The Class 10 and 12 board exams will begin in Kashmir from Tuesday even though schools remained shut and students stayed away from classes in the past more than two months of shutdown.
Amid prevailing crisis, thousands of class 10 students will write their papers at designated centres across the Valley, even though there has been no academic activity in most of the government-run and private schools.
While most of the schools have been designated at exam centres, there are some instances where extra security forces deployed by the centre ahead of the Article 370 abrogation, have taken over schools due to lack of accommodation.
“These centres have been shifted to other government accommodation and students writing their papers will not be put to any hassle. In cases where students may not be able to reach their centre, the district administration will facilitate their travel,” a senior official in the divisional administration said.
“All arrangements, including security, have been finalized for the smooth conduct of Class 10th and Class 12th examination in the valley, where restrictions under 144 CrPc will be imposed in and around centres so that any kind of eventuality is averted,” the official said.
Several private schools in the valley have rented accommodations in different locations, where they are conducting examinations for students up to class 7th. The students have been asked to come to these locations in their respective area in casual clothes.
“I and many of my friends were asked to come to a rented accommodation near my house to appear in examination in casual clothes. Similarly other students were asked to come to rented accommodations near their localities,” Tawheed Dar, a class 7th student, said.
However, many educational institutes have given home assignments to students and the pupils will be marked on the basis of these assignments. “My children were given home assignments and we were told that they will be marked on the basis of these assignments,” Irfan Saleem, a resident of Rainawari, said.
Meanwhile, the annual examination for Class 10th and Class 12th will commence from Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The decision to conduct examination was made by authorities despite majority educational institutes remaining deserted due to uneasy situation in the valley following scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35 A on August 5.
The official said that the Deputy Commissioners of different districts of the valley have held meetings and reviewed arrangements for the smooth conduct of the board examinations in their respective areas. “Arrangements are being for providing transport facility to the students appearing in the examinations,” he said.
Meanwhile, a District Control Room has been being established in Baramulla, which will provide necessary support during the process. Teams have also been constituted in all districts to devise a viable mechanism in their respective jurisdictions to conduct the examination without any hassle.
After private schools, now different Colleges and Universities have asked students to collect study materials, including video tutorials, in Kashmir valley, where passenger traffic, including the buses of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) buses, remained off the roads for 85th day on Monday.
The Principal Government Degree College Bijbehara said that all the students of BG-3rd, 5th and 6th Semester have been informed to collect the study material pertaining to their concerned subjects from the college for their convenience. “The students of these semesters are asked to contact their respective Head of the Departments for collection of the material at an earliest,” he said.
Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) has also asked its students to collect study material, including video tutorials, from a rented building in Nowgam, bypass. IUST is currently operating from this building as according to officials of the institute, the situation in not conducive for reopening of the university in Awantipora in south Kashmir district of Pulwama. Similarly some other colleges have asked its students to collect study materials from the respective educational institutes as the students continued to stay away.
The government ordered closure of all educational institutions on August 5, when centre scrapped Article 370 and 35 A, besides divided the state into two Union Territories. However, educational institutions reopened in winter capital, Jammu and Ladakh after about two weeks in a phased manner but remained closed in the valley.
After remaining closed for more than a month, government ordered reopening of primary and middle schools first followed by High and Higher Secondary Schools (HSS) and on October 9 colleges in the valley, where life remained crippled due to spontaneous strike from August 5.
However, students continued to stay away and did not attended their classes in private and government institutions as parents were not ready to send their children to schools due to uneasy situation in the valley, including Srinagar.