by Jameel Barkat

100 years down the line, Insulin is still not flowing in the veins of the millions of people who desperately need it. Unfortunately, it remains inaccessible due to its exorbitant prices and unavailability, despite the fact that its discoverers decided not to patent it.

In 1921, these four men were behind ending the scourge of diabetes by discovering the insulin

It was a nightmare to see the diabetic ward of any hospital in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as patients were collapsing into a coma due to high blood glucose levels. The only remedy available to hold onto the life of patients was the starvation method developed by the father of starvation, Dr Frederick Allen.

Starving diabetic patients was like reducing them to skeletons with life. The gloomy atmosphere of diabetic wards evaporated, exhilaration started circulating into veins and exuberance was displayed on the faces of diabetic patients after news of the discovery of Insulin spread throughout the world.

A Struggler’s Invention

By 1920, there was evidence given by scientists like George Zuelzer of Germany and Nicolae Paulescu of Romania that some extract from the pancreas was lowering the blood glucose in dogs they used for experiments. However, this crude extract from the pancreas was toxic with vast side effects.

Dr Federick Banting was a frustrated surgeon who was struggling to find a job and had a failed tryst with his first attempt of setting up his own clinic. One night, he was reading an article by Dr Moses Baron who had found atrophied pancreas in one patient whose pancreatic duct was blocked by a stone.

It is pertinent to mention that Banting had a very rudimentary knowledge of carbohydrate metabolism. However, the article was enough to stimulate an idea in Banting, which finally culminated in the discovery of Insulin.

The Hypothesis

Banting hypothesized that if we can ligate (tie) the pancreatic duct of dogs, we will be able to get rid of exocrine secretion, which at that time was thought to be the culprit in damaging the endocrine part having the anti-diabetic function. The next day, Banting sought an appointment with Professor JJR Macleod at the University of Toronto. Macleod was a renowned scientist of carbohydrate metabolism who gave a patient hearing to Banting’s hypothesis and agreed to allow him to work in his laboratory with some degree of acquiescence. Macleod saw some merit in Banting’s idea and was of the opinion that even negative results will also be helpful in further understanding of the then enigmatic anti-diabetic treasure extract from the pancreas.

Since it was time for summer vacations, Professor Macleod’s students, Charles Best and Nobel Clark had to toss the coin for deciding who will work with Banting in summer. Best lost the toss and had to work with Banting while Clark later regretted winning that toss, which perhaps deprived him of fame and becoming a part of the history of the marvellous discovery of Insulin.

Banting And Best

Banting and Best started their experiments by ligating the pancreatic ducts of dogs followed by extracting the fluid they named as isletin and subsequently injected this extract into the diabetic de-pancreatized dogs. Their journey did not start on a good note as a number of dogs died due to infection while going through pancreatectomy (removal of pancreas).

Best later recorded in his memoir that Banting, having an apprehension of using too many dogs from University of Toronto’s animal facility, bought many dogs from the streets of Toronto and one time even used his necktie to catch and bring a dog to the lab.

Injecting the extract from ligated pancreas into the diabetic dog was no less than a miracle as they had seen and recorded the dog’s high blood glucose levels plummeting. However, it was again the same problem of abscesses and other side effects. Banting and Best later found that extract from normal bovine pancreas were also effective in lowering the blood glucose. So, the question of ligated pancreas came to an end and the quest for purification of that effective constituent gained momentum.

A Failed Presentation

In December 1921, Banting and Macleod presented their work to the American Physiological Society Meeting at Yale University in New Haven. However, the inarticulate Banting poorly presented the work and failed to convince the jury and experts. Macleod chairing the session had to come to the defence of Banting from critical scrutiny of their work.

Returning back to Canada, doubts and misunderstandings started to seep in the mind of Banting who thought that Macleod was now robbing him of his credit. Banting in a hurry had pushed Macleod for the first human clinical trial and 14-year old Leonard Thompson became the first human to receive the crude extract of the pancreas. As expected, it did drop his blood glucose but with marked serious side effects. Thus, the first clinical trial was a failure and led to the demotivation of Banting. Macleod now sought the help of JB Collip, a brilliant chemist, in extracting pure internal secretion from the pancreas.

Diabetes: An Underestimated, Misunderstood Disorder

Chemist Joins

Collip’s work started on a disappointing and humorous note as he was not able to reproduce the results of Best and Banting and it later turned out that boy who was getting the pancreas for Collip from an abattoir was bringing back thymus and not pancreas due to the sweetbread culinary term used for both pancreas and thymus. Extract of thymus not lowering blood glucose was also an important result and compelling evidence of the presence of anti-diabetic hormone being exclusively present in the pancreas.

Collip, after receiving the correct sweetbread (pancreas), was finally able to extract a pure internal pancreatic secretion which was the first glimpse of Insulin.

A Battle

Collip’s refusal to reveal his method of extraction outraged Banting and he grabbed his lapels to a point where Best had to intervene. That ugly moment was a display of nasty scientific competition. After Collip’s successful isolation of pure extract, ideal for human studies, Macleod was able to convince the world that they had discovered insulin. There came a twist in the story where Collip failed to repeat the success of his extraction method at a commercial scale production. Collip and his team really struggled to regain the knack of art of extracting insulin from the pancreas. Disillusioned, Banting was mourning the robbery of his due credit he thought by Macleod and Collip. Banting thought of leaving the laboratory and returning back to his clinic but Best’s emotional statement changed his plans.

The Conversation

Best: What will happen to me?
Banting: Your friend Professor Macleod will take care of you.
Best: I will also leave the laboratory if you will go.

After this, there was a moment of silence followed by Banting’s enthusiastic and emotional plea that they would not rest until insulin flowed in the veins of every diabetic patient. And they succeeded!

Scholar Jameel Barkat

A Century Later

100 years down the line, we have come a long way in creating the best forms of Insulin. However, it is still not flowing in the veins of the millions of people who desperately need it. Unfortunately, it remains inaccessible due to its exorbitant prices and unavailability, despite the fact that its discoverers decided not to patent it. With hope, Banting’s wish will be achieved before a further 100 years have passed.

Declaration: I have use references from Bliss, M: The Discovery of Insulin. 1982 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA.

(The author is a Kashmiri scholar who did his PhD from South Korea’s Daegu University on obesity and Type 2 Diabetes with a focus on the browning of white adipocytes, a novel strategy against obesity and its associated metabolic complications. He is now busy in his post-doctorate at the University of Gothenburg.)

The pandemic has forced the students enrolled with offshore medical schools to study virtually from home. This is putting a question mark over their competence as future doctors, reports Farzana Nisar

Stranded students at Dhaka airport in May 2020

It is 6 am and red-headed Sheezan Sabzar, a 22-year-old MBBS student of International School of Medicine, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, is attending his second online class of the day from the comforts of his bed in Kulgam’s Pahloo. Since early 2020, when students pursuing education in different parts of the world were sent back home, amid the surging cases of Covid19, Sheezan hasn’t been to his college.

“I have been appearing in online examinations for the last two semesters but there is a huge difference between learning physically at a medical school and virtually at home,” Sheezan, a sixth-semester student, said.

His college is putting online presentations and demonstrations via charts in separate classes but, Sheezan said, the absence of practical training and interaction in a professional course like his is a huge loss.

Despite spending a huge amount of money on pursuing medicine overseas, the pandemic has now forced these students to turn to online resources, other than the classes held by their colleges. “Medicine in itself is a difficult subject to study and a 1-hour online class isn’t enough to clear all our doubts and confusions,” Sheezan said. “Besides, we didn’t take all the books along when we left for home. We thought that the pandemic would wind down soon. Also, the airlines only allow you to carry limited luggage.”

Funny Classes

Another student of a central Asian college, Mohammad Faizan who pursues MBBS at Asthana Medical University, Kazakhstan prefers to skip most of his online classes. He is of the firm belief that “MBBS is not a course to be done online.” A student of the second year, Faizan was only able to study the first semester on the campus. “We had hardly attended any classes of the next semester and the pandemic happened. After the quick transition of the entire curriculum to an online format, no clinical skill session has been conducted by our school,” Faizan said.

Kashmiri students stuck in Bangladesh demand the immediate evacuation

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the existing virtual system of learning, Faizan said: “We were once told by our professor to give an injection to someone and later send its video. This is terrible.” He further opined that missing out on practical studies would have a far-reaching impact on how good doctors they become.

“At the end of the day, we have to treat patients in the hospitals and not on video conferences. We can’t make excuses that we missed the anatomy or physiology practical due to the pandemic,” he laughed.

Faizan believes that the medical schools have no plans to cope up with the loss. “They haven’t communicated any such thing to us as of now.”

Dhaka Colleges

In 2019, when Shaista Jan, a resident of Harnag Anantnag, secured admission to a top medical college of Bangladesh, little did she anticipate the strenuous process of earning her degree from home. Enrolled at Ad-din Women’s Medical College, Dhaka, Shaista’s online classes start around 7 am and continue till 3 pm, with a short break for lunch, every day.

“I don’t feel like I am learning anything with these classes. It is just a means to pass examinations and meet the assignment deadlines,” Shaista, who is currently in her third year, said. “The prolonged screen time not only depletes my energy, I don’t even get time to study on my own. I feel lost and demotivated.”

Unable to interact with patients, visit OT’s and observe senior doctors, Shaista said that digital learning has killed her purpose of studying medicine at a foreign college and paying such a hefty fee.

The first flight carrying the stranded students and other Indian nationals readying for takeoff from Iran on March 15, 2020

While the concern of most of these home-stuck students is the lack of clinical exposure, Shaista also fears that it would be difficult for them to qualify for the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGC), also known as the Medical Council of India (MCI) examination – a test compulsory for those Indian students who have pursued MBBS from abroad.

“A good number of clinical questions are set in the MCI examination. It is a challenging examination and needs a lot of practice and without the required practical guidance and training I don’t know what will we do? This will also impact our work during the internship.”

Shaista feels that there is bias and prejudice against foreign-trained doctors in Kashmir, which is likely to increase due to the virtual learning scenario created by the pandemic.

“We are often treated differently not only by this society but also our own medical fraternity. They call us Bangladeshi doctors and perhaps we will now be called online doctors,” she said, in a sombre tone.

Travel Suspended

As travel remains suspended between Bangladesh and India owing to the second wave of Covid, hundreds of Kashmiri students enrolled in different Bangladeshi medical colleges are stuck at home. The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) earlier this month had written to the external ministry to facilitate the travel of MBBS students for attending their exams.

Unlike Shaista, who studied in the traditional classroom set-up at her medical school for about a year, Sana (name changed), a BSc radiology student, visited her college in Chandigarh only for a week. “I got my admission finalized this year and attended the first few classes in March and then after corona cases surged our college was closed and all the students returned home,” Sana said.

File image of LD hospital, an exterior view (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

As medical radiography and imaging technology involves methods and processes used to take pictures of the human body organs for clinical purposes, there are a lot of laboratory subjects in Sana’s curriculum. “Practical and laboratory experiments are essential for learning the basic concepts and I didn’t even get a chance to have a look at the radiology equipment,” she said. “Learning first-aid and asepsis online is no possible.”

Students pursuing medicine in different medical colleges of Jammu and Kashmir have a similar tale to share. The complete clampdown post abrogation of Article 370 followed by two back to back pandemic necessitated lockdowns has disrupted the learning of future doctors of Kashmir.

Homegrown Medicos

Sitting on the lawn of his home at Chrar-i-Sharief area of Budgam, Mohmmad Azim, a pre-final student of MBBS at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, is marking important points in his textbook with the help of a highlighter pen. As Kashmir witnessed a rise in Covid19 cases in April 2021, authorities once again converted SKIMS into an exclusive Covid19 sanatorium. The students residing at hostels were asked to vacate and the rooms were provided to Covid19 staff. The medical school then shifted to virtual learning. However, Azim believes that the professional identity of a doctor relies on practical knowledge and laboratory learning along with real familiarity with authentic patient care environments.

“Subjects like surgery require clinical posting in hospital wards but that is not possible due to the pandemic,” Azim said. “Also, out of the three theoretical papers online class for only one subject is taken, because somewhere the teachers also know that it is difficult to make students understand the concepts in an online set-up.”

Azim too is worried about his performance after completion of his degree. “Nobody is to be blamed for the situation, but I don’t want to be a hypothetical doctor.”

Teachers Dilemma

Some professors of medicine also opine that online theoretical classes do not suffice the learning requirements of students pursuing medical courses. Dr Sheikh Zahoor Ahmad, Associate Professor at the department of surgical oncology, SKIMS said that the online platforms provide a valuable alternative to physical classes but for students of professional courses like MBBS, these methods are grossly inadequate as they lack the human touch and real-life scenarios.

“This pandemic has emerged as a black swan, disrupting all spheres of human activity including education. Not only has medical training been affected at the graduate level but even postgraduate teaching has suffered, as all human resources have been channelled towards Covid care,” Dr Sheikh said adding that in these difficult times when the healthcare system is stretched to limits, strategies need to be devised to mitigate the negative effects Covid19 has had on the training of medical professionals.

Concurring with his thoughts, Dr Shah Naveed, Assistant Professor at the same department said: “In MBBS curriculum there are theory as well as bedside clinical classes. Online classes in no way can replace bedside clinical teaching.”

Working In Hospitals

For some young doctors-in-training, their degree will come at the cost of risking their lives. With long working hours, low pay and the fear of infecting their families, MBBS interns have been the frontline warriors against the virus. In order to bolster the stretched healthcare system, the Jammu and Kashmir administration at the directions of the central government called upon the health institutions to utilize the services of final year MBBS students and interns for teleconsultation and monitoring of mild COVID-19 case after due orientation and supervision of faculty.

Suhaeb Malik, an MBBS student at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, is currently completing his mandatory course-related internship. In addition to the postings in multiple departments of GMC, he has to periodically work in the Covid ward as well, where his job is to test the patients, check their vitals and give them injections.

Suhaeb in return is paid a monthly stipend of Rs 12000 and no incentive for his Covid19 duty, which according to him is disproportionately low in comparison to other states and UTs. “It’s not a matter of wages only but recognition of work and excluding interns from incentive programme is discrediting their job,” he said.

Another area of concern for MBBS interns, not currently in hostels, is the unavailability of accommodation at the hospitals. “Interns who have not availed the hostel facilities need to go back home at the end of their duties. Many interns who were exposed to the virus had their families infected too.”

Resident Doctors at the GMC recently regretted that they were denied the accommodation, a key to stay away from their families. They said 120 of them were infected and some of them took the infection home.

Director of School Education Kashmir, Tassaduq Hussain Mir is a busy man these days. He has to ensure that the government schools adopt and adapt to the online mode of teaching. In an interview, Mir tells Khalid Bashir Gura that the government schools are better placed in terms of infrastructure and the faculty than the private schools.

Tassaduq Hussain Mir (KAS), Director Education, Kashmir

KASHMIR LIFE (KL): Recently a teacher’s son committed suicide as his father’s salary was not paid for more than two years?

 TASSADUQ HUSSAIN MIR (THM): Whenever any person is recruited in the government services, there is police verification followed by remarks. The majority are marked as nothing adverse. But in this case, there were “ambiguous negative remarks” and not even clear negative remarks, which has resulted in the withholding of salary. A committee has been set up to investigate the case and hopefully, the result will be positive since the concerned is living the normal life and has shunned the path of violence. A journey from gun to pen is a great change.

KL: Why did it take a six-year-old girl’s online plea to change policy on online classes rather than policymakers? Many stakeholders and experts said they were not taken on board and termed it as “bizarre”?

THM: Health is the priority and everything comes next. All academicians, experts, stakeholders were consulted before capping online classes through a formal order. We were giving the alternative for offline classes when this video emerged.  Now, we are also monitoring whether every school is following the guidelines. There is a less physical activity because of more screen time, which results in an increase in stress levels. Parents should ensure they involve kids in indoor games. We have established mental health counselling cell in the directorate and in all districts with a toll-free number.

KL: Since August 5, 2019 schools in Kashmir have opened only for a couple of weeks. The pandemic has compounded the problem. What is the administration doing to compensate for the loss of the physical classrooms?

THM: No doubt, there have been fewer physical classes since August 5, 2019, and more online classes following which the education department took initiatives. Last year we started with Zoom classes and Learning Management System, teleclasses, radio classes to reach students. We also started community classes in the areas where lack of internet and digital divide created hindrances.

As the second wave hit again, we followed the same methods to ensure no academic loss.  We have also a system in place which enables us to keep track of the number of students, teachers present and also the study material being uploaded.

We also conduct radio classes six days a week at specific times and from June 1, we have also started teleclasses. If the situation becomes normal and the pandemic curve flattens and the districts are declared green zones we may soon go for community classes especially in far-flung areas where a teacher will teach students in the school of his own vicinity.

KL: Despite government spending so much on teachers training why we lack tech-savvy teachers on the ground?

THM: It is a generation gap. In our time internet and online classes were unimaginable. Even now if I have to download something I ask my kid as they are more tech-savvy. Every teacher in present times has a smartphone and there is no complaint of such a struggle with technology.

KL: Why cannot government bring technology to classrooms?

THM: Government is trying to bring technology to schools. Some of our model schools are equipped with digital classrooms. It is a process of upgrading of technology in every institution.

KL: A digital disparity exists on the ground especially when it comes to government school-enrolled students. How government ensures education in a pandemic is all-inclusive?

THM: When we notice that many students are not able to join online classes due to a lack of digital devices and access to the internet we started teleclasses and radio classes to reach them. Once the virus surge goes down we will start community classes.

KL: Many 10+2 lecturers complain they have not been regularized for years. They gave the prime of life to education with the hope they will be regularized but all in vain.  They say they have been the victims of the system’s use and throw policy?

THM: Contractual lecturer is only for a specific period of time. They should know what contractual and permanent appointment is. There are government orders wherein their engagement with the department is specifically mentioned. If they are not able to get government jobs, it means they have not been able to compete. 

KL: Why despite enrolment drives in the past government schools continue to witness less enrolment?

THM: In the last two years, the drive has taken a hit, and also saving lives has become a priority. Now we are planning to start. We will go for seminars, campaigns to highlight our strengths especially in Srinagar and far-flung areas to woo people towards government schools.

KL: What are the strengths of government Schools?

THM: We have the best teaching faculty, better infrastructure than private schools. We have a balanced teacher-student ratio and above all support of government.

