life regrets the wrong caption of the lead photograph in its print edition.)

Missionary educationist, Cecil Earle Tyndale Biscoe (1863–1949) was a key player in pushing Kashmir to modern education and a better understanding of the world around them. This first-hand narrative by a Canadian writer, Gordon Sinclair, offers an idea of the situation in which the British padre fought ignorance, and backwardness by using his school as the main change-maker in a society devastated by deceit, dogmas and discrimination. Between the lines, it tells the story about who mattered in the 1930s’ of Kashmir and why

A pre-partition photograph showing the adult education class in progress, possibly in the old Biscoe School.

Now comes the story of a little man with a big job and a bigger heart; a Kashmir crusader who is the most hated yet most respected schoolmaster in the East.

He is the first man in all India who taught those holiest of Hindu holy men, the Brahmans, to play games. First in Kashmir to teach a native to swim, admit he lied or help a woman; first in Kashmir to arrange a wedding with a window as bride. First missionary, who made no effort and still makes no effort to convert people to Christianity, yet enjoys the full backing of the Church of England.

A Missionary

He is CE Tyndale Biscoe, and to meet him, let’s first go back to a cold spring day 44 years ago. The mountain passes had just been opened, and stumbling through Himalayan snows on a horse came this blue-eyed Britisher to take over a mission school in Srinagar, then and now one of the most filthy yet fascinating cities on earth.

To this day few Kashmiris either bathe or wash their clothes in winter. Too cold, they say, and, besides, bathing is an unhealthy nuisance, which drains oil from the skin and causes deafness, no less.

CE Tyndale Biscoe

Biscoe, reaching his school beside the spending Jhelum, was faced by 300 dirty-faced boys in filthy smocks. They lounged about with drooping shoulders and open mouths, and when asked any question gawked sleepily. This indolence was to some extent an affectation to show they were Brahmans whose life was one of ease. Each boy seemed to have a puffy stomach, swollen out of all proportion.

A 1913 photograph of Tyndale-Biscoe boys school, Srinagar by Ralph Stewart

A master stepped forward. “Sir, these boys are Brahmans; no Brahman may exercise. It is coolie work. It will degrade them. And with a leather ball! This is preposterous, impossible.”

 “I am the new master here, and these boys need exercise. We lay this afternoon. I expect trouble, so each of you teachers arm yourselves with sticks and help me overcome it.”

“That afternoon at three, school gates were opened and the boys pushed out like sheep to the butcher’s,” the master told me in recalling the incident. “Such a filthy and smelly crowd you never saw. They all wore long night-gowns over these pots, with clogs on their feet. As we let them loose, they ran shrieking for their parents; these, armed with broom-handles and bamboos, came hurrying to the rescue, but we drove enough boys through the mob to get two sides.

“The boys, as I’d expected, refused to play. They cried and blubbered and kicked. Some lay down moaning, so I took out my watch and said, ‘Now, you fellows; five minutes.You start kicking this ball in five minutes or I start kicking you.’

“They refused. They spat and whined. I held my watch and when the five minutes was nearly up I called off the seconds. Still they refused to kick, so I and the masters went after those boys with sticks. We made them kick and they did kick, quite furiously, while angry crowds on the side-lines jeered, hooted and cursed, but took no actual action.

“Soon one boy was smacked in the face by the flying ball. He fell to the ground in horror. Leather had touched him, touched his face-his very lips! His face was defiled. If he touched it with his hand his hand was defiled. So, as he could not do as he would and would not do what he could, he did the next best thing, which was to lie on the ground and call on his assorted gods to save him.

A 1913 photograph of Mission School Fateh Kadal students and teachers

“The crowd, meantime, grew more menacing. They leaped into the playing fields and my masters deserted me. Luckily the idea of sacred waters entered my head. The Hindu considers many rivers sacred and holy; among them the Jhelum. ‘Take the boy down to the canal and wash him there lies his salvation,’ 1 commanded. This worked. Irate Hindus ceased threatening me and took the boy away to be bathed. The other players streaked for safety, but I brought them back and made them finish that game out.”

 “And did that end the opposition to football?” I queried.
“Gracious, no! It took me twenty years of alternate threat and persuasion eventually to kill that opposition, but kill it we did, and today not only our school, but every school in Kashmir, has passable football teams.”

After two of his own boys drowned, the fighting padre petitioned everyone from maharaja to magistrate to abolish this law. They refused. Determined, however, that his own boys should swim, Biscoe gave them a year to learn, then doubled the fees on those who had failed. Half his pupils quit at once. That made no difference. The fees stayed double. To this day, any Biscoe boy who reaches the age of thirteen without being able to swim must quit the school or pay double. At fourteen he pays four times the normal rates, at fifteen eight times, and if he still refuses to swim he is expelled. Just now there are several lads who would rather pay four times the usual fee than learn to swim, but none paying the eight times penalty.

In one classroom is a list of those pupils who have swum Wular Lake, eight miles of cold and rough Kashmiri water. So changed has the spirit of the Biscoe school been that everyboy strives to get his name there.

The school’s worst tragedy struck them when in April 1934, five masters were out with two pupils who were attempting this grind. A sudden squall howled through the mountain passes, screamed across the lake, upset boats and killed the entire seven. One of the victims was the school captain and his body was recovered first and brought 30 miles by shikaree to the city. There, enraged relatives metit, hoisted the body on their shoulders and started marching it through the streets shouting that this was how Biscoe murdered his men. As it turned out, the leader of the exclusive Brahman community heard of this, rushed toward the parade in a tonga and stopped it, as only a Brahman can stop things in Kashmir. As Biscoe had been soundly hated by the Brahman community ever since that first afternoon when he made their sons do physical exercise with a leather ball, and later when he had the audacity to arrange a wedding with a Hindu widow as bride, this friendly move came as a surprise.

The Francis Aberigh Mackay Memorial School considered the first school for women that operated from Fateh Kadal

The city, however, rose in fury and demanded that the teaching of swimming be stopped there and then. Biscoe refused and the Brahmans had a big palaver in which to his further relief and surprise they said he was quite right, that the seven deaths were accidents, and that swimming should be carried on. It took ten days of active search to find the last body, and they were all cremated in a large funeral fire, while sorrowing relatives cursed. Undaunted a dozen boys swam the lake in 1935 and 20 have announced their intentions for ’36. Not only that, but the maharaja has finally abolished the prison term for witnesses of drowning.

Girl Education

Most of Biscoe’s clashes with the priesthood have cropped up because of women, and since he was continually landing in hot water over females, he decided to add a girls’ school, first of its kind in Kashmir where 95 per cent of the women are kept veiled and under guard to this day. He made it a rule that girl wives could not enrol. Girls of six to twelve were early applicants for knowledge; but of the first batch nearly all were married, and he shipped them off to their husbands again, whereupon people jeered. Did the man expect twelve-year-olds who were virgins? The idea was preposterous!

Nevertheless, the crusading padre persisted and now has 300 young maidens absorbing the classics and domestic arts. The only concession he had to make was in the matter of dress. When a Kashmiri girl marries, she puts on a white veil and enormous earrings and wears them from that time forward. These in time pull the ear out of shape, but are not removed until her body is dipped in the sacred waters before cremation. For girls over ten these matronly earrings are advertisements of respectability.

