STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: With more than 350 schools, located in the close vicinity of International Border and the Line of Control, remaining shut for a longer duration after the 29 September surgical strike, the School Education Department is yet to come up with any alternate proposal on how to complete the curriculum before annual examinations are held across Jammu province.
In the absence of regular conduct of classes and absence of teachers, thousands of school going children have been suffering in isolation.
The worst part is even their parents are struggling to keep them safe and away from the shelling prone areas.
Due to their rural background, most of the parents are tied up with numerous household duties and cannot devote quality time to their children and prepare them for their annual examinations.
Since large number of schools have been converted into make shift relief camps by the State Government agencies, the possibility of conducting classes also look bleak.
According to official sources, the entire academic calendar has been disturbed and gone off track in the last two months across Jammu region.
While staying out of their class rooms, children have not been able to devote enough time to their studies due to variety of genuine problems.
Parents claim, ” How can we force our children to focus on their studies when outside intense shelling was going on for the last two months”.
“We have been staying in camps and moving to safer locations during the intense exchange of cross border firing. During the same period our children were not able to study properly”, Ramesh Chander of village Sariyan in Jhangar area of Nowshera said.
“We expect the State Government to take a lenient view of the prevailing circumstances and announce some relaxations to these children. The parents claimed if students in Kashmir valley could be given relaxation on account of 4 months long Bandh the students across Jammu region also deserve relaxation as they have not been able to concentrate on their studies too”, Subash Sharma, parent of class 10 student studying in Higher Secondary School Akhnoor said.
“The education of our children has suffered the most and now we are worried as examination season is approaching. We really do not know how our children will compete at the National level and face the tough competition” another parent from RS Pura claimed.
“The border residents have been demanding reservation on the same pattern as enjoyed by those staying within the 5 km radius of Line of Control but till date the successive State Govts have failed to address the long pending demand of the border residents.