KL: Many teachers have been teaching for years at the same school. Why? Does the government have a sound transfer policy?

THM: There is a definite transfer policy in place. This year we started an annual transfer drive wherein teachers were given options. If you bring to my notice any person who is serving at the same place for years I will issue transfer orders.

KL: There exists a disparity in teacher-student ratio at many governments run schools, especially in far-flung areas?

THM: We are working on the rationalization of such disparities in ratios in classrooms.

KL: In terms of result, infrastructure, curriculum, pedagogy private schools perform well? Why is the outcome not matched despite hundreds of crores of investments in the sector?

THM: Our results have been good and the pass percentage is increasing. There is an academic review of every institution to keep track of results. It is the mindset that needs to be changed. We started an enrolment drive to attract people to government schools, to highlight our strengths and facilities and highly qualified and trained teachers. 

KL: Charity begins at home. Why the majority of government teachers prefer to enrol their wards in private schools?

THM: We have to change minds, I repeat. There have been some incentives for teachers who enrolled their children in government schools. They have been awarded and given out-of-turn promotions. We are trying  to persuade teachers and set a pattern for the change.

KL: Why parents prefer enrolling their wards in private school?

THM: We need to persuade people about the strengths and schemes at government-run schools in terms of faculty and facility.

KL: A 2020 survey by the ministry of Human Resources and Development found that 80 per cent of government schools of Kashmir lack the basic facility of electricity, drinking water, and even playgrounds. Why?

THM: There is a scheme that every school should get these facilities. As of now, 90 per cent of government schools have electricity and toilet facilities even though exceptions may be there. The land is costlier and we are trying to avail facilities especially playgrounds. The department of youth services and sports is also tackling sports facilities.

KL: There have been mass promotions, reductions in the syllabus in the last few years because students have not been able to attend schools. Will, it not adversely impact their future competence?

THM: In extreme situations, there is an option of mass promotion. Last year we reduced the syllabus. This year if we have to reduce the syllabus we will not exclude any chapters but there may be a change in the weightage of marks if required.

KL: “The virus is here to stay and we have learned to live with it,” say, doctors. When can schools be expected to open?

THM: The decision-making body meets periodically. Once this infection level goes down, we will take a call on offline classes.

For the last many years, social media is triggering decision-making within the government and society. Last week demonstrated it yet again when the Jammu and Kashmir administration reacted to two videos, both concerning the education sector

Mahiru Irfan, a little kid whose self-recorded video about online school work led to a drastic reduction of virtual classes on the orders of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

For the last many years now, the cell phone is emerging as the main change-maker. Equipped with the best cameras and linked to the global highway of information, the younger generation know how to reach people. Now even the government and the formal media follows the trends set by social media.

 Education being the key component of life, last week witnessed two major developments. In one, the son of a teacher committed suicide after recording a video highlighting the plight of his family in absence of the salary denied to his father for 30 days.  

 Shoaib Bashir Mir

Two days after he consumed poison in an apple orchard, Shoaib Bashir, 24, died in SMHS Srinagar on May 28. Son of a school teacher, Shoaib’s pre-suicide video stormed social media, a day later. He had expected a quick death but fate forced him to live for two days and reveal his crisis to his mother, Jamila His last words were: “Mother, I have consumed poison.”

“There is only one motive behind my suicide,” Shoaib says in the video. “For two and half years, my father hasn’t been paid. Our life has become miserable. I want my suicide to end the miseries of all the teachers who haven’t been paid.”

Bashir, his father, a militant was arrested in 1996 and acquitted in 1999. In 2005, he was appointed a temporary teacher. Eight years later in 2013, his services were regularized. In 2019, the new rulers of Naya Kashmir sought fresh verifications of the antecedents and Bashir’s salary stopped. For two and half years, Bashir and 630 others were not paid.

While Bashir continued working, the salary halt started reflecting at home. Shoaib, a student of B Ed (which he passed with flying colours as results came after his suicide), actually sought some money from his mother for some stenography course. He used to go for manual labour but it was becoming increasingly difficult to study and earn. Shoaib’s brother is pursuing BTech and his sister is in twelfth standard. Bashir had raised a bank loan but was unable to pay the EMI, which added to the family’s reputation in the Avil village, down south. The crop failure in their apple orchard for two years had added to the crisis.

This had landed the family in serious economic hardship to the extent that Shoaib sent his suicide-related video to his friend for upload because he had not an adequate data pack in his phone. By May 28, it was a viral video.

The government acted fast and released Rs 33 crore that was due to teachers across, whose salary was withheld on basis of police commentary across Kashmir’s 10 districts. These included one crore to Srinagar, Rs 5.5 crore to Budgam, Rs 2.25 crore to Ganderbal,  Rs 4.5 crore to Baramulla, Rs 4.25 crore to Kupwara, Rs 3.50 crore to Bandipore, Rs 5 crore to Anantnag, Rs 1.5 crore to Pulwama, Rs 3 crore to Kulgam, and Rs 2.5 crore to Shopian. The government said Kashmir had 17236 RReTs (Regularized Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers) and ReTs and 16606 of them have already been transited to Teacher Grade II and III till now. However, of the remaining 630 cases, the transition of 363 RReTs is pending for want of deficiency or verification of requisite documents and not having clear CID verification remarks.

Mahiru Irfan

Soon after came another video. Unlike the Kulgam video, it had no element of violence.

It was just a 71-second video that took social media literally by storm forcing the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Executive, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to respond on Twitter. It was a six-year-old, Mahiru speaking on the crisis she was facing as a class one student.

Apparently addressed to Modi Sahab, the “adorable complaint” started with a greeting. “I am six-year-old and I am telling you about the Zoom classes. Why the kids who are just six-year-old are burdened by their teachers – Madam and Sir – with so much homework? This much of the load is for big kids. When I wake up my classes take place from 10 am to 2 pm. One is English, one is Maths, one is Urdu, then EVS, and then Computer,” she is heard saying. “This much of work is for baday banchon (grown-ups) who study in seventh, sixth and tenth. Modi Sahab, why are they giving us so much of work?”

Mahiru is the daughter of Irfan Ahmad, who works with a private construction company, and Rukhsar, who left teaching at Khanam’s Higher Secondary School when Mahiru was born. They live at Shalpora in the sprawling Batamaloo area of Srinagar. She has a 2-year old brother.

Rukhsar said Mahiru, one day, donned a red upper and went to her room and recorded the video. “In the video, you will see her looking towards something,” Rukhsar said. “She is actually looking towards the door fearing I might come and interrupt her.”

After the video was recorded, she showed it to her parents. They shared with some of their relatives. “We do not know how it went viral.” A simple family, they were frightened over the mass circulation of the video till the government recognised it and responded to it. Her appeal soon fetched results and triggered a policy change as directed by the Governor to lighten the pressure on school kids by putting a cap on the duration of online classes.

What is interesting and require acknowledgement is that the formal media has been running campaigns on both the issue for a long time now. This has not created any impact on the decision-makers in Jammu and Kashmir. Now when the issues were directly tackled by the social media users, it forced them to act. There lies the power of social media.

This also explains why the governance structure is so keen to manage social media, at least in places like Jammu and Kashmir. Now people desiring to serve the government as employees need to have their social media accounts clean. In fact, a few dismissed in recent days had social media issues, if one goes by the media reports. As social media is getting powerful, the formal media is dwarfing in its status and would require more work to stay relevant. 

Youngsters in Kashmir have started taking control of their education. This year, three students bagged UWC scholarships for International Baccalaureate diploma at select United World Colleges, reports Minhaj Masoodi

Kashmir’s new UWC scholars 2021: (L to R) Anayat Yousuf, Sayim Qadri and Sabzara Ali.

Anayat Yousuf’s happiness knows no bounds. His dream of studying abroad has finally come true. A twelfth standard student, Inayat recently bagged a United World Colleges (UWC) Scholarship worth Rs 60 lakh. He is set to fly to Germany where he would pursue International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma at UWC Robert Bosch College, Freiberg.

Son of a shopkeeper, Inayat has done everyone in his family and his village proud.

A resident of Pinjoora (Shopian), Anayat did his initial schooling at Sunshine Public School, Pinjoora.

A Shopkeeper’s Son

After completing his eighth class examination, Anayat relocated to Srinagar where he got himself enrolled at the Kashmir Education Institute (KIE) Higher Secondary School, Nowgam. It was during this time that he got acquainted with Kashmir Education Initiative (KEI), a US-based non-profit that supports the education of underprivileged children in Kashmir.

It was here that Inayat was introduced to the idea of preparing for the UWC scholarship. UWC is a global education movement, which has 18 schools and colleges spread across four continents, the majority of which focus exclusively on the 16-19 age group. These colleges teach International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma as their formal curriculum.

The process for UWC scholarships started last September. The applicants had to write essays, following which they were shortlisted for interviews, out of which a select few were chosen for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programme in various countries. The whole process is overseen by UWC national committees in over 150 different countries.

“There was a counselling session at KEI, where we were made aware of these scholarships. Everything followed from thereon,” says Anayat. “The selection process, however, was very rigorous.”

“The admission process started in September 2020 in which thousands of students appeared throughout India. Only 140 were selected for an interview,” he adds.

After clearing the initial stage of the examination, Anayat appeared for an interview on March 2. He finally received his selection call on June 2.

Anayat’s is one of the only 20 students to have been selected for the two-year overseas programme from India, this year.

With his achievements, Anayat has done his parents proud. “Education is the most powerful weapon and my son has proved it. I am proud of him and his effort,” said his father, Mohammad Yousuf  Dhobi. His mother, who is a homemaker, is equally proud.

Youngest among three siblings in the family, Anayat always dreamt of studying abroad. “My dream is fulfilled,” he says.

However, the UWC scholarship is not the only feather in his cap. Anayat has a host of achievements to his credit. He has a medal of distinction for achieving Zonal Rank 19 in SOF-National Science Olympiad 2020-21 and an International Rank 533. He is also a silver medallist in Goprep Talent Search Examination.

Besides, academics, Anayat has also done a project on the utilization of waste paper and the preservation of handicrafts in the 26th National Science Congress and is an active member of Design for Change-USA, a global student’s movement where Anayat says he has been taught Metacognition, leadership skills among others.

However, with the grant of scholarship, Anayat has dropped his plans of appearing for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) “I know people here are obsessed with NEET and JEE, but there is a world beyond them.”

He now wants to build upon his studies in Germany. “UWC scholars can do further studies in the United States from very prestigious universities such as MIT, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania among others.

During the course of preparation, he says the support of his parents and his siblings was very crucial. “I left my NEET preparation mid-way. But my parents and my brothers supported me, particularly my eldest brother who has completed his bachelor’s in engineering.”

The Alasteng Girl

Anayat is not alone. Sabzara Ali has also secured the UWC scholarship. Brought up by a single mother, Sabzara is currently studying in eleventh grade. He also came to know about the UWC scholarship through KEI counselling.

After applying for the scholarship programme, Sabzara says that she went through various stages of the exam, and was finally selected for UWC Adriatic, Italy with a total scholarship of Rs 50 lakh.

From Alasteng (Ganderbal), Sabzara had applied for the programme when she was studying in the tenth standard. She is presently studying humanities at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Soura. Unlike Anayat who wants to build upon her studies in Germany, Sabzara wants to continue pursuing humanities once her two-year sojourn in Italy is over.

“I want to study further economics after the diploma ends,” Sabzara said.

During the course of preparation, however, Sabzara revealed that her family did not initially understand her. But, after doing the research, I got the support of everyone, particularly my mother and maternal uncle.

“I was very nervous during the course of the preparation because this was a huge opportunity. Its enormity dawned upon me from time to time. But my mother and my maternal uncle were hugely supportive after they understood the programme,” she said.

A Lal Bazar Boy

Srinagar has also a young who did it on his own. Sayim Qadri from Lal Bazar, Srinagar is also a class eleventh student.  Sayim has also bagged the United World Colleges (UWC) Scholarship. But, unlike the rest of the two students, he is not going abroad.  He has been given the Mahindra College located at Pune, India with a total grant of Rs 19 lakh.

Son of a lawyer and a teacher, Sayim was initially introduced to the idea of UWC by his uncle.

“My uncle guided me regarding International Baccalaureate (IB). He had earlier guided my cousin who later got admission in a boarding school to pursue IB.”

After passing his ninth class examination, Sayim started exploring and gathering information regarding IB from different websites. His cousin also chipped in to help him from time to time.

“While I got a good amount of information from the internet, the UWC website was very helpful in understanding IB and UWC.”

Later, it was with the help of KEI that Sayim was fully acquainted with UWC and its processes. It was here that Sayim and others were groomed for the exam.

“KEI held a zoom session where UWC alumni from Kashmir made us understand the objectives, pattern and process of application of the UWC in a clear manner. We were given mock tests from time to time, our essays were reviewed which helped us a long way in our preparation for the examination,” Sayim said.

After completing the formalities, the tests commenced. “At first, we wrote an examination where we wrote four essays on general topics. Then students were shortlisted for interview and I got my interview call after five months. The teachers at KEI and UWC Alumni interaction helped a lot during that stage.”

The interview took place in February after which Sayim also got the confirmation letter that he had been selected. He is scheduled to join the college in August.

Like Anayat, Sayim was also preparing for NEET. He now has dropped the idea. However, he is unsure what he wants to do after his diploma ends. Right now, he just intends to go with the flow.

“I am not sure what I want to do ahead. The basic focus right now is to complete the IB Diploma,” he adds.

At a time, when the world around has been filled with gloom and despair the news of these kids has brought a cheer and smile to the faces of many. Interestingly, last year Mahin Akram, a Bemina resident and a KEI scholar, who did her IB from Mahindra College in Pune, is currently studying at Wellesley College in the USA, the alumni of which include Hillary Clinton.

Hundreds of contractual lecturers working for years at various higher secondary schools and colleges were abruptly disengaged after August 2019. Now, in their late twenties and thirties, they are jobless and have nowhere to go, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

Contractual teachers protest for regularization in Srinagar

Following the reading down of Article 370 on Aug 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir 10+2 contractual lecturers hoped for regularisation of their jobs and an end to their years of struggle. But when they returned to schools after months of lockdown, they were told they stand disengaged already.

Since then, the future of more than 1500 highly qualified candidates, most of whom have completed 10-15 years of ‘service’ in the education department, is uncertain.

“The academic arrangement process was started in 1998 in higher secondary schools to overcome the shortage of staff,” said Pankaj Sharma, a resident of Jammu and President of 10+2 Lecturer Association in Jammu.

Over the years successive governments failed to devise a policy to regularize the candidates, most of whom have qualified NET, SET, and are PhDs, besides having decades of teaching experience. Sharma himself has served the department for more than a decade. “Most of us are feeling depressed,” Kashmir Divisional President of the Association, Ishfaq Majeed, 28, said.

A Hope

The candidates were serving the department with the hope that they will be regularized someday. Now, they believe they are the victims of the “use and throw policy” of the successive governments.

As they are protesting for years with no solution in sight and demanding regularization, the incumbent administration has shocked them by contending that due to the absorption of ReTs and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers they have no vacancies left and are not going to recruit lecturers through the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission for the upcoming five to six years.

The experienced candidates who are already on the brink of ineligibility for other posts will soon be over age till government promises materialize. They rue they gave their best years to the department but have now been abandoned.

“It was during the tenure of Satyapal Malik that more than 40000 candidates were recruited in the department,” Majeed said. “But we were excluded”.

The Lost Policy

Since 2016, Majeed said, the department would continuously conduct written examinations and screening and only then hire them. “Article 370 went, so did our livelihood,” said Majeed.

During Mufti Sayeed’s 2003 government, the contractual teachers said a policy was introduced assuring regularisation of services of contractual lecturers. The policy also assured a salary increase from Rs 3500 to Rs 7000. But within three months, another notification on October 21, 2003, said that in future all such arrangements would be made on a contractual basis.

Art Work by Malik Yasir

“In 2003 a policy 1301-Edu of 2003 was framed for the regularization of concerned academic lecturers and it was clearly mentioned that the teachers who would be appointed on a contractual basis would be regularized after the completion of three years,” said Sharma. “After some time, the term academic arrangement was modified to contractual rules through corrigendum order no 1584 –Edu of 2003 in which it was mentioned that in future all such arrangements would be made on contractual basis. But neither were we regularized after the completion of three years nor after seven as per contractual rules.”

In 2010, Majeed said a special provision Act was brought by the government in which it was mentioned that all the contractual and consolidated daily wagers would be regularized after the completion of seven years.

“In 2015 SRO 520 was brought to regularize left out cases but it’s very unfortunate that we were not included,” Sharma added.

The special provisions were implemented on doctors and others but not on teachers.

Paltry Wages

The candidates also complained of paltry wages, asserting that they are unable to feed themselves and their families. “In Rs 7,000-10,000, how can we manage to feed our families? With no job security, we are in perpetual fear about our future,” they said.

College Contractual Teachers Association on Tuesday, September 15, 2020. KL Image

Now idle with no job, the candidates are battling shame and psychological issues. “Even within our own families we are looked down upon as we have not been able to get desired jobs as expected after years of struggle with a huge investment in academic degrees,” Majeed said.

When meeting someone or any student of theirs, the question that haunts the contractual lecturers is: What are you doing these days?  “This instils shame and inferiority complexes.”

Majeed, a son of a government employee, is still unmarried and has not shouldered family responsibilities yet. But he is worried as his father has now retired.

Overage

Muhammad Muzaffar, 39, a resident of Bandipora had to abandon his plans for higher studies due to financial constraints at home and had applied for a contractual lecturer’s post soon after finishing his masters in Botany. He was appointed in 2013 and was serving the department till 2019.

“Earlier the selection was based on merit and later when Dr Shah Faesal became Director Education, screening tests were conducted. I qualified for it and continued to serve,” he said.

Muzaffar had to travel more than 30 km daily to Sumbal to teach for a monthly salary of Rs 7000.  He was also disengaged in 2019.

“Our career is bleak. Last year I prepared for Accounts Assistant exams,” Muzaffar said, adding that he could not qualify as he thinks he has lost the zeal for competitive exams now. “I have given my prime time to teaching and now I find myself amid books, looking for some hope in any random job. But now I am on the brink of passing the age bar.”

The Motivation

Why did they choose to serve on a contractual basis for years?

 Muzaffar said they saw the government regularizing the employees of other departments after a few years of contractual services so they also felt hopeful.