Gordon Sinclair in his Toronto Star office

Biscoe girls, of course, had no earrings because they had no husbands. Gradually they ripened into their teens, still without earrings. People on the streets stared and jeered. This is what education did for girls! They could get no husbands! Girls without husbands were obviously loose of morals and good men avoided them. Sensible men would, of course, have no truck with educated women. The girls faced public ridicule at every turn. They were despised old maids at fifteen. So the order went out that Kashmiri dress, which is picturesque and warm, should not be used at all. The co-eds were not put in uniform, but were asked to wear the costumes of Rajputana, which are flowing silken garments of rich beauty but without the primitive savagery of the Kashmiri.

One of the tasks I had faced with great trouble was trying to photograph Kashmiri girls. It was not only difficult, but dangerous. One infuriated father walloped me with a clay pot out in the Shalimar Gardens, and several men came after me with sticks as I tried to get snapshots of wives or daughters.

With one exception, the only pictures I could get were of coolies or harlots, the harlots being frequently brought to my room by ingratiating pimps who knew I was anxious to make pictures. I preferred the coolies.

I figured, however, that the Biscoe girls’ school would have beautiful talented girls. Here I could make pictures of the true Kashmiri beauties because they’d be enlightened enough to help me. I was wrong; not wrong about the beauty because there was much of it, but wrong about the pictures. Not one girl in that school would dare face the evil eye of a camera.

Remarrying Widows

But it was the widow wedding that almost wrecked the Biscoe School. India, as you know, considers it a hideous sin on a woman’s part if her husband dies. Regardless of the fact that girls of ten marry men of forty every hour of every day of every week, and regardless of the fact that nature kills off forty-year-old husbands before ten-year-old brides, it’s still a sin and the woman must forever afterward go about and weep her sorrow. She dare not remarry; she must never dress up, go to a party or take a trip. She is a sinner and an outcaste, the servant of temple priests or of her own servants if she has any.

Biscoe took the first step toward ending the curse of widowhood, and here is the official church report of that adventure into matrimony:

After much preliminary spade work, two men and two widows had been found willing to face the music and go contrary to orthodoxy. So, on the day before Ascension Day, 300 Brahman guests marched to fetch the bridegrooms, and brought them to the house of the two waiting brides at 6.30 am. But when the ceremony should have begun it was discovered that the padres had bolted! However, one of our Sanskrit teachers is a priest, so he performed the ceremony, for which heinous sin he is the target for the poisonous darts of the enraged priesthood.

They called the faithful to attend a monster meeting on Sunday at the principal temple, in order to let off wordy fireworks and excommunicate the Mission School staff. Some friends came with me to see the great show; but the meeting did not take place, for one of our old boys, who is in a high position in the state, asked an official to intervene, so he wrote to the head priest of the temple telling him that he must pay down in hard cash Rs 20,000  ($8,000) before the meeting could take place, which he would forfeit should there be a disturbance.

A 1950 photograph showing an open-air classroom in the harvested rice-fields to help students stay warm.

The orthodox waited until two Sundays later, and then called a meeting at the same temple. But when the faithful arrived they found a policeman at the door, who told them that anyone who attempted to enter the temple precincts would be taken to the lockup and kept there. The shackles of this disgraceful custom had been cracked if not broken.

After the padre had read me this 1928 report, I asked if other widows had found husbands since that day. “About 40,” he explained. “The marriage of 40 widows in six years out of a population of 175,000 is certainly not many, but when you consider the hideous hold the priests have over their people and the bitter hatred with which they view widow remarriage, you will realize that we have made progress.”

Biscoe and his team of teacher out on a picnic.

“And what is your deepest satisfaction concerning your work here?”

“I also think that our boys helped end the traffic in women. Kashmir has always had beautiful women; fair-skinned and dreamy-eyed. They are soft, feminine women, much in demand outside the state as ladies of the evening and nautch girls. The export of women was one of the principal industries here.

“Four years ago this state was an autocratic dominion, ruled by the maharaja and by him done. He was an absolute monarch and nobody voted for anything or anybody. This might have gone on indefinitely were he not a Hindu and 80 per cent of his people Mohammedans. Twenty per cent of the people had 100 per cent of state jobs.

“The Mohammedans, at last, became vocal and demanded rights; when they did not get them rebellion broke loose.

“The result was that the raja changed the constitution, and granted a parliament to which six of my boys were elected. The first act brought forth in that first Kashmir parliament was to abolish the traffic in women-what we call the White Slave trade. One of my boys sponsored the law and it passed.

“The following year penalties were stiffened to include the cat-o’-nine-tails for procurers who had formerly made annual buying tours through these mountains.”

Insulated From The World

Strange as it sounds, not a solitary pupil among the 1400 boys and 300 girls in the school has ever in his life seen India.

Biscoe boys on Wullar banks – swimming is part of education. Photo: Gordon Sinclair

Just a few hundred miles over the mountains lies their neighbouring country, the mad, savage land of Hindustan, but not one in 1700 has ever been there, and to this hour the padre has not been able to persuade his classes that the world is round or the sea salty. The priests have told them the sea is made of butter, and that they still believe.

“In the late nineteen-twenties when money was freer, I did arrange one pilgrimage. I wanted to prove to the masters that there was on earth an Oriental country that was clean instead of filthy, that had free women instead of domestic slaves, and that did not abuse the beasts of the field. That was Burma. I sent four masters to Burma, and they came back full of excitement and delight. They also said they had definitely tasted the water of the sea, and it was salty, not made of butter. Some day, when money flows again, we will repeat that voyage and show Burma to some of our pupils.”

This group of Brahmin students were trained enough to rescue people from getting drowned. Photo: Gordon Sinclair

“And what, after forty-four years is your principal disappointment?”

The Indian mentality is completely amazing at all times, but never more so than in education. He does not desire or want knowledge. He will not, out of his own curiosity, ask questions or seek answers. He wants a degree. He wants to pass. He wants a title even if it’s only a failed BA. So he is a parrot. He learns answers to certain questions by heart, and that is all he cares about. Deeply as I regret it, he steals much of his knowledge and then promptly forgets it. The only advance I can claim in this direction is that now many of our boys admit that they have cheated on examinations.”

(Excerpted from Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northern India by Gordon Sinclair FRGS, published in Canda and America in 1936.)

Coinciding with encouraging visitor footfalls, the return of the seasonal workforce and the traders, the Government reopened schools after 19 months. An elaborate exercise involving almost every family, managing contagion-free campuses is a challenge on daily basis. A Team KL report about the issues and how the systems are tackling them in the public and private sector

Almost a year after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, primary schools reopened from classes 1 to 5 from Monday, March 15, 2021. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

On March 1, Arshad Ahmad, a government schoolteacher posted at a Pulwama school was passionate about resuming his duties and teaching the students. He had to enter the classroom exactly after 19 months of lock-down. Conscious of the loss that 19 months entailed for a student, Ahmad wanted to not waste any more time.

