The Kashmir Pulse

SRINAGAR — The School Education Department on Thursday said that the new academic session will commence soon after the culmination of the annual regular board examinations.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, Director School Education Kashmir, Tassaduq Hussain Mir as per the news agency KNO said the new academic session will begin soon after the culmination of ongoing exams.

"We are prepared for the new academician session and we have set the timelines too," he said.

On being asked about transportation fees for those months during which schools were closed, he said private school students are not liable to pay for services they did not avail of during those months.

He said that earlier the academic session used to end in December but now it has changed to March. "The ongoing session will end after the culmination of annual regular board exams."

About the violation of government guidelines for charging admission fees by some private schools, Mir said wherever they will get written complaints, they will act tough against the violators.

He further said it has not given any registration to private coaching centers. "I don't know what is their mechanism for charging the fee."

PULWAMA — Students have demanded the administration to take action against two coaching centres in Pulwama town by making serious allegations as they shared videos of the teaching staff working in the coaching centres.

On the basis of not revealing their identity, scores of students told the news agency CNS that some government teachers are mocking the private tuition of the employees in such a way that the teachers appointed in the government schools are teaching in coaching centres.

The students, while naming the two coaching centres Shah-e-Hamdan and BCI in Pulwama town, said that in these centres, Arshad Ahmed and Parvaz Ahmad of BCI, Prof. Riyaz Ahmad Khan (Botany) and Shakeel Ahmad Allai (Chemistry) from Shah-e-Hamdan besides a dozen government employees are posted as faculty there.

Shaista (name changed), a student, revealed that since the government banned private tuition for government teachers and professors last year, these employees have been deceiving students and directing them towards their coaching centres through advertisements as they are encouraging children in schools to score high marks in practical etc.

The student also alleged that in Shah-e-Hamdan and BCI coaching centres, fees of 30,000 rupees are being charged for medical and 32,000 rupees for non-medical streams. “This is ironic as the government teachers are attracting children towards these coaching centres by showing themselves as faculty in these centres at the first stage, but after the submission of fee from the children, these faculty members go into hiding, thus deceiving students,” a student alleged.

The students have demanded closure and strict action against the operators of these two centres.

Notably, the UT government issued orders to strictly ban the government teachers posted in schools and colleges in coaching centres. But ironically, no such action has been implemented at the ground level in the town of Pulwama.

SRINAGAR — Unlike past years, the school students of Kashmir division won’t be turning to tuition centers to cover a portion of their syllabi for the new academic session as the students are yet to appear in the annual regular examination of the session that has been going on for more than a year.

The dilemma struck the students at that time when the government had decided to shift the academic session from November-December to March.

The school students informed the news agency KNO that they are confused as to what they have to study during the winter vacation that began on December 19. “We are in the same academic session that has been going on for more than a year.”

One of the students, Farhaan said, “We don’t know whether we have to prepare for the examination or join any tuition center for the new class! Usually, we would join tuitions during the winter vacations which would reduce the burden of covering syllabi in schools.”

He said that the students are studying the same textbooks which they have even revised multiple times. “We have done three revisions of the existing textbooks but we are confused about what is in store for the students.”

One of the government school teachers told KNO, “Earlier, we would assign students the winter work to complete during winter vacations. This year, we too were confused as to what we should assign students.” He said, “The confused students are continuously calling the teachers to clarify what they need to study.”

Meanwhile, officials of the School Education Department said that they will try to compensate for the academic loss that students have suffered during the COVID-19 lockdown. “We are trying to bridge the losses that students have suffered from the past three years,” the official said.

Pertinently, the government had decided to shift the academic session for all classes from November-December to March to bring uniformity to the national calendar.

PULWAMA — Reading Room Classes, also known as RRC Pulwama, is slowly but steadily making its mark in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district by providing quality education to the enrolled students while using the latest ed-tech services for their ease.

In the latest development, the coaching institute has introduced mock tests and weekly exams to help the students check their progress in various subjects and improve their comprehension levels.

Pertinently, the institute has been relocated to the top floor in Ahad's Tower near District Hospital Pulwama.

In a chat with The Kashmir Pulse, the students at RRC Pulwama said that the staff at the coaching center is well up to their expectations and that they are enjoying the real-life coaching approach of the teaching faculty.

Praising the use of the latest modern ed-tech gadgets for delivering lectures, the students said that RRC Pulwama is revolutionizing their methods of preparations for not just academic examinations but competitive exams as well.