“My result statement in school was never below 90 per cent. I used to give my best in teaching,” he said.

Presently his livelihood is private tuitions, which may not be as lucrative as in Srinagar. “I am able to survive because of a joint family,” he said.

Physical Labour

In desperation, many candidates with no source of livelihood had to do physical labour to feed their families.

Last year on a cold November day Dr Tariq Mohiuddin, 35, was disallowed by some of his students to work in the field as a labourer to earn his livelihood.

“They could not see me doing this,”, said Tariq, a PhD in political science who had been teaching as a contractual lecturer at Government Higher Secondary School at Vessu Qazigund between 2018 and August 2019.

5 days on, Contractual teachers continue their protest for service continuation

Earlier he had been appointed as a contractual lecturer from 2010 to 2014. After a few years of teaching experience, he planned to pursue PhD and took a break till he was awarded the degree in 2017. Later when he joined again on contract, he was disengaged like many others.

“The word contractual hurts us,” he said, adding that he is still unmarried because of a lack of a job. He said he is scared to face society and is consumed by self-guilt as despite a PhD he is jobless.

“Presently I am preparing for exams to every government post irrespective of my interest and expertise. I am becoming depressed at home,” he said.

The only viable option, according to him, is the private sector, which is also missing in Kashmir. “I am on the verge of a heart attack,” he said as he is worried by the family responsibilities, ageing parents and changing priorities.

The transition from teacher-class based teaching to digital education has not been smooth in Kashmir, nor is it helping students to learn, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

A class 11 student at a government school, Sahil Sofi, has Bluetooth earphones always plugged in his ears, a routine he has been following since last year when the Covid19 outbreak closed down schools and paralyzed life. He does not know what his new school’s uniform looks like. He also misses his frantic morning searches for school socks or misplaced tie or unpolished shoes.

Like him, many others also miss rushing and waiting for the school bus, meeting friends or greeting a teacher in person as educational institutions continue to remain closed.

“Even though enrolled at SP Higher Secondary School, I have not yet been to school physically,” Umar Abdullah Zargar, an Old City resident, also a class eleventh commerce student said. “I have not met my new school friends yet.”

Almost Normal

With the second wave of Coronavirus retreating, the government has lifted lockdown across Jammu and Kashmir, and all the business activities have resumed except the educational institutions.

In 2020, when the pandemic gripped Kashmir, education had to be imparted online. But Sofi, like most of the students in Kashmir, faced many hurdles especially after the reading down of Article 370.

“Online is just a formality. We have hundreds of students in class and there are just a few who turn up,” Sofi said, adding that, rest like him skip classes.

Even though his exams are going on, he barely feels stressed as he has to write answers without invigilators. “Everything is possible at home and with Google,” he said.

However, considering this, the schools have started sending links that disallow the use of any other App or website while writing exams but students have managed to find solutions to bypass it as they have a second mobile phone at their disposal to access Google.

After the reading down of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, schools opened after six months on February 24, 2020, but only for two weeks. Again, schools had to be shut a week before the first coronavirus positive case emerged in Kashmir. The successive lockdowns especially the Covid19 outbreak resulted in a shift from traditional classrooms to digital platforms. However, Kashmir initially, faced hurdles as the high-speed internet continued to be banned and was restored only after 550 days.

Online Headaches

Sobia Tariq, 17, a class 12 student studying science in one of the private schools, dreams to become a doctor. She has constant headaches due to online classes and is worried about her impending exams. She is unable to understand and focus on physics and chemistry and is worried if this will impact her performance in competitive exams like NEET. Her constant Google searches are: ‘how to concentrate and de-stress oneself’.

Distressed, she dropped out of her tuition this year and focused on her school online lectures. But even there she was disillusioned as teachers rarely could explain concepts clearly or answered questions online or through the phone.

“Last year I paid a hefty amount to a private tuition centre in Srinagar but they shifted online like many others and I could not understand some of my basic concepts because of the excruciatingly low-speed internet and lack of guidance and attention from teachers,” she said.

This year, however, she shifted to another tuition centre in Lal Chowk but they demanded fees in a single instalment. Apprehensive about another lockdown, she did not pay.

“I did not want to waste money on online classes like the previous year as my father is out of business. So I chose to drop out of private classes,” she said, adding that now she is confused due to overwhelming study material on the internet, lack of guidance and incomplete syllabus.

Similarly, another class 11th student Sahil Ahmed has paid a hefty amount to one of the private tuition centres at Nigeen. He skipped his private school classes but attended a private tuition centre.

“But I do not understand physics and chemistry. I complained but to no avail,” Ahmed said. “One is not able to understand or question through audio. The only board is visible and the teacher is missing.”

YouTube Teachers

In order to compensate, he studies Physics on a YouTube Channel which has 5.2 million followers.

“Compared to teachers outside who teach on YouTube channels, the teachers in Kashmir are not equipped or trained to teach online. I can easily understand any concept of Physics on that famous channel,” he said.

Dozens of students of different classes from kindergarten to university told this reporter that online classes are boring, the students are not actively participating, have difficulties while learning and recalling, and are yearning to attend physical classes.

“We wake up late, attend classes or at times skip as we get homework on WhatsApp. We cannot understand subjects like mathematics through online classes but we compensate at private tuitions,” said a group of students of primary and high school.

However, most of them either have had to buy new smartphones to attend online classes or have availed their mother’s phones.

“At times our tuition classes clash with the school. But we prefer the former because the teacher is physically present and there is a focus, and discipline,” they said.

 Fake Accounts

Abdullah said even though he attends classes regularly and actively, many teachers initially faced problems while delivering online classes as they were not tech-savvy.

“The outsiders would come to our group and politely request teachers to open mikes. When they were allowed to speak, to everybody’s astonishment they started abusing and catcalling teachers,” Abdullah revealed, adding that as a student he, in turn, felt embarrassed over this online abuse.

Most of the time, the family conversations, were heard as many students attended classes in kitchens or in other social gatherings. Recalling the horror he went through, Abdullah said that someone played mischief by creating an account in his name and teachers started presuming the fake account was mine. Later they were made to shift to a voice App to avoid nuisance.

Online Graduates

Raqeeb Bhat, a resident of Pulwama, enrolled himself at Mass Communication and Journalism at Cluster University Srinagar months before August 5, 2019. Except for his first semester, his all exams and classes were mostly held online due to successive lockdowns. As the third wave of Coronavirus is predicted, Bhat believes he may eventually graduate online by the end of his sixth semester.

A few days back when Tahseen Qazi’s teachers asked him to switch on the camera of his phone to see if he was attending classes actively he ran behind a side screen at a cricket stadium where he was watching the league games. He was able to convince his teacher that he is at his home.

Qazi said since he passed out his tenth he has rarely been to school. Before abrogation of Article 370, Qazi had been to school, and in his eleventh and twelfth class, the lockdowns prevented him from doing so. Now after passing higher secondary, he is yet to acquaint himself with new teachers and batch mates at college despite the end of the first semester.

Similarly, many students from Kashmir who paid hefty amounts of money to get professional degrees like MBBS or BTech have been confined to four walls since the pandemic and are studying online.

Fowaad Fayaz, a resident of Anantnag, is in the fourth year of MBBS at a college in Bangladesh but he is studying from home. “There are no practicals, no ward classes,” he said. “It is just all theoretical.”

Google’s Googly

Danish Farooq is writing his Class eleventh exams. But when he opened the link of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) questions, his face changed colours. He soon opened a laptop to look for answers for his business studies but could rarely find direct answers on Google.

When asked if he read the book or attended lectures, he said, he cannot understand subjects like accountancy and business online.

When the time for submission of the paper came, he randomly answered all the questions irrespective of their accuracy.

Tense Teachers

Many teachers had to seek help from tech-savvy young at home to conduct classes. One of the teachers with 26 years of teaching experience struggled with digital tools to communicate with her students.

“I had no digital knowledge and sought the help of my son to install zoom and related educational apps,” she said.

The teacher said very few students are active in the class and the rest either do not respond to questions or have entered for attendance. Last year, she was satisfied as she completed the syllabus and delivered lectures effectively to students.

But when the schools reopened she was surprised. “I asked my student’s simple questions which I had taught online but they were blank,” she said.. “I have 89 students enrolled in a class and a maximum of 30 students attend the class,” she said adding when she enquired from absentees why they did not attend classes, they said, it was boring.

Health Issues

Dr Yasir Rather, Professor at the Department of Psychiatry in Government Medical College, Srinagar, said schooling is not essential only for academic growth but for emotional, physical and social development.

“It helps in the holistic development of a child,” he said, adding that he fears that if the current state of affairs continues, there are chances that we may see schizoid personality disorders in children.

He, however, added that while closing down of schools played a role in containing the contagion but continued closure of the educational institutions was detrimental to education.

“Schools should be opened while adhering to proper Covid19 appropriate behaviour,” he said. “Parents and students should prioritize mental health and engage in sports activities to overcome physical and mental health issues.”

Similarly, many students are complaining of headaches, neck issues and eye problems as they are exposed to screen for a longer duration.

Dr Aalia Rasool Sufi, Assistant Prof, Department of Ophthalmology at GMC, Srinagar, said that children are increasingly complaining of headaches, fatigue, red eyes, dry eyes, and computer vision syndrome.

“The tear distribution on the ocular surface gets disturbed due to increased use of a screen,” she said, “We now see cases of refractive errors in children.”

Besides ophthalmological manifestations, there are other problems like posturing, behavioural problems.

According to her children should not be exposed to more than a maximum of three hours of screen time. “The parents should make sure the children have proper lights and protection from screen light while attending classes and are in the right posture,” she said. “After twenty minutes students should give rest to their eyes.”

Sociologist, Professor, Dr S Khurshid- Ul-Islam said that socialization and development of the child or any personality does not happen in an exclusive situation.

“Our lifestyle has altered because of the pandemic and the social circle has got derailed,” he said as according to him. “In the absence of a disciplined life which was ensured by schools or colleges, the students now sleep late and wake up late. Earlier the students had a routine to follow.”

As higher educational set-up is gradually limping back towards offline mode, Director Education, Kashmir Tasaduq Hussain talks about the challenges in the last two years that the education department faced

 KASHMIR LIFE (KL): Kashmir is witnessing a Covid19 surge again, though not alarming but if it picks pace, it could be dangerous. So what are the challenges you are facing?

TASADUQ HUSSAIN (TS): It has been two years since our children have been to school physically, barring 15 days in March. In every developed or developing country, education is a very important aspect and for that, we are taking many initiatives to stay in touch with the children.  We started to conduct real-time classes using the Zoom app, but the main problem we faced was that children who had only one smartphone at home couldn’t keep up. For that, we set up a delayed mechanism system called LMS through which we could record classes and give the students as well as the teachers’ full freedom to access information through it.

The second issue was monitoring the children. We didn’t know if the child is actually there or just had joined the class and left. So we set up monitoring systems for both the teachers and the head of the institutions. Not only for the students, we set up this system to keep an eye on the teachers also. And it worked. We had set up this system at the zonal level and the district level as well. During that period of time, we got many complaints from teachers who weren’t joining the classes. But with this LMS system, it was a huge convenience for us as every evening we used to check if the education system was going smoothly and the delayed classes were also helping the children.

We have six lakh children who are studying in Government schools and almost 12 lakh children are studying in private schools across Kashmir. And with the help of LMS, we found out that 40 per cent of these children had no phones or internet to begin with. To tackle that, we started radio and teleclasses. We started recording lectures and uploading them every day for fifth to twelfth classes. We used to record four lectures daily. And with the grace of God, we have completed almost 90 per cent of the total syllabus.

But the main issue was practicals which we were not able to do online, especially for the children of tenth and twelfth. To tackle that, we started to hold offline classes with 50 per cent attendance. With that, we filled the educational gap which was between the teachers and students and gave the students an opportunity to get their education properly.

But I would like to say this on record that online classes are not as impactful as the physical mode of teaching.

KL: As children started owning smartphones, instances of abuse of phones and eye diseases cropped up. Kashmir has vast areas of grounds and parks, have you ever considered giving children open-air classes?

TH: This is a real problem. We do see children misuse these devices. For that, we have urged the parents to keep an eye on them all the time while they are using certain gadgets. It is a responsibility they will have to take care of.

Secondly, a young girl tweeted about the eye problems she was facing while attending so many online classes. We kept 3-4 classes per day so that these children don’t strain their eyes staring all day at their devices.

When the numbers of Covid19 started getting lower, we did start a community and open-air classes and these are going really very well. We set up teams to reach the outskirts of Kashmir to teach the children in an open-air environment. Although rural areas are the best spots for community classes because of open spaces but it hasn’t been done yet in densely populated urban areas.

KL: What are your plans for holding the 10th and 12th board examinations?

TH: The education department and the Board of School Education held a meeting regarding this issue and we have decided to go for offline mode of examination with the reduction of 30 per cent syllabus in the month of November for which the Board authorities are making the preparations. If people follow the proper protocols for Covid19 and somehow it stays at a lower rate then Inshallah we will conduct these in offline mode following all SOPs.

KL: There is a lot of confusion about the new education policy in Kashmir. Can you kindly explain this policy?

TH: The new education policy called NEP2020 was released last year and it has come with a timeline up to 2030. The main purpose of this policy is to prepare children up to 3 years to get into the online mode of study.

Secondly, it has a continuous evaluation system.

Thirdly, we are focusing to make the whole education process joyful because, without it, there will be no point in generating interest in the younger generation.

With that, we have stressed self-assessments, teacher training, innovation and communication. It’s a good document overall and we hope to implement it in a timely manner.

KL: Will this new policy affect the traditional way of joining the schools at the right age?

TH: No, it’s a process. We are stressing how we will prepare these children in three classes, pre-nursery, LKG and UKG, and till a child reaches first class, he will be six years old so no change in the traditional way of learning.

KL: For adding three classes before the first primary, do you require a lot of infrastructure and human resources?

 TH: We had no concept of pre-primary. So we have started creating resource persons online in early childhood care. This training is in the final stage. We will be starting it next year and admissions will be at the age of three. We have also created additional classrooms. Right now, we have 2000 classrooms already and we are creating 5000 more this year.

KL: Your department is quite a populous one. There could be a lot of issues involving human resources?

 TH: Our people, despite being under pressure, are doing a great job. On one side they are dealing with constant inspections, secondly, with all the problems that came with the pandemic, they fought through it as well so they are doing an exceptional job.

The main concern for them was salary increase and promotions. We have solved the salary problem and with the help of our Principal Secretary, the promotions are being handed out as well to well-deserving candidates. About 1100 people have been promoted, so far.

About 50 per cent schools and educational institutions were headless and let me put this on record that our new Principal Secretary has been working really hard to clear promotions and incentivise the workers for all the good work.

(Sarmad Dev processed the interview)

Almost 40 days after Dr Shakil A Romshoo, Kashmir’s foremost earth scientist, took over as the Vice-Chancellor of the IUST, he told Khalid Bashir Gura about his plans for an academic campus that has huge possibilities and a few problems

KASHMIR LIFE (KL): When will offline classes start?

PROF SHAKIL AHMAD ROMSHOO (SAR): The desire of students to return to campus for offline mode of education is genuine. For almost more than a year, educational institutions all around the world including Kashmir are closed. The teaching is happening online. The Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) has decided to open the university for in-person teaching from October 5. For the last three weeks, IUST is holding offline classes for terminal semesters and for practical and project work. As the first week of October the campus will witness offline classes, we have mandated following Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.

KL: From academics to administration, how do you see new roles and responsibilities?

SAR: I have been holding different administrative positions at the University of Kashmir for a long time. Before joining IUST, I was the Dean Research, University of Kashmir. With my teaching and research background and administrative experience, I am equipped to handle the current administrative responsibilities in this administrative institution.  Nevertheless, governing an institution has its own challenges. It has to be advisory, visionary and making people work in a missionary role. A Vice-Chancellor has to be a leader.

KL: In such a short span of time, your predecessors have set a benchmark in academics and infrastructure. What will be your key areas of focus and priority?

SAR: The University has adequate infrastructure to make a leap in some of the academic areas. For last more than forty days as the VC, I have had series of discussions and meetings with the majority of faculty and officers to identify certain areas where we can make a mark. We need to identify certain areas where we have relevant expertise and we can move ahead of others. IUST is a young university in terms of human resources and age also. We have been brainstorming on how we can reshape those areas which are priorities at the local, national and international levels.

KL: What are those priorities?

SAR: Some of the issues faced at various levels need innovative ideas. Innovation, incubation, entrepreneurship and start-ups will be the key technologies that will help us to address and make a mark on the society in future. We have started some of these activities.

We have here Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (CIED), which we have completely revamped. Every aspect of innovation, incubation, entrepreneurship or intellectual property rights is dealt with under it. One of the verticals under CIE is artificial intelligence, machine learning, and disruptive technologies. We are already in communication with the best institutions of the country to corroborate. We want to address certain issues of societal importance like horticulture, wastewater, and city planning and other issues which need specific technological solutions.

KL: Why is IUST investing so much into outreach?

SAR Another issue is how to reach the community. The universities need to take up research and generate knowledge of societal importance. We have decided to have a dean for outreach. He will be as important as the dean of research or academic affairs. His job will be to give outreach to university programmes and taking whatever we do to the community, industries and alumni. One of the indicators of a university these days is the placements. We have decided that in every department there will be a placement coordinator. Similarly, every department will have a community outreach coordinator. One of the outreaches we want to give to the community is a newsletter. We have decided to publish a newsletter in the local language. This newsletter will highlight the scientific inventions, innovations that have been made at national and international and how they can be used locally to overcome issues of environmental, disasters, horticulture, agriculture and governance.

KL: With most of the claims remaining confined to papers, what will the university be doing to boost a culture of innovation?

SAR: At the CIED we have decided to host annually thirty young and bright innovators. We will issue a call for proposals and then seek ideas. There will be a committee to scrutinize ideas. The ideas deemed to have the potential to incubate; we will be giving a liberal grant. We will give space, facilities and a financial grant of five lakh rupees at the start. Even if out of these thirty students annually only 10 per cent are able to incubate those ideas addressing pressing demands of the society, they will have an opportunity to go up to the start-up level. We have accomplished, recognized innovations and almost twenty-eight patents have been filed by this university. IUST will be giving a platform to the youth of Kashmir to experiment with their ideas and showcase their talent.

KL: As a newly appointed VC, what are the challenges you are facing right now? Does University have enough manpower, resources and funding?