The last time he taught his students was August 3, 2019, two days before Article 370 was scrapped.  This was followed by six months of security and information lock-down. Then in March 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic dictated another lockdown.

On the very first day of his school, however, Ahmad got a call from his principal’s office revealing that he had to attend a 5-day training programme. He had to immediately report to a new pace. Ahmad was bewildered.

“I found it bizarre. At least, management should know how much time is already lost,” said Ahmad. The training programme was about learning the SOPs to be followed to prevent the contagion to spread.

“I am not against the training; in fact, these are good exercises to participate in. But my only concern is – could we not do this prior to the opening of the schools also? Were not we sitting idle for a long time?” Ahmad said. “You pull out teachers from the schools on working days. It definitely affects the education of the children.”

Apart from this Ahmad said that the history of the teachers from different schools who participated in the training programme is unknown. Anyone could be infected and it can then multiply to a larger audience. The newer information about the invisible contagion is that this is more virulent as far as its distribution goes.

The Islamia College

Ahmad’s concerns proved right when the Islamia College of Science and Commerce, Srinagar reported an outbreak. Within a week after the opening of the higher education set-up, almost half a dozen teachers and officials of the college were tested positive for Covid-19. Initially, the college management tried to take it easy but finally, they had to shut the college for some time.

Over two dozen students participated in a painting contest Hunnar 2021 organised by the Kashmir Education Initiative (KEI) on Sunday, March 14, 2021. KL Image

“A teacher in the chemistry department did a random check and he was positive. Then others from the department did tests and many of them were also positive”, said a senior teacher of the college, currently in self-isolation.

Contagion Carriers

Children, worldwide are being seen as the softest targets of contagion. Morbidity apart, children manage fighting the virus better but they become carriers of the contagion and ring it home.

Till date, Kashmir has reported 75341 positive cases, of whom 73418 people have fully recovered and 679 are still fighting the infection. Of 1974 deaths across Jammu and Kashmir, 1244 were from Kashmir. In fact, Srinagar accounted for 464 deaths and almost one-third of the overall infections.  

IGP Kashmir Gets COVID-19 Vaccine Shot on Thursday, February 4, 2020. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

In the last few days, the numbers have started surging again, albeit at a small scale. Srinagar continues to be offering most of the newer cases.

With seasonal migrants, travellers and the seasonal labour returning to Kashmir, the opening of schools added a new vulnerability. There are reports that most of the people entering Jammu and Kashmir through Lakahanpur are not being tested at all. “The entry seems more of a racket than a reality,” a senior lawyer said. “There are documents but no testing.”

No Vaccination

This is happening at a time when the vaccination has started on basis of priority. The government has gone ahead with immunization of frontline workers including the Anganwadi workers but teachers have been left out of even the second phase of immunization currently underway. The government also has no plan to include the teachers in the next phase leaving them along with students at risk of contracting the Covid-19.  

The Jammu and Kashmir Immunization Officer Dr Qazi Haroon said currently teachers are excluded in the central government guidelines for the vaccination. Admitting that they have witnessed demand for immunization of teachers since the current vaccination drive started for senior citizens and for people above the age of 45 with co-morbidities.

“We have been under a lot of pressure in terms of the immunization of teachers and journalists,” Dr Haroon said. “We have started going to some schools and providing vaccination to teachers who are above the age of 45 with co-morbidities.”

The doctor added that going to every school and vaccinating every co-morbid teacher is a difficult job which is why they have advised teachers above the age of 45 to visit the nearest vaccination centre and get vaccinated.

Nurses displaying the COVID vaccine kit during a dry run conducted by the Health department Kashmir at UPSC Nishat on January 2, 2021. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

“I attend three classes a day and I come across around 150 students daily. Ok students at this age have good immunity but teachers are mostly aged,” one senior college teacher said. “Doctors have been prioritized who see one to one patients but when we go into the class, we at a time attend a bulk of students and have to interact with them.”

Most of the colleges are overcrowded. In certain colleges that lack adequate infrastructure, the situation is quite grim.

Various teachers in colleges and schools alleged their campus administration has not taken the pandemic seriously. Most of the college lack sanitizers, thermal scanning, and in certain cases, even water points with soaps do not exist.

The Peripheral Scene

Compared to Srinagar, the situation in schools in Kashmir periphery is completely opposite as there are almost no cases reported anywhere. Most of the schools of north Kashmir are following the protocols to avoid the spread of the virus.

“As per protocol, thermal screening is being done. Odd-even has been implemented and different masks for different days have been provided to students,” said Rameez Ahmed, a teacher of a north Kashmir school. 

Artists perform at the inaugural function of 2nd Khelo India National Winter Games, at the ski resort of Gulmarg, Friday, February 26, 2021. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

He said in order to manage the crowd and maintain social distancing they have divided the total number of students into two groups who are being taught in different classrooms.

Another government teacher Naseem Ahmad from south Kashmir said that he has been apprehensive about going to school because he fears contracting the Covid-19.

“We also have families. I have children. What if we contract the virus? The government’s infrastructure is very poor particularly in schools below the middle level,” Ahmad said.

A senior executive at the DPS Srinagar said they have evolved an SOP and they religiously follow it. “It is a disease and we are completely transparent. We had one case and we ensured that every single contact is traced and tackled,” the executive said. “Fumigation and the SOPs are normal with us and there is no compromise.”

Happy Students

Unlike teachers, the children are enthusiastic about the reopening of the schools after one year.

“It’s better than online classes as it’s easier to understand what the teacher is saying,” Mohammad Shahid, an 11th standard Humanities student at Green Valley Educational Institution Srinagar, said. “Online classes became tedious after a while and it was no fun learning things online.”

Lt Governor addressing the first batch of MBBS students of GMC Doda

They, however, see a lot of changes in the campuses. They have to follow many dos and do not’s and they has certain areas as no-go-spaces within the schools. “We do not have to attend morning assemblies now and going to the canteen is not allowed so, we are supposed to remain in classrooms all the time,” Shahid added.

Tuition Centres

Unlike the government schools, where management forced schools to shut, the scene at private coaching centres is different. Not a single coaching centre has recorded any positive cases so far even though they were running throughout the winter.

The coaching sector credits it to their strict adherence of the Covid 19 protocol.

Muntazir who runs a coaching centre at Pulwama said, “We have good space in our institutions where we ensure social distancing. We do not allow any students without masks and have kept sanitisers at every place.”

Sanitization

Prior to some days of the reopening of the institutions, authorities did sanitize all-educational institutions. Even the director of the school education said that before reopening of the schools there will be sanitization and cleaning of schools five days earlier.

“We have issued the guidelines to the school heads to ensure proper cleaning and sanitation of classrooms,” the Director School Education has said.

G N Var addressing media.

But teachers don’t set take this part very seriously. “This was done when there was no footfall,” one teacher said.  “Now when teachers and students go to schools, they do not sanitize any classrooms. There was a need to sanitize the classrooms now almost every two-three days.”

Three weeks have passed since the opening of colleges. In how many schools and colleges they have done random sampling? Nowhere.

The authorities in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on March 6, ordered the closure of the three schools for at least three days after some teachers and students were tested positive for Covid-19.