It is in place to mention here that Reading Room Classes was started by some reputed teachers with the aim to help those students who lack guidance, money and motivation.

Through RCC, they provide quality coaching to students at an affordable monthly fee to make it accessible to all those who dreamt of not only being good in maths and sciences but also qualifying exams like IAS, KAS and other reputed national and state-level competitive exams.

Abrupt shutdowns and distressing situations created havoc in the world which would take years to recoup. It shattered young and old, rich and poor equally. It dwindled the social strata psychologically, socially and economically and reduced the human race to a stage of haplessness and helplessness.

Fear psychosis travelled fiercely, thereby disturbing the human peace at large. It followed no absolute protocol but made the human race bend its knees and filled the hospital chambers with the infected population. Roads and streets were thrown to dogs and it seemed that the world was handed over to ghosts.

The human civilization was under an unwanted siege and more so, bigger questions started backfiring the claims made by medical science and the questions are still looming large before the gods of the medical world and are still to be answered.

The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir was not an exception to all this. The sons of Adam living on the banks of Tawi and Jhelum too got bigger blows. Among the sobs, cries, sighs and suffocation, the people lost jobs and businesses were shut and even roadside vendors were put at God's mercy.

The education sector was the worst hit, though it was not felt so when the education and allied concerns got closed. The corridors of schools and their premises no more presented colourful scenes of colourful students wearing colourful uniforms. Morning assembly roars were replaced by ambulance honks on the road.

The only uniform visible on the ground was the PPE Kits used by medical, paramedical staff and volunteers. Online classes became the order of the day. In India only, about 250 million students were affected by the closure of the schools at the onset of the lockdown induced by COVID 19.

However, we are back on track with the new normal. The students are back in school. We could see flocks of satchel-wearing students in and around schools. But in the overall scheme of things, we have forgotten the damage within the little fragile body frames of these students.

Have we ever pondered over the fact that our kids have received shocks that they were not prone to and the damage caused cannot be ignored? We can see class work and activities back on track but how far are we successful in getting them out of the depression and disengagement they have been victims of? These bigger notes of interrogation put us all in the domain of exclamations. Be it parents or teachers, we have to build up on it in a very serious way and address this unaddressed issue which could prove very detrimental to our future.

In this situation of chaos and confusion, we could see a ray of hope from the suburbs of Pulwama area, where an educational initiative — Reading Room Classes (RRC) — has been doing miracles. The initiative was started by some young vibrant minds who were all brilliant but unemployed. They choose this initiative to help the student community in particular.

The working zeal of these RRCians speaks loud as right in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, they were preparing handwritten notes and were delivering it to the needy students while following COVID protocol on bikes or at times going by foot to their doorsteps. On seeing large demand from the student community, they founded this initiative to start with more enthusiasm. Later, they started community classes in and outside Pulwama town.

These enthusiastic young men were mentored and motivated by a young KAS officer from Pulwama who is helping students for the last 10 years and guides them free of cost for different competitive examinations like IAS, KAS and JKSSB.

The story doesn’t end here. The group of these young teachers moved from pillar to post to get a rental building where they can teach the students and finally succeeded to establish it at Ahad’s Towers near District Hospital Pulwama.

They achieved one more milestone and created history by conducting "Habba Khatoon Talent Hunt Test" in Pulwama town in which a record 1000 students enrolled themselves and became part of the overall process of mentorship, guidance and classes. By their dint and hard work, they conducted this historic and the first of its kind test in district Pulwama which hitherto was a farther dream for the students.

This way, students got their reading rhythm back through the Reading Room Classes initiative. These unsung heroes are working day in and day out to help students through motivation and the kids they have mentored are jubilant enough that their motivation levels have touched the skies.

The undaunted energy of these young messiahs doesn’t end here. More recently, they have started another unique initiative which they named "Anti-COVID Capsule by RRC Pulwama" — a new educational innovation. Through this initiative, they are now going to give free compensatory-cum-mentorship classes to all the students of Class 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th.

In this initiative, they are already conducting free special sessions, counselling sessions, motivational classes, one-to-one mentorship sessions, doubt clearance sessions, recreational curricular sessions and much more, thereby creating an environment of motivation which would lead the student community back on track.

It surely and undoubtedly is a pioneering step towards the overall development of students. These young men need to be appreciated and their commendable work needs to be celebrated so that this model is replicated in other districts and states and becomes torch bearer for others so that more such initiatives are taken up by other people too. Great applause to RRC and its team and their mentor!