SAR: Every university has its own challenges irrespective of age. This university has a faculty strength of 250; however, half of them are contractual. Contractualism is a challenge and our efforts are on how to minimize it. It is a catch 22. If we want to make these tentative appointees permanent, the university may need more funds. The ad-hocs are paid less than one-third of permanent. Financial limitations are a challenge as you may have good ideas but they may be limited by it.

However, internally we are able to raise Rs 25 crore and we get around Rs 30 crore from the government. These both need to be upgraded. We are working on strategies to improve internal revenue generation. It can be done by introducing new courses, which have a demand, increasing the number of intake capacity if the infrastructure allows it. I have also approached the government with proposals for funding. You will see a significant increase in the revenues.

KL: Is research underfunded?

SAR: Every university, even Kashmir University has limitations when it comes to funding the research. I think none of the universities in the country is able to fund the research from their own resources. Fortunately, we have big funding agencies in the country to support the research in areas of national importance. I have been emphasizing to each and every faculty member to approach these funding agencies to support our big ideas. This university has a provision of internally funding the research. I told the faculty that we will be continuing with that. If you need a grant of up to Rs 5 lakhs for developing a proposal, doing some initial experimentation or some fieldwork I will be happy to give it. But that project should lead to a bigger project of Rs 30 crore. I am confident within a year there will be a jump in research funding to this university. We have young and bright faculty who are working on it.

KL: How will you contribute to the varsity from your subject expertise?

SAR: If you look at my subject expertise, fortunately, it has attracted a lot of funding even at Kashmir University. If you look at the subject like climate change, water resources, and geo-information technologies these are the priority areas of funding at national and international level. If you look at the National Education Policy 2020, these including artificial intelligence, disruptive technologies are identified as priorities. The government of India has earmarked around Rs 20,000 crore for these areas.

KL: Does IUST have Earth Science Department?

SAR: We do not want to open many departments for human resource development as many universities are already in place. We don’t have Earth Science or geo-informatics department at IUST. What I will be focusing on is knowledge generation. We will put in place research centres and this university needs to focus on knowledge generation. When we think of expanding the departments, we need to brainstorm whether we need human resources or use those resources for knowledge generation. My priority will be here putting up a centre like sustainability and climate change, a centre for water resources, or a centre for geo-informatics where people can do research and generate knowledge that can inform policymakers on issues on local, national and international importance.

KL: Can subject experts be campus experts?

SAR: Academicians are the most appropriate people to administer or govern an education institution. My past experience as a teacher, researcher, and administrator is helping me today. I wonder if I had no academic background whether I would really have been able to provide leadership. But if it would have been a hard-core administrator, there may have been gaps in understanding. Universities need to be governed by academicians.

KL: Many students complained of shortage of infrastructure, lack of space for scholars, underfunding research, books and libraries?

SAR: Some of the issues raised by you were also raised with me also like space, infrastructure, libraries, etc. The previous VC’s had in mind that we need to have only a central library. In Kashmir or Jammu universities, there are departmental libraries. The central library caters to all. I am of the firm belief that each department should have its own library as departments are specific to subjects. I have asked the departments to initiate its facilities. In Kashmir and other universities, there are many research scholars. Because of funding limitations, they are able to give six scholarships in every department. There are not many scholars in this university. So we give scholarships to every scholar and from our own resources at Rs 7000 per month. In Kashmir University it was Rs 6000 and now they have upgraded to Rs 10,000. I have no problem upgrading it.

There are no space limitations in this university but I think they have not been allocated rationally. I suggested we should have a space audit to rationally distribute and utilize them. There is a space audit committee that will look into it. The government has lately given us two more buildings for administrative and science blocks. It is a growing university. The infrastructure is also developing and the university in a short period of time has significantly developed.

KL:  Does IUST allow students Union?

SAR:  Student union is not here but we have a statutory body of student council. It has members of class representatives who come up with student issues and it acts as a liaison to address issues.

KL: Is recruitment of faculty and staff as per UGC guidelines given past allegations of favouritism?

SAR: One priority for me is recruitment and reducing adhocism. We are guided by the UGC and recruitments have to be according to it. We do not have a reservation policy here. I am not aware of favouritism allegations.

KL: What is the plan of the University regarding the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) faculty?

SAR: The project came to an end on September 30. I have taken up the issue with the government especially with LG. It is a decision which will be taken at the government of India level. Even the university is considering supporting the salaries up till the end of this academic session. They have been doing good work and the university needs them.

KL: How much is university serious about extracurricular activities?

SAR: All of us need counselling especially students who have pressures of examinations, and placements. There is a need for counselling and extracurricular activities. Last week, I said, let’s start with the cricket tournament between faculty and staff. A healthy body has a healthy mind. We have prepared a detailed calendar for the extracurricular field.  This university has world-class athletic tracks. We should have football, hockey and rugby fields. As students will come to campus we will have indoor and outdoor extracurricular activities.

KL: The campus is in contrast with some greener campuses. It is cemented mostly. Any plans to make it greener?

SAR: Kashmir University has a very picturesque campus. This campus is on the foothills of a mountain. However, there is not much greenery. We have constituted a landscape development master plan board. We are brainstorming on how to make it more students friendly. The government has lately given us 1000 kanals of land. We have decided to have a bio-diversity park, solar park, national environmental park. Also, we will promote research in aromatic and medicinal plants. We will have to green index of the university.

Caught by immobility dictated by situation and pandemic, a number of girls started reviving the forgotten art of calligraphy and some of them were so encouraged by the response that they are about to convert their passion into profession using social media as the platform, reports Urvat il Wuska

Everything is a flip side. During the lockdown enforced by Covid19, when people were restricted to their homes, some youngsters turned towards various creative arts. This precisely was aimed at releasing the stress. This, however, helped some of them to rediscover the abilities they thought they do not possess.

A group of young girls started calligraphy. When they put their artworks on various social media platforms, they got instant recognition. Encouraged, a few of them started their small scale business by selling their artworks. This phenomenon led to the literal revival of calligraphy art at a time when technology and writing software had pushed the art to oblivion.

An Entrepreneur Rises

Munaza, 23, who lives in Srinagar old city, is one of these ‘lockdown’ artists. She is pursuing masters in journalism. A self-taught Arabic, Persian and modern English calligrapher, she is making frames and writes beautifully on diverse frames including T-shirts, mugs, walnut wooden plates and canvases. She is the second alcohol ink artist in Kashmir. These Alcohol-based inks are highly pigmented inks that require isopropyl alcohol (IPA) for dilution. Its use requires a special craft.

“I use either Ranger Adirondack alcohol ink, Jacquard Pinata inks, or a Copic marker refill,” Munaza said. “These are dye-based with either isopropyl alcohol or denatured alcohol.  They come in many colours. There are of course other brands that are available from art stores and online.”

Munaza has been into calligraphy for years but converted it into a small business only in 2020. “I do calligraphy part-time since I have another full-time job, but if Allah wills I will turn this hobby into a profession in future,” she said.

When the clients smile over the artwork, Munaza said it is a price well paid. Costs apart, prayers and blessings come as an added incentive.

“Calligraphy has some rules, some definitions and a link to spirituality because of the Arabic language. It is just not about designing alone, it’s about each stroke in a letter and if you need your strokes to be right you need to have the right tool which is your Qalam (the pen),” she said.

Munaza’s journey from an artist to an entrepreneur has been a roller coaster ride. She had not expected the response that she got from people, especially the female folk. “I was flooded with orders just after a month of starting and it was overwhelming for me”, Munaza said.

Not New

In Kashmir, calligraphy is not a new concept in writing art. Calligraphy, according to an Archaeological Survey of India publication, was introduced to Kashmir by the scholar saint Sharif-ud-Din Bulbul in the fourteenth century. However, it was the Mughal era during which the art of calligraphy flourished. The era produced many artists like Muhamad Husain who served in Akbar’s court known as Zarin Kalam (golden pen) and Muhammad Murad popularly known as Shirin Kalam (sweet pen). Ali Chaman was another noted calligrapher of Mughal period.

Certain histories suggest the Kashmiri calligraphers invented an irremovable indelible ink during Mughal period. Yaqub Muhammad, the son of famous calligrapher Murad Kashmiri who excelled in the Kufi style, even compiled a book on calligraphy.

In Kashmir the art has its traditional significance also as the Ayahs from the Quran can be seen written on the walls of shrines and mosques. Some of the faithful even get the beautifully written texts as wall hangings as a good omen.

Not Alone

Munaza is not alone in self-discovery as a calligrapher. There is Farah Deeba, hailing from Insafabad, Bandipora, who has barely moved out from a college as a contractual lecturer. She used to copy the Quran manuscript in her childhood. So after completing her studies she took admission in online courses in Kufic calligraphy and then completed another online course,  Tuhlut calligraphy from Mumbai based calligraphy institute, Qalamaurkagaz and from BCI (Bangladesh Calligraphy Institute).

“Whenever I did calligraphy of Quranic Ayah in, my parents always appreciated me,” Farah said. “They motivated me so much for this that I used to spend more and more time with it. Their motivation made me realise that I can be a good calligrapher.”

Calligraphy has been her passion but she said if she would get a chance to take this art as a profession, she will gladly do it. Calligraphy is as good a stress reducer as meditation maybe. “Being at home was not easy but I got benefited from the lockdown as  I got ample time to practice calligraphy,” she said.

What she regrets, however, is the lack of required infrastructure. “We have no place or gallery to display our work. There is no government institution here where calligraphy is taught. So I took a course in Kufic calligraphy. But only this will not help. It needs an initiative from the government itself,” Farah said.

During the lockdown, Farah displayed some artwork on social networking sites and got a good response. Since then, she is getting orders from people either for drawing a Quranic Ayah or their name.

Farah loves the feeling that her art frames are part of the peoples’ routine lives, hanging on their walls. She hopes one day she will open an academy to teach calligraphy. She, however, insists that calligraphers must have a good teacher.

A Spiritual Connect

In Srinagar, Azha Qureshi, a civil engineering student, also started calligraphy as her hobby. Months later, she wants to take it as her profession because she believes, it helped her to get more spiritual and reduced her stress. Azha was always praised for her writing skills in school. In a lockdown, she decided to write the Quranic ayahs., knowing that Kashmir is the land of art and artisans.

“I love writing Quran verses as it makes me happy and I sleep peacefully after that,” Azha said. “My journey in this field has just started and I want it to be never-ending.”

Admitting that she can earn with this God gifted art using social media, Azha suggest the government must organise exhibitions so that they can showcase their talent on a big platform.

Taking To Next Level

Safura Hameed, 23, from Badamwari Srinagar is Kashmir’s first 3D calligrapher. Interested in creative art for a long time, she started calligraphy in 2018, despite being a student of electronics and communication. She was always lacking time because she is part of the network security engineering of a Bangaluru company but when lockdown forced its immobilisation, the self-taught artist put in efforts and time in calligraphy.

“I would not call myself a calligrapher yet. The actual meaning of a calligrapher is way more complex in terms of understanding the terminology behind the art,” Safura said. “I am a budding calligrapher.”

Safura believes the calligraphy is a stress buster that gives her peace of mind and calms the chaos within. “It gives me a sense of satisfaction – patience and peace. It helps me in becoming a better person.”

Starting with traditional calligraphy, Safura and then moved to 3D Calligraphy. During a lockdown when she gained a good hold on her qalam and material she started to get a lot of orders. “There is not much scope for this art in Kashmir society,” Safura regrets. “There are only a few people who understand the art and the artist’s way of expression.”

Art blindness is a crisis. Sharing her own experience, Safura said when people fail to understand the time, concept and efforts behind a piece of art, she ends up buying cheap replicas.

From Ball Point To Pen

Sumyla Yaqoob hails from Tangmarg and she was interested, unlike her parents, in art from her childhood. However, she would find ways and means to chase her hobby.

During the lockdown, Sumyla revived her interest full time and started making sketches and posting them on Instagram. The response led her family to appreciate their daughter’s capacity.

“I first started writing with bold pens and didn’t know if I could be able to make it or not because it was my first attempt,” Sumyla said. “Later, I started using qalams and continued doing calligraphy with good response from almost everyone.”

Expert Speaks

Mohammad Ashraf Tak, an editor at the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages said it takes years to become a calligrapher.

“When Amir-e-Kabir visited Kashmir he was accompanied by some calligraphers. Most of them settled here and played important role in promoting this art that led to the establishment of the Kashmir school of calligraphy,” Tak said. The Academy was running a calligraphy school for decades but off late it was not getting a required number of candidates.

Iqbal Ahmad, a former Curator at SPS Museum Srinagar the art is declining with the advent of technology but the new age artists are trying to revive it.

“It was because of this popularity of calligraphy art in Kashmir, that Kashmir possesses a rich repository of manuscripts and epigraphs in various calligraphy styles,” Ahmad said. “During the modern ages the Urdu press, Urdu, Persian and Arabic book writers played a vital role in the promotion of calligraphy skill.”

Ahmad said the Academy had been conducting calligraphy learning classes for the last several years. He regretted there is no innovation.“Rajasthan is famously known for Matka ice cream and the Matka is coloured with the traditional designs. It shows how they have infused their culture with ice cream, the same is not with the Kashmiri,” Ahmad said. “We used to have pots in which we used to eat Wazwan about ten to twenty years back but now we have resorted to disposable plates at the cost of our culture.”

“In this age driven by digitisation and technology, this unprotected epigraphic heritage needs to be cared for and conserved properly so that these sources of our economic, cultural and literary history are preserved for the generations to come,” suggests

With authorities opening a section of graduate and half of the postgraduate medical education berths to an All India Quota, most of the medical college students came out on roads in protest. Scheduled to be applicable from 2022, Khalid Bashir Gura met the students to understand the challenges and opportunities of the decision

In September 2020, Dr Ahmad, a resident of Kupwara, appeared in DM gastroenterology examinations. He scored 61 and the cut-off was 60. Dejected, the recently married Ahmad with ailing and aged parents to take care of, choose one of the medical institutions in north India far his studies. He wanted to stay closer to home.

Now, he says, he is bearing the brunt of the All India Quota (AIQ) and the absence of a legal bond in Kashmir.

In 2017 Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) adopted the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions of DM and MCh courses, which opened avenues for non-Jammu and Kashmir candidates to study at the deemed university.

Had this system been not in place, Ahmad believes he might have been serving Kashmir. Outside Jammu and Kashmir, doctors pursuing super-specialist degrees have to sign a bond that after completion of his degree, he has to serve the area of his study for a particular time. So Ahmad is still serving the state of his study outside Jammu and Kashmir. He can opt-out but pay a huge penalty.

Ahmad rues as his wife had to leave her teaching profession to join her husband. The newlywed couple could not bear separation because of the degree and ensuing legal bond. Now, Ahmad is worried about his aged parents.

Similarly, Dr Suhail pursuing DM in cardiology in a south Indian state cursed his degree as he has to live far away far from home. His mother had a massive cardiac arrest and by the time he reached home, his mother was buried.

Protesting Medicos

Last fortnight, students from almost all medical schools across Jammu and Kashmir were on roads protesting against the proposed pooling of MBBS and postgraduate seats in the All-India Quota (AIQ) via the NEET. The medical seats in Jammu and Kashmir colleges, which were restricted to local students till recently, will now be opened to applicants from mainland India.

However, according to some doctors’s the dilution in the process had started earlier in 2017 when SKIMS opened avenues to national level competition.

What provoked the protests was an official pronouncement of the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) backed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The order contained two fresh provisions.

As the order reiterated the requisition of 50 per cent ‘all India quota’ in seats across all states, it said, “this year Jammu and Kashmir is likely to participate in All India Quota counselling subject to confirmation from competent state authorities.” Also, a 100 per cent quota in ‘Deemed Universities’ has also been set, which in Jammu and Kashmir translates into the allocation of all such seats at SKIMS, a premier tertiary care facility, to a national level competition. Besides, Jammu and Kashmir, which has nearly 1000 seats in government colleges, will pool 15 per cent of its MBBS seats in the all-India quota.

According to the doctors Kashmir Life spoke to, the opening up of seats to AIQ will mean the patient care will suffer in the future as Kashmir’s health care sector will be deprived of super-specialists.

The protesting medicos said that one would rarely see any super-specialist especially native in tertiary care hospitals as has happened since 2017 in many departments at SKIMS. It will also impact patient care, they alleged.

An intern at SMHS hospital, Dr Tajamul Islam, said they see a bleak future.

1000 Berths

Apart from students who study in off-shore universities, there are seven government institutions supposed to churn out around 1000 MBBS graduates every year. They compete amongst each other for a few hundred PG NEET seats. Until this year, Jammu and Kashmir students had to compete within the state quota. But after the binning of special status, the extension of central laws changed this system forever.

As per the prevailing system, around 537 seats for PG NEET, were reserved for local candidates. Now, according to Dr Islam, this AIQ quota will result in a minuscule share for natives, especially in the open merit category. Jammu and Kashmir has 543 postgraduate seats for MD/MS and it has to surrender 271 seats in AIQ and the competition will no longer be amongst a few hundred regional aspirants but lakhs of students who complete MBBS programmes across the country every year.

The new system will be in vogue from next year. This will help Dr Islam to appear in the exam next year.

Students, Islam said are apprehensive of pursuing medical careers. “Maharashtra has 4922, Karnataka 5379, Delhi 2715, Gujarat 2127, Tamil Nadu 4255, Kerala 1587 seats for speciality courses like MD-MS, DNB seats,” Islam said as even after pooling an ample number of seats are left in their respective quota. Jammu and Kashmir has fewer berths already.

The healthcare sector which is already overburdened according to the doctor may witness further deterioration. The doctor-patient ratio may further worsen. Currently, it is 1: 3800 in contravention to WHO requirement of one doctor for 1000 people.

This, according to him will result in a net loss of almost 70 per cent PG berths to natives.

The aspirants not able to secure a berth for post-graduation, however, can opt for private institutions but that will cost a fortune thus making health care more expensive.

Aspiring candidates said the decision will create a crisis at the super speciality level. “Where will we go?” one aspirant asked. This will eventually trigger a brain drain.

Since the government has increased the number of MBBS seats across Jammu and Kashmir and most of them will not get jobs for lack of masters. This according to Dr Aatif Hassan Sanaie, President of Resident Doctor’s Association (RDA) said will create unemployed doctors like BDS doctors and other saturated fields.