A letter issued by the nodal officer Covid-19 mitigation cell Budgam Aadil Bashir has asked the heads of these three educational institutions to close down the school premises’ immediately for a period of not less than three days after detection of Covid-19 positives cases in these schools.

The letter states that all the primary and secondary contacts of the affected teachers and students are advised to self-isolate themselves. “Testing for all the contacts will be undertaken in due course of time,” the further reads.

The schools which have been closed include Government middle school Hanjiguru Budgam, IEI School Budgam and Mazaharul Haq High school Budgam. He said that in the government Middle School Hanjiguru and IEI School a few teachers have tested positive while in Mazaharul Haq high school a teacher and a student have tested positive.

The Monitoring

A master trainer said they have trained the heads of the institutions and now every other follow up is on-line. They have already distributed an elaborate SOP document within the schools, both private and the public sector schools.

“We have more than 500 people across Kashmir who monitor the schools on daily basis and the discrepancies are conveyed online in real-time,” one of the senior teachers who is part of the monitoring set-up said. The schools being inspected on daily basis by these monitoring teams include the private educational set-ups.

Entry to schools is subject to a welcome temperature check. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

Subsequently, a daily report is also being drafted to check and inform everyone about each zone and school visited on a particular day.

The parameters checked and included in the report of the monitoring teams include whether frequent cleanliness and disinfection of school Infrastructure/equipment is being followed along with proper waste management. The report also includes the use of masks by teachers and students, maintaining hand hygiene along with a physical distance of two meters at all places in the school (Inside the classroom, in the ground, in corridor’s, at stairs, entry and exit points, during mid-day meals).

The report also mentions handwashing stations, separate toilet facilities, soaps and sanitisers and if the school have formulated Covid-19 task teams comprising of teachers and volunteer students. This is, in addition, to checking staggered time table, odd-even mode, flexible time table of student attendance in case of high enrolment schools. The teams also check whether sharing of student’s belongings, meals etc are discouraged in schools or not.

In one of the daily reports accessed by Kashmir Life, a team in the Srigufwara area of Anantnag under Rifat Saroosh visited Nice National Institute of Creative Education where a mass function was going on without maintaining social distance. Subsequently, the team sensitized the school authorities about the course correction.

In another case, the inspection team visited Government Middle School Kreeri where 42 students were enrolled and the team pointed out that the schools wasn’t following various SOPs. The team in their comments/remarks pointed out that the problem was because the school was operating out of rented accommodation.

Class fumigation in process in DPS Srinagar. Photo Special arrangement

While in the daily reports the comments are mainly satisfactory vis-à-vis the SOPs followed by schools, the teams have also found many schools failing on many fronts.

Colour Coded Masks

The schools have been asked to arrange washable coloured masks for the students – at least three. One education department official said they have been asked to use some school fund to source these masks. But all the schools do not have this fund.

Hussain, a teacher in a primary school in Kupwara and four of his other colleagues have pooled money to bring the masks for children of his school. They have a roll of around 50 students.  Each of them has contributed Rs 1000. They had an order for doing so, a verbal order from their concerned zonal education officer.

Students hug each other after primary schools reopened from classes 1 to 5 from Monday, March 15, 2021. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

Hussain said that they were told to bring the masks of three different colours for children: blue, green and white. According to Hussain the verbal order asks to make children wear each colour mask for two days. “We are doing so without any written order and we spent money from our own pockets,” Hussain said.

Private Sector Response

G N Var, president of the Private Schools Association, has his own take.

“I am against the idea of reopening the schools. This is a knee jerk reaction,” he said. Var said that the government is doing all this under influence of the public perception and does not see the logic. “They do it at the cost of people’s lives. What if a mutant strain of virus gets into the school, our future generation would be at risk.”

Var said that the government must do some research about its own schools. “There are some schools which are overcrowded, some do not have proper infrastructure and some lack the amenities,” he said.  “We have to appreciate that 80 per cent of the students’ study in such schools.”

With a huge population of students enrolled with private schools, Var said they were not taken on board. “Had they taken us on board, there could have been a better and effective coordination in handling such crises.”

(Piloted by Umar Mukhtar, contributions to this report were made by Yawar Hussain, Saifullah Bashir and Syed Samreen.)

After losing her books and both her parents during the process of examination and still making it with better scores sets Insha Lone apart, reports Saifullah Bashir

Insha’s grandparents, Mrs and Mr Abdul Gani Lone, take care of her and her brother.

In the recently declared Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) results of the twelfth standard, Insha Lone, a resident of Newa (Pulwama) secured 85 per cent marks. Seemingly this is unimpressive given the students getting 500/500 but what makes it special is that Insha managed this score while losing both her parents during the examinations.

“I am missing my father and mother,” Insha said while crying. She lost her “home” at the beginning of the examination and her parents died within a week when she was busy being examined for practical’s.

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Insha migrated to Rangreth (Srinagar) in November 2020, along with her family.  “There were two reasons for migration,” Insha said. “One was my study and another was the continuous harassment of my father in Pulwama.”

On November 1, 2020, when Insha was preparing for her examination, a cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched in Rangreth. In the ensuing gunfight at the rented space of Insha’s parents, Hizbul Mujahideen top militant, ‘Dr Saifullah’ was killed. Kashmir Police Chief, Vijay Kumar termed the killing as a “big success”.

In the encounter, the rented house went up in flames and it included everything including her books and other study material. “I had prepared notes on my own. It was the hard work of my full year, which got destroyed in just seconds,” Insha said.

Complicating the crisis, the same day her father Zaheer Abbas went missing. “I was now helpless,” she said. “It was a tough battle. Searching for my father, focusing on studies without any material left.”

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It was an extraordinary situation. No books, pandemic, a missing father and the examination on the head. “I was not able to cope up. There was a pandemic and the internet had turtle’s pace,” she said.

Insha was studying at Srinagar’s prominent tuition centre, whose mobile application was working on 2G bandwidth and that rescued the young student. “I took the help from the books of friends and neighbours,” she said.

‘Avoiding Smart Phone Is Key To Success’, Student Who Scored 500/500 Says

Meanwhile, her family continued to search for her father amid the rumours that he might have joined the militant ranks. In mid-November, an audio clip went viral on social media which claimed Insha’s father had joined militant ranks. The clip was forwarded to her by one of her cousins. “I could not gather the courage to watch it,” she said. “I have nothing to say on this. It was traumatic.”

A day after the audio surfaced, Insha wrote a Physics examination paper. “I could not read the entire syllabus. My target was high but the condition was absolutely opposite,” she said.

Unlike Insha, her mother Rozy was seriously impacted by her husband joining militancy. “She continuously was uttering how we can face people? How can we survive? How can I raise you?” Insha remembers.

Rozy could not “bear the separation”. On December 11, she died of cardiac arrest after she complained of chest pain and fell unconscious. ”We immediately brought her to District Hospital but doctors declared her dead on arrival,” Insha said.

Following her mother’s death, another audio of her father went viral in which he was seen praising his wife while stating that “death is inevitable.”

A week after Rozy’s death, a gunfight broke out in Anantnag where the police arrested Zaheer Abbas in injured condition. Later on December 18, he succumbed to his injuries in Srinagar’s SMHS hospital leaving Insha orphaned amid her examinations.

“I saw the face of my father in the Police Control Room (PCR) and the second time in Baramulla where he was laid to rest, more than 80 kilometres from our home” said Insha.

Losing her parents left Insha literally alone. Insha is the eldest daughter of her parents. Her younger brother, Saqib is studying in the eighth standard.

It is their grandfather, Abdul Gani Lone who is taking care of his grandchildren. “My grandparents are now my world but still, parents cannot be replaced by them. I miss my parents a lot” said Insha.

Insha is now preparing for NEET exams, with an aim to become a doctor. Fighting with all odds and barriers, she is hopeful that she will crack this exam.

It is pertinent to mention here that Insha is one of the huge group of girls who outshined boys by securing all the top positions in all four streams. Almost 58397 students had appeared in the examination.

There were instances of posthumous successes that forced families to relive the trauma. One such case was in Khanyar, where a promising boy after his examinations went for an outing and died of alleged drug overdose. Though all those accompanying the boy are in police custody, when the results were public, the mother of the deceased boy went to his grave with the marks sheet.

by Riyaz Wani

The charges extracted from the students should be in direct proportion to the quality of the services rendered and to the extent facilities of an institution are used by them, not because a student happens to be admitted to a school. 

Pic: Bilal Bahadur

The successive lockdowns since the revocation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, have battered Kashmir’s economy. Almost all sectors have been hit hard. The Valley’s business bodies have pegged the loss upwards of Rs 50,000 crore. But if there is any sector that has more or less been insulated against this loss, it is private education. The private schools have been closed for one and a half year but they have largely collected their tuition fees, sometimes blackmailing the parents into paying up by withholding results of the sham examinations held now and then or through some other cheap tactic.

What is more, in many cases, the parents have even been forced to shell out half the transportation fees. And while all this is being done, many teachers have been fired, drivers have been shown the door and the salaries of those who have been retained have been halved or delayed.  That too, at a time when the logistical cost of running a school has come down to zero.

16 Month Lockdown

It is true that many parents may not be paying in time as a result of the economic difficulties triggered by sixteen months of uninterrupted lockdown. But that hardly means they will not pay in near future or will not be forced to do so.

How does one deal with such a situation? It is time the government intervenes in the matter. And to start with, hold an audit of the finances of these institutions as the then Principal Secretary (Education), Asghar Samoon had sought to do last year. This will certainly clear the air as to the ability of these schools to pay to their staff. Samoon had made the decision in the wake of the complaints about non-payment of salaries to the teachers in these institutions.

As things stand, the private schools in Kashmir have created a business model that is least affected by any disruption to the economy. No matter what happens to people, whether they live or die or lose livelihoods, they charge their fees and as is the case now also fire their staff to make the most of the worst times.

Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Pandurang K Pole on Saturday, January 16, 2020 chaired a meeting with representatives of Private Schools of Kashmir.

True, not being able to teach normally in the prevailing situation is not the fault of these schools, but so is it not the fault of the hundreds of other businesses which have badly suffered because of the lingering turmoil. And if these businesses have taken their losses on the chin, so should private schools. In Tamil Nadu, the state government has asked private schools to just charge 70 per cent of the tuition fees. It is time the local administration passes a similar order here.

It is nobody’s case that private schools shouldn’t get their fees. They depend on the fees to run their affairs and to pay their staff. But it is also true that other than a brief period of a fortnight or so, the schools have been shut for around two years. And during this prolonged closure, they have saved on all the expenditures other than the salary of their staff, which too, some reports have pointed out, has often been delayed or reduced.

Blackmail

No doubt, their teachers have delivered online lectures and which too haven’t been up to the mark considering the curbs on the internet and the lack of the training of their staff to deliver such classes. So, the schools can’t charge full tuition fees, let alone transportation fees for a service they have largely been unable to offer. Or resort to blackmail to extract it like some elite schools are doing. Some of these schools held online exams and didn’t allow students to appear unless their parents paid up.  And to top it all, they also fired some of their staff. It is thus time that the government holds them to account.

 At the same time for the service the private schools charge hefty amounts of tuition, transportation and annual fees is now available online at a few thousand rupees from ed-tech companies which hire the best teachers and also offer graphic videos explaining the basics of a topic. Were the government to empower these companies to issue academic certificates, the private schools will become places for owls to live.

Commercial Entities

The point is that private schools have become more about business than education. The past two decades have witnessed the phenomenal growth of these schools in Kashmir. They have sprouted all over the place, from deep into the countryside to the congested urban areas, even in lanes and by-lanes. And then there are elite schools which boast of some imposing infrastructure, some even swimming pools, but that is that. 

School authorities conduct thermal screening of a student in wake of COVID-19 in Srinagar on Monday, March 1, 2021. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

From the looks of it, a predominant part of the private school enterprise in Valley is more about running an unimaginative business than the delivery of quality education. And they get away with this easily because a majority of the parents in Kashmir don’t hold them to account or aren’t really bothered about good education.  In a private school, they take the quality of education for granted.  But sooner or later, the disruptive nature of the new education technology will force the physical schools to mend their ways.

Riyaz Wani

It is also the time that the Kashmir private schools should earn their fees. The charges extracted from the students should be in direct proportion to the quality of the services rendered and to the extent facilities of an institution are used by them, not because a student happens to be admitted to a school. 

Curriculum, poor infrastructure and unimpressive service in public schools are pushing parents to enrol their wards in the private sector schools. This is despite the fact that Jammu and Kashmir invests more than Rs 12000 crore in the education sector and has the best human resource. Now teachers of a south Kashmir government school are investing their blood and sweat to undo the trend by reimagining their school, Saifullah Bashir and Shakir Ashraf reports

The students at the prayers in the state-run Government Middle School, Naibug, Tral, get a lesson in morals and cleanliness. The teachers of the school contributed from their salaries to fund the school’s infrastructure deficit. KL Image Shakir Ashraf

With falling enrolment being a growing concern in the government-run schools along with lack of facilities driving away more students from the public sector schools, a Government Middle School (GMS) nestled in Tral’s Naibugh village has come up with an innovative and unique idea. The staff purchased a cab out of their own money to woo more students to the school. 

The decision of teachers was prompted following this year’s decision by the Jammu and Kashmir School Education Department to conduct enrolment drives across to improve the enrolment.

“Many people accepted our invitation but everyone was demanding transport facility as they couldn’t send their wards to our school,” said Muzaffar Ahmed, a teacher at GMS Naibugh Tral.

 Keeping in view the public demand, teachers of GMS Naibugh held a meeting under Headmaster Sunil Kumar Koul. They finally came up with a plan where they unanimously agreed to contribute to buy a cab out of their own pockets.

 Koul, a resident from neighbouring Dadsara, led the move by donating one lakh rupees from his own pocket. 

“When a government employee’s child can get good facilities, why cannot a poor man’s child at least get a van?” Koul said, adding that more such initiatives can be taken to attract students to the public sector. 