“It is PG’s which run the engine of health care,” Dr Sanaie said. “And in the absence of legal bond, the healthcare facilities will be further burdened.”

Sanaie said the health sector is not hugely dependent on graduates and the pooling of 15 per cent seats to AIQ will not impact as it is a minuscule number that can be compensated.

 Fair Standard

Jammu and Kashmir is perhaps the only place in India where the females have half of the total berths reserved at the undergraduate level. Now the seats have gone up from 500 in 2018-19 to 1100 in 2020-21. This was supposed to improve health care but new riders are expected to play differently.

The surplus at the graduate level will face a crisis at the post-graduate level where the opportunities of further studies are curtailed. Patient care apart, this can impact the faculty status of all the new colleges, which have just started. A huge section of female candidates are traditionally unwilling to move out, owing to marriage soon after graduation.

“It is not possible for girl students to stay away from family for so long in different cultural and climatic settings,” Mehak, currently studying at SKIMS medical college said, insisting the government must ensure a maximum number of seats outside AIQ.

Noha, pursuing MBBS abroad said for lack of opportunities and resources, she may have to fly off-shore again for PG.

Shagufta Sadiq, an MBBS student at GMC said she would happily go for post-graduation at AIIMS or PGI but not to an institution governed by a bond system.

Digital Divide

Competition apart, the students of all streams including medical, are facing infrastructure issues. Unlike other places, the internet is part of the security setup, at least when there are issues linking to law and order.

“If there was uniformity in a situation no one would have objected but the Kashmir scenario is different,” Ahmad said. “I wanted to qualify for Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP) of the United Kingdom and simultaneously prepare for DM but the internet outages upended my dream,” Ahmad said he knew he had the potential of making to it but it would require a lot of online mentoring. “I dropped the idea simply because of the internet,” he said.

Ahmad admits that the pooling of seats into AIQ will also open opportunities for people to the best medical institutions across India.

The situation is usually playing with the careers in Kashmir. Dr Islam, for instance, is already a year behind his contemporaries outside because he completed his MBBS in six years and not five. What drags degrees besides occasional natural disruptions is the political turmoil.

“In 2016 academic calendar was disrupted by the killing of Burhan Wani,” Dr Islam said. “The reading down of Article 370 was followed by communication blackout which hampered education across Kashmir.”

Dr Sanaie said the internet is indispensable for modern medicine. “Unlike other places, we tap and capitalize on limitations and do self-study, which is complemented by some online platforms for PG NEET exams,” Dr Sanaie said.  “As the internet is uncertain, the amount at times paid to these portals is lost.” During the first wave of Covid-19, the internet remained snapped.

According to another PG first-year doctor, Dr Haziqa, who completed her MBBS at GMC Srinagar, the doctors in Kashmir have to prepare during an internship for PG NEET exams as they already lag behind by a year. “In comparison to us, aspirants outside Kashmir get a one-year breather to prepare,” she said.

Dr Junaid Yousuf, a medical officer from the 2014 MBBS batch, appeared in this year’s NEET PG exam. “We had an exam in January but it got postponed because of Covid-19 till April. But it was again postponed to September,” he said.

Capable to Compete

A general impression created by the medico protests was that the Kashmiri students are unwilling to sit in competitions and are keen to retain the “reservations”. The students insist it is untrue.

Dr Mohsin Raj Mantoo is pursuing his DM in Cardiology at AIIMS Delhi. After graduating from GMC Srinagar, he added many feathers to his cap by topping all three super-specialist exams of NEET, PGI and AIIMS. He also sees the positive side of the decision as it will open the number of opportunities outside Jammu and Kashmir in the countrywide pool of seats.

The protesting students rue the absence of the level playing field that is basic to any competition.

No Legal Bond

Unlike most states across the country, Jammu and Kashmir lack the mandatory legal bond system that ensures “retention” of doctors once they graduate or complete this post-graduation. Native doctor’s said Kashmir will become a preferred destination given the climate, quality institutions, and perks and no requirement of staying back after completing the degree. The absence of this bond set-up has helped hundreds of Kashmiri doctors to work off-shore.

Under the system in vogue, if the doctors flout the bond, they will have to pay a huge penalty – somewhere between Rs 10 lakh to Rs two crore. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, a student will have to sign a 10-year work bond if he chooses to do PG in any of its institutions.

Impact on Patient Care

Speaking in absolute anonymity, a doctor said in 2020 two doctor’s, one each from Kerela and Delhi, got admitted for Diplomate in National Board (DNB) exams (equivalent to MD-MS). When Covid-19 raged and doctors in Kashmir were at the forefront of fighting the pandemic, the two doctors allegedly managed to skip from the duty by getting some intervention at some level.

There are language barriers playing a major role in recording history and diagnosis. “Most of the patients from far Kashmir periphery are in a position to explain problems in the mother tongue, which may not be the case if the healer is from a different linguistic group,” the doctor said.

Dr Ahmad, for instance, dropped Christian Medical College in Vellore because of a language barrier.

 Not every state in India is supportive of NEET. Tamil Nadu is calling for its scrapping because it is “discriminatory” and helps “privileged sections”. NEET was introduced in 2013, not done in 2014 but was formally implemented by the Supreme Court from 2016-17.

Response

Prof AG Ahangar, Director SKIMS, said that he accompanied the delegation of students that met LG Manoj Sinha. “The LG took cognizance of these reports and apprehensions,” Dr Ahangar said. “He has assured me and students he will take up it with concerned authorities in Delhi to help students out.”

While giving a year-long breather, LG said students from Jammu and Kashmir will be in an “advantageous position” with access to 5000 MD and MS berths by participating in AIQ.

Currently, there are 1000 MBBS berths and by contributing 150 of these seats, aspirants will become eligible for 4568 seats in AIQ.

Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary to Jammu and Kashmir Government said that faith has to prevail over fear. “AIQ will give better opportunities and open a new world for students,” he said. Following protests, the government has given a breather to students by deferring it to next year.

This was after the entire political class supported the protesting students. Congress’s GA Mir termed the order as “encroachment” aimed at “harming local professionals.

Considering it as a fallout of reading down of Article 370, Yousuf Tarigami said this is unacceptable.  Peoples’ Conference said the

MCC will have to either reconsider this decision or the number of seats allocated under the quota will have to be compensated through a reverse quota in all Indian colleges for Jammu and Kashmir students. “Nowhere in the country is there a 50 per cent reservation for female students. We are putting a lot of students in disadvantageous positions,” the p[arty spokesman said.

Stunned, NC spokesperson Ifra Jan said people in Jammu and Kashmir have ceased to be stakeholders in the decisions impacting their lives. “The importance of Jammu and Kashmir people as stakeholders in taking such decisions through popularly elected governments cannot be undermined or replaced by an un-elected incumbent administration at the helm of affairs,” she said.

“Only 172 seats will be reserved for domiciled aspirants of Jammu and Kashmir implying that 70 per cent reservation will be written off with 30 per cent of seats only earmarked for destitute UT,” Mohit Bhan, a PDP spokesperson said. “We don’t want the AIQ system to be furthered to Jammu and Kashmir. It will drastically impair and affect medical students in specific and health infrastructure.”

A labourer’s son had lost his arm while watching a scarp dealer struggle to extract valuable metals from an abandoned explosive device. It took him a lot of time to train his only hand and 11 years later, he got the eleventh rank in JEE examination and admission in IIT Delhi, Khalid Bashir Gura reports

Wedged between the excitement of cracking a national level examination and the phantom pain of his amputated hand, a teenager with a soft wispy beard is preparing to leave for home after a recent to a Srinagar hospital. In between, he found time to reveal his story of pain and progress.

A decade ago, on a cold grey December afternoon in 2010, a student of third grade was strolling near his house at Reddi in Kupwara’s remote Chowkibal belt. Unmindful of his itinerary and impending fate, his curiosity took him near a close acquaint who was busy sifting precious metals from a rusted and used explosive remnant of a gun battle.

Little Musaib Gani Pir, now 17, was shooed away by the scrap collector. But his curiosity tethered him. Relentless, in face of admonishments, soon, a loud thud blacked out everything for a moment.

“I rushed to open the main gate to call out my mother and as usual when I tried to open it with my right hand,” Musaib said. “I was shocked to see it missing. I was unaware till then.” Then he relooked around only to see the scrap collector in the backyard lying unconscious.

Trail of Blood

Tragically, Musaib eventually found he was alone at his house. His mother had gone to a nearby shopkeeper. Trembling with, now excruciating pain, and literally missing hand, little Pir started running towards the market as the blood dripping from his arm left a bloody trail after him. Then, he said, he saw his mother rushing towards him.

That was what he remembered before getting unconscious. “I woke up in a hospital, I do not know when,” Pir said. “Slowly, I began to recollect scraps of dreadful memories.” Now it was clear that he has lost his right hand.

“I was shifted to Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, for treatment. After spending weeks at the hospital, my grandfather and family continuously consoled me and taught me to use my left hand to carry out routine activities. Initially, I struggled a lot to work with a single hand but now I am adapted to it,” Pir said with a sense of pride.

Musaib said he had to struggle for years to get adapted to using his left hand. However, learning writing, eating and doing other activities with a single hand took years of practice and patience. Finally, he was able to sail through new tests and trauma because of teachers and parents.

Thrived

He not only survived but thrived.

“I did not visit home for many years as I was haunted by the incident. I stayed at my maternal home and continued my studies,” Pir said as he summoned the courage to turn the knob of the main door after many years.

Whenever there were encounters in his vicinity, the leftover explosives, unlike now, were not sanitized. “Locals gathered the metals of used explosives and sell it in the market,” Musaib said and in the processes of sifting through debris or abandoned explosive materials; an explosion would render people maim or at times dead.

This trend triggered serious crises for people who would instantly invade the gunbattle sites. It was after years of the campaign in media that the security grid started putting written cautions on these spots warning people against getting into the areas.

Key Focus

Once back home, he started focusing on his studies. Enrolled in a nearby government school, each year he outshone his contemporaries in academics. His hard work and results rekindled the hopes of his labourer father who also leads prayers in a nearby Masjid.

Pir passed his tenth class with 453 marks and the twelfth standard with 422 marks from Boys Government Higher Secondary School Panzgam.

In 2019 after the reading down of Article 370, when he was in class eleventh, the communication blackout dampened the spirit of his dreams.

However, his dreams to qualify for JEE examinations needed him to move out of his dusky village to Srinagar city. After twelfth, far away from home, he focused to crack the exam for engineering at the national level.

“Due to problems in accessing education, I thought I will not be able to make it,” Musaib said. As the restrictions were lifted, the pandemic triggered lockdown forced education to go online. But his struggle continued because of digital disparity as his village still struggles in accessing high-speed internet.

Hitting The Target

In order to get access to online education, Musaib travelled far away to stay at his maternal uncle’s home. Later, he shifted to Srinagar for JEE preparations and availed scholarship at a private tuition centre, he said.

This year as the results were declared, he qualified Joint Entrance Test (JEE) advanced and secured admission in IIT Delhi.

“It was my first attempt and I qualified JEE Advance with 11th rank in Person with Disability (PwD) category at all India level this year,” he said in a soft feeble voice.

Unassuming of his achievement, according to him, he worked hard for his family and is grateful to the teachers who guided him.

“I want to pursue engineering in mathematics and computing at IIT Delhi,” he said.

To break the academic monotony, he does not rush to a mobile screen. Instead, he prefers playing outdoor games especially cricket with his friends.

“I bat as well bowl with the left hand. However, I prefer lightweight bat,” Musaib said.

Pir is yet to avail modern prosthetic hand as it is unaffordable for him. Earlier, he had availed government-sanctioned prosthetic hand but it was too heavy for him and he gave it up. Heavy load, as they say, is the sign of hell. He opted to stay light as it helped up manage his life better.

Mirwaiz Rasul Shah followed Sir Syed Ahmad Khan at a time when the educational deficit had started crippling Kashmiri Muslims, writes M J Aslam

Mirwaiz Ghulam Rasul Shah (Mirwaiz Molvi Rasul Shah) was born on  September 2, 1855 (Dhul-Hijjah 20, 1271AH) in the famous Mirwaiz family of Srinagar’s Rajouri Kadal. It is said that the family are the descendants of Waiz Sidiqullah whose great grandfather had come to Kashmir with the illustrious son of Ameer i Kabir, Mir Syed Mohammad Hamdani and settled in Tral. He died at Tral in 1155 Hijri (1742-1743 AD).

It was Mirwaiz Abus Salam, son of Mirwaiz Sidiqullah who during the Afghan period first migrated from Tral to Pompore wherefrom he later shifted initially to Qalamdanpora in Srinagar, where he used to deliver religious sermons for some years. He died at Qalamdanpora.

It was his son, Mirwaiz Ghulam Rasool, alias Lassi Baba, who shifted from Qalamdanpora to the locality of Rajouri Kadal, Srinagar to which place the name of the Mirwaiz family is attached for centuries. Mirwaiz Rasul Shah and his son, Molvi Yehya Shah, after his death, continued with their religious preaching at Jamia Masjid Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir. The family was enormously famed and respected throughout Kashmir.

A Haafiz

Mirwaiz Rasul Shah was the son of Kashmir’s Mirwaiz Awal, Molvi Yehya Shah, who was a Mohadith [specialist in Ahadeeth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBHU). At the age of seven, Mirwaiz Molvi Rasul Shah had committed the Holy Quran to his memory. By the age of seventeen, he had completed the traditional education in Fiqh, Ahadeeth, Islamic theology and philosophy. He delivered his first religious sermon at well known Bazar Masjid Bohri Kadal, Srinagar.

Under the guidance of his father, Molvi Yehya Shah, he preached and sermonized throughout Kashmir from the pulpits of major shrines and masjids till the death of his father in 1890 AD when he was only 40 years old. After his father’s demise, Molvi Rasul Shah was publically and officially recognised as the next Mirwaiz of Kashmir in a turban ceremony held at Jamia Masjid, Srinagar. Thereafter, for the next twenty years, he contributed to the upliftment of Kashmiri Muslims on religious and educational fronts.

Since he had closely watched the miserable plight of Muslims of Kashmir under the early Dogra rule, especially the socio-educational front, Molvi Rasul Shah made a serious attempt to address this area. No doubt, there was the Madrassa system of education during the Muslim period but after its decline in 1819, nothing much was happening. It was the era when modern education had penetrated deep into the educational systems of the world.

Educational Backwardness

Until 1880 not a single school on modern lines was opened in Srinagar. Then, the Christian Missionaries felt attracted to the region. First Missionary Boys School was opened in 1880 by Christian Missionary Society in a mud-hut in the premises of Missionary Hospital, Drugjan, Srinagar, which was subsequently shifted, for the paucity of space, to a private residence, at Fateh Kadal, Srinagar, in 1890.

Some female missionaries succeeded in setting up a girls school quite adjacent to the Boys School at Fateh Kadal, sometime between 1893 and 1895.

Following Sir Syed

Kashmiri Muslims were generally ignorant and more particularly, educationally backward. The position of their Indian counterparts was not much different. It was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who set up the first college of modern education, Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, at Aligarh in 1875, which was elevated to the present Aligarh Muslim University in 1926.

In Kashmir, it was none other than Molvi Ghulam Rasul Shah who followed the footsteps of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and understood the pressing need of the hour. He set up first modern Muslim school on Rabil Awal 12, 1317 Hijri (July 31, 1899 AD) Rajouri Kadal, Srinagar which was elevated to High School in 1905 with affiliation to Punjab University of Lahore. Mirwaiz set up a Society for the purpose of running this school, the Anjuman e Nusratul Islam.

The First College

The upgrade of the school coincided with the setting up of the first college in Kashmir in 1905 at Srinagar under the name of Sri Pratap Singh “Hindu College”, near Sathu Barbar Shah, Srinagar [very present site] and a large number of Kashmiri Pandit boys joined the college which was re-named as Sri Pratap College in 1911.

Credit goes to the strenuous efforts of Pandit Bala Kaul of the Sahib family, and Pandit Daya Kishen Koul son of Pandit Suraj Koul, the member of the State Regency Council, who had developed a correspondence with Annie Besant, then President of the Theosophical Society of India, persuaded her to open a college at Srinagar. The foundation of the college was laid by Annie Besant under the name of Hindu College, which was rechristened to Sri Pratap College, later. It has to be noted that the Dogra Ruler Pratap Singh was contributing considerable funds to the Hindu College of Banaras. Annie Besant was the chairperson of the Trustees of the Central Hindu College of Benaras who recommended the opening of Hindu College at Srinagar.

Punjabi Support

Muslims who constituted the overwhelming majority were given little encouragement by the Maharaja in the field of education “for the fear that they might become conscious of their political rights”. But against all odds, heavy opposition from local Muslims under the influence of fanatic Molvis, it was Mirwaiz Kashmir, Molvi Rasul Shah, who imbued with ideas of modern education, opened door to it by establishing the first primary school at Rajouri Kadal Srinagar in 1899.

Shah was encouraged in his efforts by many well educated non-local Punjabi Muslims who resided in Kashmir in connection with their trade and jobs. In them, especially, Munshi Ghulam Ahmad Khan, who was Revenue Advisor in the Maharaja’s administration, was well acquainted with the general ignorance, backwardness and illiteracy of Kashmiri Muslims. He helped Mirwaiz Rasul Shah in introducing modern education in Kashmir and got sanctioned a monthly grant of Rs 50 for the school by Maharaja’s government. When the school was elevated to High School, the monthly grant was increased to Rs 150. The school was elevated to the level of High School under the name of Islamia High School in 1905 under the auspices of Anjuman-i-Nusratul Islamia.

 The school was the biggest contribution of Mirwaiz Rasul Shah to Kashmir’s Muslim community. It proved a milestone in the direction of the modern educational institutions of Kashmir.

But, Mirwaiz had to face criticism and taunts of co-religionists for opening Islamia School on the lines of modern education, though religious education was and continues to be imparted side by side with it. With the success of the school at Rajouri Kadal, Srinagar, Anjuman e Nusratul Islam, set up a chain of schools including Drugjan, Rainawari, Safa Kadal, Nowshera, Fateh Kadal, Ameera Kadal, in Srinagar and Anantnag.

A Chain Evolves

Within some years, Islamia School became a model of modern school for Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir and it was running successfully at par with the Christian Missionary Schools. Apart from theology and religion, these schools taught English, Persian, Arabic, Mathematics, and science.