Following Koul’s path, other teachers of the school came forward to donate resulting in a collection of additional Rs 1.50 lakh for buying a cab. In a couple of days, the school was able to generate a total of Rs 2.7 lakh among themselves. 

“It was a blessing from God. We just started the initiative not knowing whether we would achieve our goal or not. But we have been able to start a good fight,” Koul said. 

To keep the service running, the teachers are contributing Rs 1000 on monthly basis for fuel costs, driver’s salary, and other expenses. 

“We have opened an account under the name of Teachers Welfare Fund. The money is automatically debited from our bank accounts,” Muzaffar said.

The van that the teachers of a state-run school purchased to improve the status of their school. KL Image Shakir Ashraf

A Good Response

The innovative initiative is drawing more attention from parents in the area with some of them terming it a “noble initiative”. 

“Within days we received 39 new admissions. We are hopeful it will increase in the coming days,” Ahmed added. The initiative has led the residents to talk about something that teachers never considered – ‘if teachers can contribute from their own salaries, they are serious people and would teach their wards better’.

 Residents said the initiative has been a welcome change for the government schools in the area which otherwise are in the news for negative things only.

 On daily basis, the school cab covers 50 km to and fro, attracting other students to the school. 

“Roads in our village are in dilapidated conditions and during bad weather, it becomes difficult to walk. So, this step would definitely bring ease to us,” said Fatima, an eighth standard of the school. 

Enrollment Crisis

The number of students has been a crisis in most of the public sector schools as the parents believe their wards are getting a better education in the private sector. In 2016, the Government Middle School Naibugh was established by clubbing Government Upper Primary School Naibugh and Primary School Naibugh which had 12 and 17 students, respectively at the time.

Teacher of the Government Middle School Naibug (Tral) who raised their donations to fund the school improvement. KL Image Shakir Ashraf

The 2016 government decision to club the two schools was implemented in letter and spirit. 

“We had a total of 50 students in the two schools,” Ahmed said. However, the number has gone up from 59 to 96 after the school staff bought the van. 

To ensure physical distancing in view of Covidd-19, the school cab does multiple rounds to ferry the students from four neighbouring feeding areas of Sherabad, Nowdal Bala, Sheikh Mohalla and Gulab Bagh. 

The teachers not only contributed to the wealth but their time as well. 

“We come one hour early and leave one hour late than our usual timing because we have to ensure that the students who come in batches are received by us. In the evening we follow the same schedule,” Ahmed said. 

During last year’s Covid-19 induced lockdown, the teachers of the school were conducting classes in the open air for the students near the village stream.

Nothing New

The GMS Naibugh’s rendezvous with such unique feats by its teachers dates back to 2006 when it operated from two rooms. The then staff had bought land for upgrading the school infrastructure by contributing Rs 50000 out of their own pocket.  

“The then headmaster Ghulam Rasool Rather contributed for the land and finally, 10 marlas were purchased for school building on which the majority of school buildings are currently built,” Ahmed said. 

Apart from buying the cab and land, the school staff is also providing new desks, copies, pencil, and study material to the new students along with having special emphasis on “below average” students.

The staff believes that such initiatives if taken by the government are bound to bring back the public sector schools out of the morass they are caught up in.

They said that with the enormous funding available in the government sector schools in comparison to the private players, the government has the luxury of experimenting on new ideas like the ones they have employed in their school.

“It is the minds that need to be synced for such things to materialize,” Koul said. “If the government decides to adopt these things in just model schools of each district, it can turn out to be a game-changer for the government sector,” This, he adds, can overhaul the perceived image of the ‘Government school’.

 “We want this initiative to be an ignition for the sector so that government gets into things, which were never thought of before,” the teachers insist.

 “Teachers play an important role in a child’s life, and the parents are crucial in shaping the lives of children. The government must make teachers part of the change,” Koul said.

No Fee

In the last three years, the GMS Naibugh hasn’t charged any fee from its students in order to counter the school dropping out a practice that over the years has marred the government-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We didn’t charge any fee from students for the last three years. This year, we had to charge fees from some students as we couldn’t cater to everyone following the expenses on account of the cab,” Koul said.

Students of the Government Middle School, Naibug, Tral ensure face masking and social distancing within the school. KL Image Saifullah Bashir

The school is well maintained and provides all the basic necessities to the student but as the roll has increased the teachers said that authorities must come forward so that the school can further be enhanced.  

“Our Zonal Education Officer has been helpful but then assistance can only come from the top level,” the staff members said.

Poor Infrastructure

The education department is the most populous department in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to spend Rs 11016.32 crore in the lower education sector and Rs 1365.24 crore in Higher Education during 2021-22.

The public education sector is manned by the most competent and well-paid staff. However, its outcome is hugely questionable and part of the blame goes to the poor infrastructure and syllabus.

The poor infrastructure along with poor learning, levels have been denting the public sector schools in Jammu and Kashmir leading to falling enrolment for which the department had started drives earlier this year.

A 2020-survey by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development had found that 80 per cent of government schools of Kashmir lack basic facilities of electricity, drinking water, and even toilets while many schools are without playgrounds and those having had either a playground outside their premises or is not accessible at all.

The survey revealed that of 23,747 government schools— 12,252 in Kashmir and 11,495 in Jammu, around 6,351 government schools were without toilets for girls and 8,098 schools have no toilets for boys. Only 5,000 government schools have electricity while more than 17,000 government schools are without electricity.

Niti Ayog in its 2020 report had observed, “Jammu and Kashmir has remained educationally backward compelling the state government to promote education in the state.” TheNiti Ayog had stated that there is a need to rationalize the scheme of providing free education at all levels in the state and to reconsider the decision of providing free education at the university level.

“The need of the hour is to learn the latest technologies available and government institutes need to be equipped with the latest infrastructure so that students are better informed,” the Niti Ayog had pointed out. The report further pointed out that the existing infrastructure is not sufficient, adequate infrastructure, training and learning material should be made available.

“Locally employed teachers should be encouraged to minimize absenteeism in schools, especially in remote areas. As in the case of Madhya Pradesh, village panchayats have been associated with the supervision of the functioning of schools in the villages. This experiment has met with considerable success in reducing absenteeism on the part of teachers in Madhya Pradesh. The government of Jammu and Kashmir could try this experiment too,” the Niti Ayog report reads further.

Vibrant Private Sector

In contrast, Kashmir private schools have modern infrastructure, quality education and adequate transport facilities. This is despite they operated merely on almost thirty per cent of the funds that the government invests in the sector.

Classrooms are supposed to be clean. KL Image Saifullah Bashir

Tahir Rasool, a student of one of the government schools said: “The private schools in Kashmir are provided with modern and well the developed infrastructure where students enjoy their studies, but here in our schools we don’t have even classrooms, we use to study under sunlight and face a lot of problems, we do not have any place for sanitation nor a playground, we want our schools developed like other Government schools outside the valley.”

A number of schools in the Kashmir periphery operate from the tiny rooms built over cowsheds or in certain cases in failed shops. While the Education Department is strictly ensuring all the facilities in private schools – including fire safety systems, it avoids looking inwards. That is the key factor why almost the two-thirds population of the teachers serving the Government-run schools have enrolled their wards in private schools.

Deflating Enrolment

Even as the government claimed a surge in enrolment for the current academic session, the figures reveal a dismal picture because the public sector schools managed to get only 31000 new students in comparison to losing 1.75 lakh students in the previous academic year.

The official figures reveal that Jammu and Kashmir has the worst retention rates in India with students continuously moving towards the private sector. The numbers of students moving out of the public sector are less than the number of out of school students suggesting that these students are in schools that aren’t government-owned.

As per official figures, the retention rate in government schools in the previous academic year was 60 per cent at the elementary level and only 50 per cent at the secondary level.

In November 2020, the Project Approval Board (PAB) – a unit of the Ministry of Human Resource Development – revealed in a survey that the enrolment at the elementary level in government-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir has decreased by 1.75 lakh in a year.

According to official numbers, the retention rate is very low in the Baramulla district at 41.52 per cent at the primary level and 46.68 per cent at the elementary level. However, the education department in its massive enrolment drive has claimed that this year the highest admissions in government schools were witnessed in the Baramulla.

Similarly in 2017-18 and 2018-19, there was a decline in enrolment of 3.8 per cent among all male students up to 10th standard in government-run schools.

In the academic year 2017-2018, a total of 57.3 per cent male students were enrolled in government schools of Jammu and Kashmir up to ninth class and above while in 2018-2019 only 53.5 per cent male students were enrolled.

In the case of female students, a total of 64.7 per cent of female students were enrolled in government schools up to ninth class and above in 2017-18 while in 2018-19 only 61.3 per cent of female students were enrolled.

Official figures further reveal that in 2015-16, the net enrolment rate in Jammu and Kashmir’s government sector was 55.7 per cent which in 2016-17, decreased to 47.1 per cent. Earlier in 2014-15, the enrollment of students in government schools in Jammu and Kashmir went down by 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2013-14.

As many as 18.16 lakh students were enrolled in government schools in 2014-15 compared to 18.84 lakh a year before.

According to MHRD’s data, government schools in Jammu and Kashmir have seen a sharp decline in student enrolment from 2012 onwards. The number went down to 16 lakh in 2016-17 from 19 lakh in 2011-12.

Private Sector Ahead

Around the same period when government schools lost three lakh students, the government set up 1497 new schools from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

As per MHRD figures, 72.5 per cent of students in urban areas of Jammu and Kashmir in the age group of 4-10 were enrolled in private unaided schools in 2018-19. Similarly, 60.1 per cent of students of urban areas in the age group of 11-14 years are also enrolled in private schools in Jammu and Kashmir indicating that more than half of the students in urban areas choose private schools over government schools.

In the age group of 15-18 years, 37.8 per cent of students of urban areas were enrolled in private schools in 2018-19 which however doest translate into adding of students in government schools in this age group. The decrease in the number of students from 60.7 per cent in the age group of 11-14 years to 37.8 per cent in the age group of 15-18 is mainly attributed to students dropping out of schools altogether due to varied reasons.

In rural areas, however, the MHRD figures present a different picture with government schools being preferred at the age group of 4-10 years. The figures reveal that only 36.7 per cent of students in this age group in rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir were enrolled in private schools in 2018. In the age group of 11-14 years in rural areas, only 29 per cent of students were enrolled in private schools. Similarly, in the age group of 15-18 years, only 15.6 per cent of students were enrolled in private schools in rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

The MHRD figures are similar to private school enrolment in Jammu and Kashmir in the subsequent year of 2019 and the preceding year of 2017 as well.

In comparison to this, the enrolment in private schools has been going up despite twin lockdowns in the Valley post-August 5, 2019.

For the current academic session (2020-2021), the private schools witnessed 70000 news admissions in just 1500 odd schools registered with the Private School Association of Kashmir.

In 2019, when Kashmir valley witnessed unprecedented lockdown post-August 5, the private schools witnessed 63000 new admissions in these 1500 schools in the month of October when the restrictions were still in place.

by Ikhlaq Qadri

Exactly this was a time of the year, 13 years ago in 2008, spring officially sprung, that I was finally a graduate. Out of college, I was looking forward to pursuing my further education outside the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.  My family, however, wanted me to stay back.

Professor Riyaz Punjabi

Caught in the quagmire of career, the following months started to give trouble. An uneasiness of uncertainty prevailed upon everything. I had a pervasive feeling of loss until a friend handed me over a brochure of the University of Kashmir. Without getting into the details, a charming face on the edge of the cover page lured me to turn the pages. A naive to know, when I read the message of the person on the page, my broken threads started to join and weave a wonderful dream, again.

A couple of months later, as a new entrant to the oldest university of Kashmir, I found the man on that page in front of me, physically. He was Professor Riyaz Punjabi, a man of his own style, walking down the lane with grace and grandeur.

After completing the admission formalities, we were a group of students, probably 26, who were allotted South Campus, the first satellite campus of the University of Kashmir established in the same year at Fatehgarh, Anantnag.

An equally new experience to the students and teachers, the campus was massive and mesmerizing, but the infrastructure was in infancy and academic activity was yet to start. However, the other side of the fence was extremely active where the Army has a huge base of over 1000 Kanals of land, commonly known as High Ground. The regular firing session sound used to engage us in otherwise silent space over the mountains. At the same time, the sight of students of nearby Army Goodwill was soothing.

Who Was Prof Riyaz Punjabi?

Headed by dynamic director Prof Mehraj Ud Din Mir, and academic coordinator of Business Administration Syed Rumaiya Sajjad, somehow the studies started slowly in seclusion.

Unlike the joy of being in the best campuses of India, I was sad to see myself in a dormant state of affairs. Reluctant in revealing that it was a bad decision to join the campus, I was about to call it a day. But a few weeks later, the man who joined broken threads on the Brochure page arrived in the mountains and it turned out to be a festival. Accompanying the then governor, Narendra Nath Vohra, Prof Punjabi got almost everybody from the main campus to share his vision of vastness.

The function was a full day affair and students shared their concerns. I was one among few who spoke their heart out. Ideally not taken in a positive sense, that too when the stage is shared by the head of the state, I was told that game for me is over. Scared to see my teachers in fear, I was surprised when Prof Punjabi called me out and talked like a father. Without being angry or arrogant, he assured us of all the possible facilitation. He expressed happiness over being confident in seeking facilities for pursuing the studies. Not caught in ego clashes, he knew his stature is beyond small considerations.

Starting to deliver on his assurances there only, the first thing he did was to talk to nearby Army commanders in presence of Governor Vohra. That was an attempt to acclimatise army men to the civilian population and seek safety.

An academician to the core, he issued orders to shift faculty from the main campus on a daily basis to ensure the students have equal knowledge base and exposure, besides ensuring the library and other facilities are better than the Business School in Hazratbal. Within a couple of months after his visit, there were no regrets. No U-Turn.

Placing our priorities ahead, Punjabi was instrumental in managing our industrial visit to better institutions outside Jammu and Kashmir and ensured we are accompanied by a senior faculty member, Prof Iqbal Hakim. The visit to Delhi is a different story, keep it for another day.