Despite being a frontline educational institution, the Islamia School could not get the deserving patronage from the rulers and governments. This was in spite of the fact that some of the key decision-makers of Jammu and Kashmir in subsequent years had a school with the Islamia School. The list includes politicians Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq, Mufti Sayeed, physician Dr Ali Mohammad Jan, poet Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor, academician Ghulam Ahmad Ashai, Abdul Aziz Fazili and M Yousuf Buch, the former advisor at the UN.

Presently, Nusratul Islam Trust Islamabad, Islamia High School Bijbehara, Islamia School Bota Kadal, Islamia School Safa Kadal, Islamia Higher Secondary School Rajouri Kadal are major educational centres run by the  Anjuman.

 The Social Work

 Contributions in the education sector and preaching from the pulpits of Jamia Masjid and Aali Masjid, Mirwaiz Rasul Shah showed keen interest in the general welfare and charitable cause of Kashmir. He helped the financially needy, poor, widows, handicapped and those who could not marry their daughters for financial constraints. He never charged for any sermon. He would routinely accompany petitioners to the British Resident who held him in great esteem.

Mirwaiz Rasul Shah died at the age of 58 on July 29, 1909 (Rajab 12, 1327). Thirty thousand people joined his funeral. On August 6, more than a lakh people joined the Friday condolence gathering, Fateh Khawani. Even the Maharaja condoled the death and sent a pair of costly shawls for placing on the religious leader’s coffin. The Punjab Press termed Mirwaiz’s death in their headlines as the national loss of Kashmir.

(M J Aslam is the author of the 2-volume Law of Contract that was published by Thomson Reuters Publication in 2017. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kashmir Life.)

Kashmir’s desperation to have a doctor in a family helped Bangladesh emerge as the new destination for medical training. After a medical student’s mysterious death recently, Raashid Andrabi talked to many students and found everything is not hunky-dory

Kashmiri parents are literally busy in a race to have at least one doctor at home. Triggering huge commerce, this race has converted Dhaka into Kashmir’s major destination for medical studies. An average of 700 to 800 students fly to Bangladesh in a year. In five to six years, parents foot a bill of not less than Rs 40 lakhs.

But not every student in Bangladesh is all right. Many of them have stories to share. These disturbing stories may not be everybody’s story and it may not be happening in all the colleges where Kashmiris study but these stories do exist.

Of the dozen-odd students approached last week, four were able to pen down their problems and give vent to the crisis they believe they are in. They could be a minority but they are facing it. All of them agreed to write only after being assured that their names would not be revealed.

‘I am On Anti-Depressants’

I’d always wanted to be a doctor, but I couldn’t get into a medical school in Kashmir. As a result, I persuaded my parents to allow me the opportunity to continue my education in Bangladesh. As a foreigner in Dhaka, I had to contend with several challenges, which are to be expected in a new country. Our teachers are mostly doctors. Some are friendly, but others perceive us as simple Dollars going around. Teachers are the role models of the students, but what if the teacher you look up to traumatizes you or wants money or other favours in exchange for him not purposefully failing you in exams. Imagine all of your hard work is for nothing. In Kashmir, there is a popular idea that Bangladesh grants degrees to anyone who throws money at them, but this is all a lie. I don’t feel like I have a life now.

I am on anti-depressants for one year.”

“I Need A Doc Before Becoming One”

“Our offline classes started in September 2021 after Covid lockdown ended. Because of a visa snag, I arrived in Bangladesh in the second week of October.  On the 13th of October at approximately 10 pm, I arrived at the hostel and was about to enter when the guard stopped me and asked for my name, Id(entity), and other information, which I provided. He told me that I could not stay in the hostel. I was a little worried, so I asked him why he couldn’t let me in. He replied, “Your registration has been revoked, and your admission has been cancelled by the college administration, thus you are not a student of our college, and as a fact, I am unable to allow you to the hostel. It was 10:30 pm, and they asked me to go to any hotel. I had flown from Kashmir alone, without any friends. I asked them to please let me stay at the hostel because it would be problematic for me to find a hotel at 10:30 pm as a female, but they wouldn’t even let me sit inside for 10 minutes.  Then I headed for a one-hour walk on the road. I contacted the college secretary and the hostel in charge, but no one answered for an hour.

After an hour, I begged the hostel in charge to let me remain for the night, she eventually agreed. The next day the secretary told me that staying here was pointless.  I was trembling and wailing because they were telling me to return home after two years. My registration was cancelled because I returned home during the epidemic and my agent failed to submit my certificate. My agency persuaded the college secretary to try to handle my equivalency, although he was unable to do so for three months in a row. I was not allowed to eat in the hostel for more than three months.

I wasn’t allowed to join classes for three months, so I was confined inside a hostel room. Today, I have my certificates and my registration is complete, but our exams began on January 2nd and as a result, I was unable to sit in the exams.

“We Thought of Suicide”

“I am a third-year medical student at an international medical school. We have a lot of issues here, such as the issue of favouritism and negligence by teachers. These actions have caused many students to take antidepressants.  They set their own rules and show favouritism to kids who excel academically. We have already lost a lot of time that our parents, as well as ourselves, are counting on us for.

Mentally, I’m at my lowest point; I’ve never felt so hopeless before. Nothing makes sense when you feel like you’ve lost self-control. We even feel suicidal or use medicines in order to sleep peacefully, if only for a while. I urge all foreign students in Bangladesh to keep an eye out for one another.  Seniors, in particular, should look after their younger ones. Perhaps you’ll be able to save someone’s life.

With so much money and hope on the line, it’s impossible to simply quit.

“They Humiliated My Family”

I’m currently a third-year student here and like the rest of us, I have suffered my share of mental trauma. I never wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to study literature and was interested in the arts. My parents didn’t approve and neither did anyone else in my family. I wanted to go to Delhi and study in some good college. My parents got me admitted here instead. I protested a lot, in the beginning, I eventually gave in to their wishes. When I got here it was nothing like what I had expected.

I knew I would have to study a lot but it wasn’t just that. I had never stayed away from my family for a single night. Now I was alone in a whole new country. On top of all that I was already struggling with my mental health. In such a state the smallest gesture can either make a person better or throw off their balance completely.

I was trying hard, barely slept. We used to study till fajr but still kept failing. Our teachers were not even humane leave alone encouraging. They call you a failure at your face. Even if you have a medical emergency they say it’s no excuse because it isn’t their fault.
I was attending all classes. Some nine months passed this way and I used to cry every day. I couldn’t tell my parents because I thought they’d get worried.
Then Article 370 happened and I couldn’t talk to my family for two months. That pushed me into a spiral of depression I couldn’t get out of. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder with anxiety. I got self-destructive, got insomnia, lost weight and eventually got suicidal. I remember crying every night wishing I would die.

Once I called a friend at 3 am, crying, telling him I wanted to die. He talked me out of it, stayed on the phone till morning and told me we would visit a doctor. And then forgot about it. That’s how it is here.

Sometime later I decided to go home when I wasn’t getting better. All the medicines had made me numb and lifeless. I used to sleep for days altogether. When I got home my father cried looking at me, I looked miserable. I had just got home and came to know my aunt had recently passed away. I had planned on seeing her first when I got back. She was sick and I hadn’t seen her in years. That guilt and grief tore me apart. I stayed home for 8 days and went back.

In a few days, corona hit, and lockdown happened. When we got back home we were treated like a biohazard. All of us were quarantined. Those days of staying in the hotel with strangers in the state of mind I was in, was a cherry on top.

But Covid was a blessing in disguise as I got to stay at home which made me better. I even stopped taking medicines. When we had to come back nine months later for final exams hell set to lose again. All the while we had appeared in exams online. And the same HOD called me up and accused me of changing my number so didn’t have to appear in the exam. She insulted my family and said it was the fault of my upbringing.

Finals went over like that, crying and not sleeping. I failed a subject. Our supplementary exams were announced in the middle of lockdown. Flights were suspended so we had to travel by road. We were turned away at the border for not having complete documents. The embassy was closed for the next two days. Stayed in a hotel for a few days until eventually flights resumed.

A day of sanity and the rest of the week is a rollercoaster ride. There is already a lot of pressure on studies. But having a toxic environment and no support is what breaks one back.

I heard some people debate about this girl’s death. They said if she didn’t want to be here why didn’t she just go back home. But I know it isn’t that easy. There is this guilt of not being enough that comes with it, of letting your parent’s expectations down. When you can’t do anything about all these things, the helplessness is unspeakable.

As Covid19 pushed the world towards the tiny phone screens, it has started severely impacting the new generation. Zakia Qurashi talks to experts to offer an idea of the consequences

Ahsan, 11, is sitting in a room, his eyes keenly focused on the mobile screen, which doubles as a virtual playground for him. The first thing he grabs upon opening his eyes in the morning is his phone. Even without washing his face and having a proper breakfast, he picks it to play the game from where he left off the previous night, clinging all day to the charging socket. This is his routine.

Just like Ahsan, Mujeeb, 9, also has only one constant in life, his mobile phone. His day starts and ends with his phone. “There’s only one thing he is worried about; the battery percentage of his phone,” his father said. “His life revolves around it.”

Such has been Mujeeb’s addiction that his father had to activate parental controls on the phone to reduce his screen time. He even quarrels with his parents when asked to put the phone down, throws tantrums or refuses to eat.

“His screen time was more than 12 hours. I have now locked it at three hours per day out of which he has to attend online classes for 1.5 hours,” the concerned father said. “Rest of the time, he plays games,” his father added.

Mujeeb bargains with his father to get some extra time, offering to study a little more in exchange for an additional half an hour with his phone. But, his father said his efforts at study are very half-hearted, he just waits to get back to his phone.

6 x 4 Companion

His contact with the outside world is very little and he rarely goes outside to play. Instead, he prefers to spend time with his 6 x 4-inch companion within the four walls of his room. To Mujeeb, studying is boring and playing outside tires him out. Apparently, he loves football but refuses to play because he says that it exhausts him. “I have pain in my legs at night,” he complains.

His father even got him table tennis to get him to do some physical activity. But Mujeeb said he doesn’t want to play because he loses the game frequently. Due to the constant exposure to screens, Mujeeb’s vision has also been greatly impacted. Doctors have even given him heavy power eyeglasses to wear.

Influenced by his friend’s decision, he has also started his own YouTube channel and now flaunts it very proudly. “I have a friend. He created his YouTube channel. I thought if he could, why can’t I. Now, I have more subscribers than him, 39,” he said, grinning.

Sameen and Tafheem’s story is no different. They are two brothers separated by two years. Sameen is 13, and Tafheem 11. Their father said that their screen time increased after schools were shut due to the lockdown. “They had no work to do. No school, no homework. They started playing games to kill their time and within a short period were addicted to them,” The concerned father said, insisting they have forgotten what it means to play outside. “They are least involved in the physical activities.” However, online, they play a lot of games – you name it, they play it.

For Sameen and Tafheem, the virtual world is the real one. Their father said that it has affected their performance. “Their retention capacity, their memory power, writing, everything has been affected. They don’t remember things.”

While there is no denying that technologies have some proven benefits but it also has an impact on a child’s overall well-being and development.

Expert Advice

Wasim Kakroo, a clinical psychologist, said that excessive exposure to screens can affect a child’s emotional, social and mental intelligence. “Depending on the age, we can divide or categorize this impact. If the child is small and the exposure to the screen is long, it impacts the child’s brain, especially the frontal lobe that is responsible for rational thinking and consequences of doing or not doing things,” Kakroo said.

Besides, chronic and excessive exposure to screen doesn’t allow the development of “social quotient” and “emotional quotient” in a child. “These are very important aspects of being successful in today’s life and it is only possible when a child will socialize in the real world instead of the virtual world.”

Two Hours A Day

Kakroo said that two hours of screen exposure in a day is more than enough and should be distributed throughout the day. Exposure to screen causes “screen addiction” and can lead to different disorders. “Naturally a child has a need to get connected and when a parent doesn’t fulfil that need it affects their emotional quotient and can lead to emotional disorders. Instead of creating a social connection, they create a virtual connection.”

Other disorders caused by excessive use of technologies are; depression, anxiety disorders, emotional disorders, sociological disorders and Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a behavioural condition that makes focusing or getting organized very challenging.

Quick Gratification Impulses

Kakroo remarked that due to technology, children are used to quick gratification impulses. “The more a child is exposed to technologies the quicker his/her gratification impulses get. It causes intolerance.  They don’t learn to stick to something and get bored easily.”

To be successful, Kakroo asserted it is important to have delayed gratification of impulses. “The more a person is able to delay the gratification of pleasures or impulses the more successful he/she can be.”

Citing the example of games, Kakroo said that real-time games can help a child to become patient, honest and disciplined. “It creates self-awareness, empathy and social bonds/connections. It increases the social and emotional quotient of the child.” He further argued that virtual games cannot teach a child all this because one click can change the entire game. “In a virtual game if a child feels like he is losing he can restart the game or switch to other things. Screen exposure does not allow you to become emotionally intelligent because for that you need a sort of assertiveness and teamwork.”

He further added that virtuality doesn’t allow a child to handle the pain of waiting for something or deal with the negative emotions that come along.

Kakroo asserted that more exposure to screens can make a child unorganized, impulsive, impatient and inattentive. It can also affect their goal sustenance, the ability of decision making and time management. “The more it is experienced in childhood, the more it becomes the philosophy of life. This can also affect the priorities of life.”

Although Kakroo acknowledged the lack of playgrounds and playing spaces as one of the reasons for sticking to the screen, he also talked about the role parents play in structuring this behaviour in a child. “With the advent of these gadgets, parents find it as an easy tool to handle their children. They don’t have time to engage their children in real-time activities. They don’t establish that bond with their children that can make them cooperative.”

He said that parents can involve their children in different activities at home. They should have that understanding or sensitivity of the child’s world that is different from their world.

Dopamine Release

Kakroo opined that tech addiction is like any other drug addiction and engages the same neuronal tract that is used in drug addictions. “At a molecular level, drugs and technology work the same way. They are addictive and release dopamine in your brain and hence make you addicted to it.”

He further explained that it causes satiation. “A point reaches when the child becomes bored with the same stuff and the search for the new stuff can even lead to porn addiction.”

Kakroo implored parents to engage with their children and understand their world. “They need to understand their needs, especially their emotional needs. A parent should give age-appropriate reinforcements to their children so that they enjoy engaging in those activities,” he said. “Only one hour of a technology-free world can make a difference.”

Destroyed Childhood

More importantly, experts say that technology has destroyed the essence of childhood and also hampered their chances of integrating into society. Dr Suheel Rasool Mir, a research scholar of Sociology at the University of Kashmir said that the pattern of communication between children and parents has undergone tremendous change. The children are disconnected from the physical realities.

“Children are out of touch with regard to physical realities, for example, if you ask children to tell the names of their cross cousins, they will not be able to recall but if you ask them to name the cartoon characters they are so sharp to tell names because there is a constant contact between children and technology,” Mir said.

Mode of Socialization

Mir said that the mode of socialization has changed and is now technology-based.

“It creates a sort of intolerance among children. They are not willing to integrate themselves into mainstream society and this will affect their daily life,” he said. “When there is constant consumption or overconsumption of technology it ultimately leads towards children’s disintegration with the society.”

He argued that earlier the socialization of a child used to start in the family or from the mother’s lap but now after just three months of its birth, the child asks for a phone. “Immediate points of contact have changed from family to gadgets. Technology has replaced the role of parents.”

Optimum Use

Mir said that optimum use of technology is good but when it is beyond the optimum threshold it is cancerous for a child’s personal development. “To my understanding, the children will develop anxieties from the very preliminary stage and at point, these anxieties can turn into suicidal tendencies and create a depressing environment.”

In 2020, a horrible incident came forth when a 13-year-old boy from Pulwama committed suicide because his younger brother refused to give him a mobile phone for playing PUBG.

Mir added that technology impacts a child’s health be it physical, mental or social health. “Children will create so many layers of anxieties and later on, a stage will come that they will not be able to come out of these anxieties because they are not in contact with the physical (real) world. They create their own online world where they interact with strangers. This will impact their ability to integrate and socialize in society.”

He further said that earlier when children used to be hungry they used to call their mother but now they are not hungry for food but hungry for phones. “They have lost their appetite.”

The results of the tenth and twelfth standard examination by the JK Board of School Education (BOSE) involving 150 thousand students offers some clear and interesting indications of the state and status of education in the public and private sector, Masood Hussain reports

There have been some snail-pace interventions in the basic education set-up in recent years but the system of examinations is unlikely to change from the traditional system. While the systems in vogue will continue to test the students for their memory power, these will rarely be accepted as a way out to understand the personality and the capacity of an individual.

Till the new educational policy starts making some rudimentary shifts, the results of the examination by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) would continue to offer key indicators of Kashmir’s state and status of education. The picture may look hazier, however, as the education system moved online for the last two academic sessions making the students literal guinea pigs for the new experimentation dictated by the Covid19 pandemic. It exposed the chinks in the armour from a visible digital divide, superimposition of politics priorities on services and teaching community’s efforts to pick up the art of managing a class virtually. Owing to the shift in the teaching systems, the authorities did offer some concessions to the candidates.

The results of the twelfth class and the tenth class made public in the last 10 days, offer certain trends of the sector which apparently are not in variance with what was already obvious. The trends were actually reinforced by these results.

Not Bad

The overall percentage of the candidates who passed the two examinations is almost the same – 78.43 per cent of 72684 candidates passed in the tenth standard and 75 per cent of 72180 candidates in the twelfth managed to get in a new class. It also indicates that most of the students that appear for the examinations in the tenth class hardly see a major variation and the drop-out rate is low. In fact, the twelfth class batch that wrote their examination for tenth in 2019 was smaller thus indicating that those who failed in the last two years also wrote their examinations.

Insiders in the education sector suggest that the pass percentage can improve if the examination system offers a slight shift in accommodating part of the classroom activities in addition to the IQ, which is the main parameter. In most of the educationally forward states in India, the pass percentage is usually above or around 90 per cent.

Girls Shine

In both the examinations, as has been the trend, girls perform better. Most of the top scores in both classes were girls.

In the twelfth class, girls put up a better show than boys. Overall girls have a pass percentage of 78 per cent in comparison to boys who have an overall pass percentage of 72 per cent. A six per cent difference is a major variation if compared to the average pass percentage at the matriculation level in the two genders. Girls actually performed better in all the streams in comparison to boys.

In the matriculation, however, the pass percentage did not offer a huge difference. As many as 78.14 per cent of boys and 78.74 per cent of girls passed the examination. Unlike twelfth class, girls had to spear some slots in the top positions for the boys as well.

Area Results

In the Kashmir situation, as everybody knows, certain areas are more sensitive than others. It is the sensitivity that triggers interventions at the governance level thus somehow impacting the studies. These interventions were more visible on the internet rationing front. Right now, there are areas across Kashmir where the internet is closed for specific hours thus impacting access to offline education.

In the tenth class examination, for instance, the three better performing districts were the most sensitive ones – Shopian, Pulwama and Srinagar. Pulwama topped with 90.26 per cent of its candidates manage to pass, followed by 86.21 per cent in Shopian and 85.29 per cent in Srinagar.

The districts seen as slightly less sensitive and comparatively more peaceful could not perform better in comparison. Bandipore was at the bottom of the list with a pass percentage of 64.632. The pass percentage was 77.72 per cent for Anantnag. 75.20 for Baramulla, 79.55 per cent for Budgam, 74.44 for Ganderbal, 79.49 for Kulgam, 70.25 per cent for Kupwara.

Though a district-wise comparison was not available in the twelfth class results, the education zone wise analysis suggests it was remote Gurez topping the chart with 84 per cent, followed by Pulwama with 82 per cent and Anantnag by 80 per cent (in government sector schools). If the BOSE manages data on a district wise basis, almost the matriculation trend would also reflect.

Private versus Public

In Kashmir, the gradual decay in the public sector schools gradually led to the takeoff of the private sector. One key factor that played the major game-changer was the introduction of the English language in the government schools at a much later stage, in comparison to the private sector.

However, the major drawback in the private sector educational setup is that it almost closes at tenth class. Quite a few private sector educational institutions impart education beyond the tenth class. Even in those limited number of schools, the enrolment would have been better but the schools’ consider entry in the eleventh standard as a fresh admission making it expensive. Ideally, it should not be a new admission as the student does not change the board.

The results of the two classes declared recently do reinforce the fact that the private schools are performing better. This is despite the private sector lacking access to the massive infrastructure and the highly trained human resource.

For the tenth class, the pass percentage of private schools was at 91.18 per cent and that of public sector schools 67.25 per cent. This is a major difference in the outcomes to which the access to knowledge in the online mode could be one factor. Most of the government schools operate in far-flung areas, even in conditions where improved connectivity or affordability of a smartphone is an issue.

In the twelfth class results, the state-run schools recorded a pass percentage of 74 per cent in comparison to the 89 per cent in the case of private schools.

However, the major difference between the two classes is that, unlike the tenth class, quite a few students came from the private schools’ set-up, simply because this facility almost ceases after the tenth class.

In BOSE’s tenth class examination, 46.72 per cent of 72684 candidates came from the private sector, which is quite huge. In the twelfth class, however, only 8.27 per cent of 72180 candidates were from 87 schools where 10+2 is being taught in diverse streams, mostly in Srinagar.

Elitism Over

In Kashmir’s educational scene, a couple of major brands were dominating. These include the five Christian missionary schools run by the Catholics and Protestants in Srinagar and Baramulla. By and large, they used to get the top slots and coupled with their evolution and history, they always remained a key preference for the parents.

Part of their sheen was faded with the entry of CBSE-syllabus DPS chain with their Srinagar school perhaps offering no challenge. Now the so-called B-grade schools that were promoted by the native entrepreneurs have started dominating the scene.

In the twelfth class examination results (NCERT), Mallinson was perhaps the leader of the elites as it took 20 in the top three slots; Biscoe got two, Burn Hall seven, Presentation Convent eight and all others were taken by so-called B-grades including the top slot. The private sector got a total of 115 slots in 257 slots in the third slot. The government schools had 142 positions with the state-run Higher Secondary School Kothibagh dominating the scene with almost 24 top positions.

Though 19 candidates shared the top slot – 500/500 – in the tenth class, it was not immediately known, which student belongs to which school. It is, however, obvious that most of the top three slots – 19 in 500/500, 24 in 499/500, 44 in 498/500 and 68 in 497/500 – will be with the so-called B-grade schools.

While these scores are no good indicator of a candidate’s capacity (because it lacks emotional and social quotients and is solely an IQ) this trend indicates a better situation in the emergence of Kashmir’s private sector.

Private Preference

Up to the tenth standard, the results reinforce the reality that the parents prefer the private sector over public sector schools, at least in Kashmir. This is the real challenge for the hugely resourceful public sector educational setup.

In Kashmir 46.72 per cent of the tenth class, students were from private educational institutions. Interestingly, of the 10 Kashmir districts, five districts attract more students at the level of the tenth class than the government-run schools. These are Srinagar, 8027 students were enrolled with the private sector in comparison to 2042 in government schools; Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam and Ganderbal. In fact, there was not much difference in the ennoblement in Anantnag in 2021 – 505 were in the private sector and 5396 in public sector schools.

However, in Bandipore, Kupwara and Baramulla, the government schools have huge numbers. It could have something to do with the economic profile of the areas or even better education imparted by the public sector schools.

In fact, at the zero level, the private sector is far ahead of the state-run schools as they attract more students. The key factor is the delayed introduction of the English language and the absence of a pre-school setup. These interventions are expected to take place under the new educational policy that is adopted from this academic year. It remains to be seen, how effective it will be in changing the scene, currently dominated by the private sector.

As Russia finally invaded the NATO member, Ukraine, its weakest neighbour, scores of Kashmiris were caught in the medical campuses. While efforts are underway to evacuate them, Syed Samreen talked to a few who took the land route to flee the war theatre

No one in Kashmir would have ever imagined that its people would get caught in the Russo-Ukrainian War, more than 4000 kilometres away, a situation simmering since 2014 but recently blurted out on February 24. Kashmiri students studying medicine in the top Ukrainian colleges were stuck in the capital city of Kyiv and Kharkiv towards the east of Ukraine and other adjoining areas in its west, witnessing the unrest and chaos that unfolded after the invasion.

While witnessing this major historical event, which runs the risk of triggering World War 3, the students feared for their lives and constantly reminded the authorities back home to evacuate them from the war theatre. On the day Russia started its attack, some students updated their situation on social media. One of them told a local news channel back home on February 24: ‘No need to Panic, the situation is normal so far.’

As days passed, the tensions surged. A sense of helplessness grew among the students as well as their parents back home. Some desperate parents in Jammu moved out on the streets to seek official help.

Spade Work

Nasir Khuehami, a student activist, drafted an SOS and posted it on Twitter. Shortly after, the document landed at Raj Bhawan with all the details of the students. Along with his friends, who run an organisation, five helpline numbers for students and their families were established. The following day, toll-free numbers were added for parents.

“Early in the morning, on February 24, I started receiving calls from multiple people about the invasion and the unrest in Ukraine,” Khuehami said.  “After the helpline numbers were issued, the phones started blaring with students and parents submitting all their details and hoping of an evacuation.”

Since then, Khuehami said they are in direct and continuous communication with the Lieutenant governor’s office and the MEA.

Besides, Khuehami’s group coordinated with three people in Moldova, two from Kashmir and one from Karnataka. These colleagues of the association, Khuehami said, are assisting the students by informing them about safer routes from Ukraine, to its exterior, train timings and the others safety measures in and around other regions and borders.

Students started arriving in batches of two, four, five and thirteen on different flights starting February 24. However, some students are still stuck in other countries bordering Ukraine through which they can travel to Delhi via a flight, with the help of the embassies in the respective countries.

Through Slovakia

Adnan Nawaz Choudhary, 23, studies in the Vinnitsiya national medical university, Vinnitsiya Ukraine, is now sitting in the four walls of his Sunjwan house in  Jammu. Vinnitsiya city lies towards west-central Ukraine. Even though Vinnitsiya is at a distance from Kyiv and Kharkiv, the centre of the Russo-Ukrainian confrontation, Adnan said they left the city in a state of fright without seeking help from the embassy.

The day the war began, Adnan said they contacted the Ukrainian consultants who had helped them in selecting a college at the time of admission but received a cold, rather disturbing response from them. “Leave on your own responsibility,” he said they were told.

Two days later, Adnan and twenty others embarked on a journey to their homeland. There were students from all over India in his group and not just from Jammu and Kashmir.

“We arranged three busses which were scheduled to pick us up at 5 pm and 9 pm respectively. We would all fit in just one bus but we weren’t sure of the drivers’ reaction when told that we had to reach the Slovakian border,” Choudhary said. “It was the most expensive bus travel for us as we had to pay almost one lakh rupees for it. The bus which was scheduled for 5 pm reached to us late, at around 8 pm.”

The students didn’t carry any luggage with them. Instead, they carried all the important documents, one pair of clothing and some food. The 20-hour journey would take them to Uzhhorod on the Slovakia border, almost 500 km away.

“We walked for some minutes towards the border and witnessed a large number of people from Nigeria, Arab and the United Kingdom. We were not allowed to enter Slovakia. We arranged contact numbers of the embassy in Slovakia and finally, an official informed the Ukrainian forces at the border to let us in the Slovakian territory,” Choudhary said.

After a three-day stay in a hotel in Slovakia, Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of Law and Justice of India came to rescue the students in a SpiceJet aircraft.

“When I reached back home, via a Delhi-Jammu flight, I saw my family crying and in utter pain. They couldn’t believe that I had finally landed. My maternal uncle came from Kashmir to see me,” he said.

Through Poland

Asif Mir of Qazigund Anantnag was far away from the bombing sites, but right in the middle of Kharkiv. A senior student of Kharkiv Medical University, he was one of those students who witnessed the blasts and the heavy shelling.

“I saw everything. I witnessed everything. I could see buildings burning down from afar and smoke all over. There was utter panic among us. The smoke was dense and all over the ground,” he said, almost crying. “If we would panic and act hysterical, there was no way our juniors would hold back and be calm. As seniors, we had a responsibility to act wisely and reassure them that things were going to be alright.”

Mir and his companions sought shelter in the basement of a metro station for three days. Later, they sought shelter in the basements of the flats, they were living in.

During these days of horror and fright, Mir said that they were reluctant to go out and buy groceries but had no option for survival. “We could have been shot in the crossfire the same way in which Naveen Shekharappa was shot at by Russian forces while standing in a queue for groceries. While shopping we used to sit down and crawl our way out.’ Mir said.

On February 28, they escaped and reached the Railway station. “We didn’t know where the train was going. We just boarded it and let it carry us to whichever place it was going to.” The train dropped off the students to Lviv city. From there, they booked a cab and reached the Ukraine-Poland border. It took eight hours on the border to complete the documentation process.  “Later, the Indian embassy sent a bus for us from Poland and we hopped on. It dropped us at a hotel, where we are staying right now,” Mir said, hoping to reach Delhi.

Through Romania

Another student Farhan Ahmad (name changed) studies Medicine in Kyiv. “One fine morning, out of nowhere we got to hear that the airport had been attacked and all flights were cancelled,” Ahmad said.

They were frightened as Kyiv is the origin of the confrontation. “Whenever the sirens rang, all of us stood up robotically and ran towards the shelters. There were piercing sounds that hurt our ears,” he said. “Everything was visible to us from the top floors of our buildings. One had to gather enough courage to look at the horrifying sight of the blasts and heavy shelling.”

On February 26, the students took a train to the Romanian border. “There were rumours that there was bloodshed on the borders but it was untrue. Things were calm and under control,” Ahmad said. In that group, two were Kashmiris. They plan to fly to Delhi on March 4.

“The hospitality that we received from the Romanian people was unmatched. They set up food stalls, provided us with SIM cards, money, water and shelter,” a grateful Ahmad said.  Romanians told the students: “We are a little town. Whatever we are providing you is from our own pockets. All the food stalls, shelter and money are from our pockets, not the government. It is our duty to be there for you all.”

A common thread that connected all Kashmiri stories from Ukraine is that they stood strong.  “We stood strong. Others used to shout and cry while witnessing the terror,” was the common refrain.

Post Script

A smart estimate is that around 200 students from Jammu and Kashmir are enrolled in medical schools across Ukraine. Not even one-fourth of them have flown home. As the war is getting murky and deadly, efforts are underway to get them home at the earliest.

Grades in examinations are no sure indicator of a student’s efficiency and capacity. For most of the higher studies institutions go for a separate test. Dr Qudsia Gani suggest that the JKBOSE must get strictly tight to avoid the ‘happy horror’ of candidates taking all the marks so that candidates get an idea about where they actually stand

The joy of success in Matriculation result with good grades knows no bounds, be it here or elsewhere. It is celebrated with as great fervour as marriage or career-making of the child in the long run.

Before the establishment of the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) in August of 1975, the examination was conducted by the Punjab University since the pre-partition era. It would be considered an honour to have matriculated from the said University. The examination would be of standard content and conduct. Matriculation used to be a sufficient qualification for various kinds of appointments. The pass-outs would prove their worth in handling different kinds of government jobs. Be it the mathematical calculations in accounts or drafting a grammatically well-written letter or government order, they would do it extremely well.

Some of the stalwarts in the socio-political arena of Kashmir have had their matriculation from Punjab University. JKBOSE deserves appreciation for maintaining the standard and sanctity of high school and higher secondary annual examinations, all through its journey of crests and troughs.

The Board

While taking a lead from its predecessor, it had maintained the stricter norms for the sake of efficiency until one fine day the policy changed for liberty and generosity towards the kids. I will not go into the outcome of change because it is visibly clear to all. All opinions in this regard share a great commonality. Let me, instead, go to the reason for the change and its current relevance.

Quite a few years back, I was watching the news covering the board results of a different state. Much to surprise, one could find that the candidates securing more than 85 per cent marks had no idea of what the graph of a linear equation should look like. Therefore, if any Kashmiri student would apply for seeking higher education in such a state, his percentage alone would let him down. A liberal marking was an obvious demand. This was a very valid suggestion together with many localised reasons that led to a change of approach at our place.

A Rethink?

Now when most of the academia and policymakers have realised that percentage alone is not the touchstone of efficiency, the admission for different courses takes place on the basis of entrance test which is mandatory to take, with or without a good percentage in the board result. Sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can.

Therefore, one may ask with great humility, if the cause is undone, why should the change stay? Why can’t we roll back and get a bit tight? Any kind of progress requires as much unlearning as learning and relearning. The shower of marks percentage all around us is a happy horror. Result declaration appears like a bomb explosion. It is highly energetic. We can find only two types of students, good and too good. Mediocrity ceases to exist despite its always high probability of occurrence.

The truth of the story seems absconding. In the past, only the most deserving would have a booming percentage and the mediocre would celebrate with a moderate score. Today, it is a boom boom everywhere. One is recalled of this rocking Bollywood song:

Boom boom boom, zamana bole
Bang bang bang, deewana bole

100/100 Unnatural

Discrete results give a fair idea of the scope of improvement and the amount of hard work hence needed.  But the results in the recent span of years have left us in a great dilemma. If all are healthy, who is ill? Moreover, a score of 100/100 is unnatural except for mathematics, but we are genetically engineering it to happen.  Why do we have to be so much rewarding? Perfection is a process and not a percentage.

Moreover, a few years hence, the students will also have to enter into career-making, which only a handful of them will be able to do. Only a few of them will be defending their school and college grades. To quote some examples from the past, Dr Ali Jan had a stunningly excellent academic record throughout and everyone can digest that.

Similarly, one of our ministers of the recent past had never stood anything less than first throughout his school, BA and LLB and turned out to be a great politician. Any UGC level advertisement notification still maintains the criteria of consistently good academic record for appointment in college or university. For that, only the most deserving can come forward and not the most desiring.

Basic Arithmetic

A second issue no less important is that of age. A student appearing for matriculation spends 13 years in school starting from the nursery. To say that he is only 14 at the time of examination means that he or she was barely one year old at the time of admission and came crawling to the school. To say that the child took admission directly in a higher class will still lead to the same age because a higher class always means a proportionally higher age. The plain truth is that a three-year-old toddler takes admission in the nursery and spends 13 years in school before appearing in the tenth class examination at 16 years of age.

A rare case may be that a brilliant child at some stage went through double promotion to reach his matriculation at an early age of 14 or 15, which should be supported by documents. Though the new education policy NEP 2020 takes proper care of this forgery, it shall be imperative for the boards to verify the right age of the child till the new policy begins to implement and this is not difficult. The mother’s date of delivery of the child from the hospital would be the ultimate proof.

Or else the two information’s viz; the year of admission and the number of years spent in school are sufficient to ascertain the age of the child. To know the correct age of a person, ask him/her the year of matriculation and not the date of birth.

(Dr Qudsia Gani teaches Physics at the Cluster University Srinagar. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kashmir Life.)

Kashmir’s seminary network is acknowledging the concerns but it would require strong societal backing to encourage the Dar-ul-Ulooms’ to start producing skilled people so that their graduates have enough space for decent livelihoods outside the non-remunerative faith circuit, reports Khalid Bashir Gura

Once upon a time, Nasir A Nadwi, now 25, a resident from Handwara, was unable to deposit his earnings in his own bank account. Then, enrolled in a Srinagar seminary, he would be always in distress and feel embarrassed. He would hardly interact with people living outside the seminary, he was enrolled. Finally, he fled from the seminary one day.

Nasir was keen to learn what the seminary taught. At the same time, however, he wanted to learn the basics of other subjects like mathematics, science, and English.  Understanding his urge, his parents admitted him to Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama at Lucknow. Seven years later, he now pursues post-graduation in Arabic language and literature at the Islamic University of Science and Technology. Now he leads prayers in one of the Masjids in Awantipora.

Nasir’s education at the university is a struggle in itself. He leads prayers that help him fund his education. He aspires to qualify NET/ JRF so that he could be more independent and pursue his higher education. The last time when the University sought semester fees, he had to request his Masjid employers to extend some advance facilities to him. Despite being a student, he is being respected for being a fluent Haafiz – a person remembering the Quran by heart, and Aalim.

“I do not know how Imams who have families survive on few thousand rupees paid by their Masjids,” Nasir said. “I do not want to be paid for leading prayers but presently it is a compulsion.”

Month of Fasting

These days, contrary to the routine, there is no humming of verses of the Quran; no loud parroting of verses, no bantering among Darul-ul-Ulooms students as the month of Ramzan means holiday after the yearlong academic session. The curricular activities in Kashmir’s seminaries are restricted to 11 months between Shawal and Shaban, the two months of Islamic colander. The final examinations are in the month of Shaban, a month before the Ramzan, which is followed by holidays and Eid and finally new admissions and new academic sessions which start post-Eid.