Given the topography of the campus, it was difficult to reach in winters, those days. The students thus sought his appointment and I was part of the team. He was patient in hearing our issues and was gracious to shift us completely to the main campus, much to the displeasure of one of the senior-most faculty members of Business Studies.

Interestingly during the conversation, one of the students tried to give him a reference of some person, and the reaction was horrible. Prof Punjabi banged him like anything. Later, he concluded the meeting on advice of being self-reliant without using others’ name.

On the main campus, he kept an eye on us completely. He ensured that we have separate classrooms and regular faculty members, the attendance of whom I was asked to compile. For better understanding, he even engaged late Prof Muhammad Akram Mir of the Law department for a specialised subject.

A student and Vice-Chancellor are two ends of the river, not comparable at all, but I remember when in 2010, the situation in Kashmir turned grim; we again approached him for continuing our classwork. A difficult decision to take in a crisis, he did not disappoint. A man of his word, he arranged hostel accommodation and managed to get staff to provide us food, separate for boys and girls and asked the department to conduct our classes regularly.

A deserted campus, with only 20 odd students, he ensured to join threads of dreams and made us believe that in difficult situations, dynamic leaders can do it all.

Though there are instances, where people contradicted Prof Punjabi on many things, but a student in me still believes he was someone who tried his best to light the candle of knowledge. A human without shortcomings is not a human at all. He too was a human being. The different theories of his conduct and connections is not my domain to talk about, but I know he was someone who believed in the idea of Kashmir. A passionate thinker, he was instrumental in taking University to a different level. Man with versatile qualities of both head and heart, tough-looking Professor was a child deep inside.

On one occasion, he quoted her poetess wife, Tarannum Riyaz, and the verses continue to remain a solace in difficult situations, “Bhul ja guzre shab ki talkhiyaan, Har savera ik naya aagaz hai.”

Serving at Government College for Women for four decades Mohammad Rafiq Shiekh has ushered in several generations of students into the college, reports Saifullah Bashir

On his retirement day, all the staff members acknowledged the dedication and spirit of Rafiq.

In 1979, Mohammad Rafiq Shiekh was appointed as a daily-wager at the department of sports in the Government College for women at Moulana Azad Road Srinagar.

Sheikh was a teenager then. He wanted to help his family financially so he agreed to work at the college.  He was unaware that this college will be his first and last place to serve. With a meagre salary of Rs 150 per month, he remained as a daily wager till 1982.

For his dedication and good performance, Sheikh got a permanent post at the college and his salary was increased by Rs 250. From the sports department he was a posted gatekeeper, a duty he discharged for the following four decades.

“Then Rs 150 was sufficient to run the kitchen. Everything was cheap and without side effects. In just Rs 50-80 I used to buy a quality shirt,” he said adding these days fashion changes daily.  “When I was young loose clothes were in vogue and once in five months, one used to buy new clothes. Usually we used to wear second-hand clothes of our elders and neighbours”.

His father, Abdul Aziz Shiekh too has served there in the college’s Department of Geography as a peon.

Over the years, Sheikh’s conduct made him a most liked person at the college as well as outside.

Describing the roads and environment of Srinagar city in the eighties, he said that the mountains of garbage which we see today were nowhere.

“Air was fresh. The city was pollution-free. We used to directly drink Jhelum’s water, so clean it was,” Sheikh added.

Rafiq with employees of the college

Appointment at Women College Srinagar changed Sheikh’s life.  Established in the 1950s, the college has produced hundreds of luminaries, who are serving in different fields.

“When I joined the college, I saw female students as my sisters, now I treat them like my daughters,” said Sheikh.

Recalling an incident from the initial days of his service, Sheikh said that once a girl left her home but did not reach college. Her parents came to see her in college but found her absent. The local police station intervened and they called Sheikh for questioning.  Sheikh helped the police in identifying the boy with whom the girl was seen early in the morning.

“I had seen a girl walking with a boy. I described the colour of their clothes to the police,” said Sheikh.

Accordingly, police acted and the duo was traced and case was solved immediately.

“For solving the case, I received an appreciation certificate and Rs 500 as cash price by VK Singh, then senior police official of Kotibagh police station,” he said.

In the 90s Kashmir witnessed the “darkest period” of history. Violence was visible on every street. The atmosphere was filled with uncertainty.  Amidst the roaring of guns safety of students was a top priority.

Sheikh remembers that once a student lost her life in his arms after she was hit by a grenade that exploded outside the college.

“A student of our college was hit by a splinter. As we heard the bang we went out and she was in a pool of blood,” Sheikh narrated while praying for her forgiveness.

Along with his wife and three children, Sheikh lives in the Kralkhud area of Srinagar.

In 2010 government forces stopped him at Barbar Shah Bridge.

“Fortunately I was wearing a uniform. I told them that they should allow me for the sake of Khaki uniform,” he said.

After completing different courses, tens of thousands of students have passed out from this college. Many were appointed as professors in the same college. They still have respect for him as they used to have during their student phase.

“Recently I visited a bank. Due to COVID-19, people were in a long queue. Suddenly an employee of the bank recognized me and brought me in. She offered me a tea and it was a very delightful moment,” Sheikh said.

During the student unrest of 2017, he acted as a crisis manager for the college. “In order to maintain the peace, I chased students away from college,” he said.

He had developed an emotional attachment with the college. Every morning he would come to college at 8 am and leave at 5 pm.

Rafiq during his heydays as the de facto controller of the gate.

“Official timing is 10 am to 4 pm but I used to come early in the morning. I cleaned entrance point and sprayed disinfectant and remove advertisement posters from the walls of the gate,” Sheikh said.

Sheikh is called Cha-Cha by students. He has built a family relationship with some of the parents of the students.

One family of the student is still in touch with him.

“Their daughters used to study here and I used to drop them at their home. On few occasions, I and my family visited their native village in Kupwara,” Sheikh added.

“There were instances when boys of different colleges used to assemble outside this college and created ruckus,” Sheikh said. “I persuaded them to leave. I could at times be strict with them”.

Even, the then governor Jagmohan Malhotra once visited the college but was stopped by him.

“He was in white ambassador car, followed by security vehicles. I for a moment refused to open the gate and all the guards came down and pointed their guns towards me,” Sheikh said.

Jagmohan, Sheikh said, asked him from the window of his car who was he?

“I am a gatekeeper and I do not have permission to let you in!” Sheikh replied.

Krishna Misri was the principal and she recommended that Sheikh should get a permanent post.

In Women’s College, boys too have made a dramatic entry since 2016. In three departments, Journalism, Computer applications and Nursing, boys have been enrolled.

“In my opinion, boys should not have been allowed in this college. This decision should be revised,” Sheikh added.

“This college is sacred for me. I spent more time there than at home. Faculty is my family.”

The college has a hostel as well, where students from far-flung areas stay.

“Whenever any parents came to see their children at the hostel, we properly verified them at the entrance point,” he said.

On his retirement, teachers, principal as well as students acknowledged the contribution of Sheikh. A farewell was given to him by the teaching and non-teaching staff.