In the chain of the city’s various seminaries, only a handful of students were busy dusting up the carpets, playing in courtyards, and reciting the Quran. The institution heads said the younger students go home and stay with their families for the month, unlike the senior students who lead prayers in nearby mosques.

For the month of fasting, Kashmir is witnessing massive demand for the Hufaaz, people who remember the Quran by heart. Mass surge owes to the trend that in almost every mosque, the entire Quran is being recited in the special Ramzan prayers, the Taraveh. Usually, every mosque management requires two Hafiz’s – one to lead the prayers and another to manage corrections, if any, and to replace the Imam in case of any medical emergency. This is perhaps why the seminaries certify their students in anticipation of this month. This month is s a sort of placement for them.

Hoping To Replicate

It is in these seminaries where the new generation of Muslim scholars, Imams and architects of new seminaries get birth.

“I dream of setting up a Darul-ul-Uloom like this in my village where the people have less understanding of their religion. I want to serve my faith like my teachers,” says, Shabir Ahmed, 25, a resident of Kokernag, who is a Hafiz. Wearing a skull cap, mask over his wiry little goat beard, Khan dress, and plastic strap watch, at Lalbazar’s Darul-ul-Uloom Qasmiya, is in the final years of his eight years course of moulviyat.

In the initial three years, Quran, Arabic language, and grammar is taught followed by Hadith (life and saying of the prophet) and Fiqah (jurisprudence), principles of Tafsir (interpretation of the Quran), and other courses, which are completed in eight years.

Shabir choose to study at this seminary because he desired to know further about his religion and become a seminary teacher. Presently, he is pursuing a master’s in Arabic at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANU) while at his Undergraduate level he passed from Kashmir University in private mode and had schooling from JKBOSE.

Most of the people, Shabir said, believe that those joining seminaries will not be able to pursue contemporary education. “People think their kids will be left behind in mundane affairs by getting admitted to a seminary,” Shabir said, insisting, “It is just a fallacy.”

Enrolment

A general belief is that most of the students enrolled in seminaries are either from economically weaker sections of society, far off places, or destitute. Getting knowledge of faith attracts them to the seminaries, which offer a dignified shelter and food, and impart them education too.

This may be a majority but there are students having both their parents alive and their families not in the destitution of any kind. For them, it is a matter of choice as they prefer education related to faith over contemporary knowledge.

Muhammad Umair, a resident of Bannihal is in the seventh year of his course. A class fifth school dropout, he was influenced by the people who had memorized the Quran. He was not interested in contemporary education. “I memorized the Quran and also want to get into teaching Quran and disseminate knowledge like my teachers,” Umair said, insisting that all his siblings have completed formal schooling and pursued degrees.

A Seminary Life

But to settle into a disciplined routine in a madrasa’s is not easy for everyone.

One has to get up early in the morning, pray five times a day, recite the Quran, learn, re-learn, teach, attend classes, sleep, and play and learn again. Those who have to memorize the Quran have to wake up before the Fajr prayers to learn the Quran, followed by its recitation, and breakfast in the common dining hall.

In the first shift, which usually lasts for four hours, there are five classes. In the afternoon shift, there are three classes. Once free from classes by the afternoon, there is a break from Asr to Maghrib prayers during which students exercise and play. After lunch, they are also allowed to have a nap. After Isha, there are late-night discussions among students on books they are studying especially in the Arabic language department. Students memorizing the Quran, however, are made to sleep early as they have to wake during the wee hours. There are no machine alarms, but teachers act as human alarms.

Students who get inured to this discipline, follow this schedule throughout their lives. “We have given our life to madrasa. If we go to some other field it will be an injustice to what we have learned here,” Umair and Shabir said. “We pursue this knowledge because we want it.”

Are these students getting enrolled into seminaries just because they want to earn some money to live their lives? “Have you seen a Moulvis or the pass outs of the madrasas, hafiz, protesting over monetary benefits, or dying of suicide?” asked Umair. “The fact is that we have fewer needs and curtailed desires.”

“When any Hafiz or Moulvi leads prayers, he is paid Rs 5000-10000,” said Ahmed but they live dignified lives with such a little income. Part of this could be the outcome of their harsh seminary discipline and their modest background. This also is a fact, as Ahmad pointed out that in his last eight years, he hardly saw any student from Srinagar memorising the Quran!

The Flip Side

Though Srinagar is dotted with a chain of seminaries, the best critique of these institutions also comes from the same space that feeds them. People averse to sending their wards to the seminaries say madrasas teaching method is obsolete as the seminaries are technology averse and avoid the complete knowledge basket. Even the seminary managers admit they are on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The classrooms are far away from the Information Technology and students are rarely permitted to carry cell phones, especially smartphones. “Somehow we manage to use but with a lurking fear of getting caught red-handed which involves seizing of phones and other punishments,” one student admitted. When the pandemic dictated the necessity of using the phone, seminaries stopped and those who were operational suggested students use parents’ phones under their guidance. “The phones are allowed for seniors but only ‘simple phones’ without internet.” The managers may require to understand the reality that cell phones become the knowledge houses only with internet facilities.

Teachers Matter

At another madrasa, again in Srinagar, the entire ecosystem surrounds the teacher, Qazi Muhammad Imran. His grandfather had graduated from Darul-ul-Uloom Deoband in 1920 and a generation later, Qazi Imran, now 39, decided to follow his grandpa. After his tenth class, Qazi joined Dar-ul-Uloom Raheemiyyah and later went to Darul-ul-Uloom Deoband. Now he has masters in Arabic and Urdu.  Since 2007, he teaches at a Srinagar seminary.

Muhammad Umar is one of his darling students because he has done nearly 20000 revisions – reciting it fully – of the Quran since 2007.

Now Umar, 22, leads prayers at a local Masjid. He recites Quran. A resident of Khanmoh, Umar is a Hafiz and a Qari, a person knowing Qirat, the art of powerful recitation. He is in the fifth year of Aalmiyat of his eight-year course. It is his eleventh year at the seminary. Youngest of the six siblings, Umar had dropped out in the fourth primary and devoted his life to the knowledge of religion.

Muhammad Yaseen , 23, a resident of Baramulla, who joined a Srinagar seminary at the peak of the pandemic is basically a student of Darul-ul-Uloom Deoband (UP), a major institution he joined a year after dropping out in the sixth class. Now, a Hifz and he has completed many courses.

Similarly, Suhail Ahmed, 24, a resident of Budgam, left his routine schooling in sixth class and joined the madrasa. Now a Hafiz, he has completed his Qirat course and is now in the sixth year of Almiyat. Joining the seminary was his father’s decision. Unlike him, his other siblings are pursuing different degrees in different universities.

Happy that he is able to impart knowledge to the new generation, Imran said learning this knowledge is a conscious decision and not a compulsion. “Our life of simplicity is being misinterpreted as the life of penury which it is not,” Imran said. “We are content with what we have. I have a family, and my kids study in a private school. I have performed Hajj with the salary I get.”

Presently around 450 students from Jammu and Kashmir are enrolled in the institution where Imran teaches. “Technically, these are the students rejected by the education sector and then we pick up, impart them education and make them good human beings,” Imran said. “Like doctors and engineers, our students fill the spiritual space of the society.”

Peripheral Affair

In another madrasa, Mufti Nisar Qasmi is surrounded by a stack of books and lifts his head from books to address frequent phone calls from people with questions regarding various issues pertaining to Islam. He leads the Darul-ul-Uloom Qasmiya. Regretting that very few students from Srinagar enrol in these institutions, Qasmi said people believe their children will be rendered useless and may not have a life if they join these seminaries.

“Thousands of students who study and leave madrasas have never protested for employment or were distressed in search for the job,” Qasmi said. He said the seminary curriculum is designed to make the best human beings.

In his Darul-ul-Uloom almost 300 students are enrolled, of whom 60 per cent are from modest backgrounds. He has instances of the boys rendered destitute by the situation, whom he enrolled in his seminary.

Unlike many others, Qasmi does admit the crises the students of seminaries face once they move out. By and large, they end up leading prayers at Masjids at modest salaries and for most of their lives, they struggle to come out the poverty’s vicious circle. “Masjids absorb these students,” Qasmi said. “This crisis will continue till people would pay singers in marriage ceremonies more than the people who would oversee the nikkah.”

Reforms Required

Echoing Qasmi’s views, Mufti Younis, the head of 21-year-old Markazi Darul Uloom Dawoodia Kolipora Khanyar where more than 135 students from different areas of Kashmir are enrolled, said his seminary’s main purpose is to work for the welfare of society and produce good human beings.

“Most of the students who come to us are school rejects,” Mufti said. “Once they pass out, they are sought by Masjids to lead prayers at paltry sums of Rs 8000-1000.” He said they are not being trained at seminaries for materialistic pursuits.

Off late, however, there is a realisation that these seminaries may have to help their students in facing the challenges of life better. They even suggest changes in the curriculum. Nadvi says when someone leaves a seminary he should not be a misfit in society. These interventionists suggest an updated curriculum, use of IT on campuses and processes that guide students in choosing an area that can help them earn better. They work on an old dictum: “Give your students a skill to sell or they will sell what you teach them.”

Mufti Mohammad Sultan said that there is a movement going on among the Muslim scholars in Kashmir about the curriculum and the changes it requires. “One radical idea being put forward is that we should enrol the inmates in nearest schools and encourage them to study 10 to 4 and later when they report back, we will teach them our curriculum,” Mufti said. “This will help them have adequate knowledge of both the streams.” In his seminary, Mufti said the basic qualification for enrollment is 10+2. “This helps a lot,” he said.

The last time was in 2009-10 when the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities Education (NMCME) suggested the creation of a corpus that will fund the linkage of seminary set-up with modern education. It was on basis of this that Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrassas (SPQEM) was conceived. In Jammu and Kashmir, it became news in 2011 fall when the list of beneficiaries was made public by the HRD ministry.

This triggered a controversy as managers of some of these seminaries said the list included seminaries not getting any support from the government and even non-existing seminaries have been listed. The list comprised 362 seminaries spread across the erstwhile state. It was not immediately known if the scheme still exists.

Pandemic Stress

The new ideas are floated at a time when the seminaries are under intense pressure on the financial front, mostly because of Covid19. Hafiz Molvi Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, a resident of Baramulla, a pass out of Darul-Ul-Uloom Deoband, now heads Darul-ul-Uloom at Bijhama, Boniyar for the last more than seven years. A postgraduate in Urdu, he has almost 70 students.

Bhat said his seminary requires Rs 18 lakh a year but the pandemic crisis led to a fall in donations as a result of which the seminary was under a debt of Rs 3 lakh. This, he said, coincided with the seminary purchasing some land to expand the infrastructure. “Almost 90 per cent of our students come from modest backgrounds so we have no option but to rely on philanthropists who have been making this institution run for all these years,” Bhat added.

The stakeholders believe that though the situation is not hugely favourable, they will have to push the changes in order to make their students’ society ready. They understand the polar differences between the two systems of education and they say they also understand the situation prevailing on the ground.

Syed Shahid Rashid, 35, who is a teacher at Law College said that many companions of the prophet and prominent Islamic scholars were also merchants, traders, and other professionals and served Islam. But the curriculum and syllabus of Darul-ul-Ulooms limit the scope and opportunities for its students to explore other avenues of life and only end up as Imams of Masjids.

“Imam is not a profession. We do not need professionals to lead the funeral prayers either,’ Rashid said. “Surviving on donations cannot be a permanent position. These seminaries must reorient and become empowering institutions on the economic front as well.”

Nadvi second these concerns must start getting addressed. “One day, when I will settle in my life, will not be possible for me to survive on the paltry sum that the Masjid Committee gives me as salary every month,” he asked.

The New Education Policy 2020 is aimed at revolutionising the educational set-up and making the new generation acquire the basics that the evolved market is looking at, reports Mariah Shah

In a serious effort to bridge the gap between the classroom and the market, the New Education Policy 2020 is taking care of the change that recent industrial revolutions brought about and the advanced western systems of education. Students who would be seeking education under NEP-2020 are expected to be better able to understand their eco-system in comparison to the earlier generations.

Framed in 1986, the National Policy on Education was first modified in 1992. Its metamorphosis in NEP-2020 is rudimentary. The goal is to lessen the content and include the methods of learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving, besides helping the student innovate, adapt, and adopt new material. Aimed at a major change in 2040, NEP-2020 implementation is changing the way education is imparted and acquired.

The New Set-Up

The policy has modified the basic pedagogical and curricular structure of 10+2 in school education. For the 3-18 age group, it has been reframed to 5+3+3+4.

In comparison to the previous academic structure in which the students start receiving education for the first standard at the age of six, the new structure provides Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) through Anganwadi, Preschool, and Balvatika for the 3-6 age group. The policy ensures the students joining grade 1 after completing their ECCE educational institutions should be school-ready by 2030 fall.

The newly framed National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age group of eight years will be developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

Now the foundational education comprises two stages – three years of pre-school beginning at the age of 3 and concluding at the age of six years, and two 2 years of Class I and Class II for the 6-8 age group.

The Preparatory and the Middle consist of 3+3 years of schooling. Three years of Preparatory schooling begins at the age of 8 and concludes at the age of 11. Three years of middle schooling begin at the age of 11 and lasts up to the age of 14.

The secondary education is now for four years, from the ninth up to the twelfth class. The students will enter the ninth class at the age of 15 and leaves the school after the twelfth class at the age of 18.

This is precisely what the 5+3+3+4 pattern means.

Cutting Dropout Rates

The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) for grades 6 to 8 was 90.9 per cent; for 9 to 10, 79.3 per cent and for 11 to 12, it was 56.5 per cent. This indicated that a significant proportion of students drop out after fifth grade and particularly after eighth class.

Now, efforts will be made to ensure universal access for all children to obtain quality education containing vocational education from foundational schooling to twelfth class.

Priority will be given to bringing the children back to the educational institutions to prevent dropping out. The policy goal is to achieve a 100 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio in preschool to secondary level by 2030.

At the same time, Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and State Open Schools will be expanded for meeting the learning needs of young people in India who are not able to attend a physical school.

Lessening Content

The new curriculum is committed to lessening the burden of bookish content to the most requisite content in each subject. Instead of developing content, the policy says critical thinking, discovery, research, and discussions must be developed.

The prescribed content will lay emphasis on the key concepts, ideas, applications, and problem-solving. The teaching-learning process will be conducted in an interactive manner; questions will be encouraged, and classroom sessions will contain fun, creative, collaborative, and exploratory activities for students for experiential learning.

In all the learning stages, students will access hands-on learning, arts-integrated and sports-integrated education, and story-telling-based pedagogy. Sports-integrated learning will also be undertaken in the classrooms to help students adopt fitness and to achieve related life skills.

Multilingual Approach

The NEP  strongly advocates for the use of home language/mother-tongue/local language or regional language as the medium of instruction until grade five with preference up to eighth class. . So the mother language would be a priority in private and public schools.

Textbooks including science will be made available in the mother tongue. In cases where the textbook material is not available, the language of the transaction between teachers and students will be the mother tongue.

Higher Education 

NEP intends to promote high-quality higher education. There will be multidisciplinary colleges and universities (at least one in every district) and more Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) offering programmes in the medium of local languages.

National Research Foundation (NRF) will be established to fund exceptional peer-reviewed research and spark research in the Universities and Colleges. Now ‘deemed university,’ ‘affiliating university,’ ‘affiliating technical university’, ‘unitary university,’ will be ‘university’.

Now, an Autonomous Degree-granting College (AC) will refer to a large multidisciplinary institution of higher education that grants undergraduate degrees.

All the HEIs by 2040 shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions and enrol a larger number of students for optimal use of infrastructure and resources, and for the creation of vibrant multidisciplinary communities. By 2030, more HEIs will be established in impoverished regions so that every district will have one large multidisciplinary HEI. The aim of this policy is to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035.

Degree Programmes

Now, the structure of the degree programmes on the undergraduate level will either be of three or four-year duration with multiple exit options within that period. The students who exit the course will be awarded appropriate certifications. A certificate will be awarded to the students after completing the first year in any discipline or field (including vocational and professional areas), a diploma after two years of study, or a Bachelor’s degree after three years.

An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) shall be established to store the credits digitally earned by students from various recognized HEIs. The degrees from an HEI later can be awarded considering the credits earned.

The four-year programme may extend to a ‘degree with research’ provided the students complete a meticulous research project in their major area(s) of study as specified by the HEI. The Master’s Degree programs will be flexible in nature and dedicate the second year of the two-year master’s programme to the research. The option is available for graduate students.

Students who complete a 4-year Bachelor’s programme (with research) will be given an option of one year master’s programme. In another option, students can opt for an integrated 5-year Bachelor’s/Master’s programme. However, a PhD shall require either a Master’s degree or a 4-year bachelor’s degree in research. There is no MPhil under NEP. It offers students an opportunity to directly opt for PhD after their graduation.

= “The most indispensable feature of NEP 2020 is that the policy approves choice in academic; for the very first time, in fact,” said Danish Zahoor, a resource person at Srinagar DIET. “Students will be able to choose subjects across the disciplines. No student will be bound to the current curriculum structure. In the interim, research introduced at the graduation level is an asset to the educational system. Students who want to do an in-depth study of their subject will have an option now. It’s logical and time-effective. The academic structure discussed in the policy is economical.”

Funding Research

The National Research Founder (NRF) will competitively fund research in all disciplines in the Universities. Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Bio-Technology (DBT), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), and University Grants Commission (UGC), as well as various private and philanthropic organizations, will be allowed to fund candidates independently. The NRF will be governed by the government itself.

Teacher Education

By 2030, the HEIs will offer a 4-year integrated BEd – a bachelor’s degree in education, which will become the minimal degree qualification for school teachers. The HEIs may also run a 2-year BEd programme for students who have already received a Bachelor’s degree in a specialized subject. They will offer a yearlong BEd programme for students who have received a 4-year undergraduate degree in a specialized subject. Meritorious students may draw scholarships to pursue these programmes.

“The biggest challenge in the implementation of the policy is the undersupply of human resources and infrastructure,” commented Danish. “However, the policy motivates teacher education that leads to the selection of the right candidates for teaching purposes.”