As the winter break of 2025--26 is approaching, it is expected that the people at the helm of affairs will come up with more effective and rejuvenating winter tutorials.

In my area Narabal (Budgam) alone there are about six elementary government schools (primary and middle), one government high school and one government higher secondary. About 1000 students study in these institutes. If the private schools are also added, the number of students goes around 4000. The winter tutorials will benefit around 2000 families only in the Narabal area which constitutes a small area when compared to the district Budgam. Rather than opening up winter tutorials in every school, it would be better to do so in higher secondary and high school only. As these provide better infrastructure, easy access, better modern technology and better monitoring.
The winter tutorials started in the academic year 2015 --2016 with a bang success and an estimated 2.5 lakh students benefited from such tutorials. 25 thousand got free coaching for NEET in the" Super 50" coaching centres. This created positive reverberations in the minds of people and the popularity of government schools started soaring. But, with the passage of time this so graceful and much hyped concept of winter tutorials in Kashmir followed a famous population growth curve that is sigmoid growth curve in its progression. Its effectiveness is dipping.

Reasons for the Debacle

Using influence for the engagement of a teacher for earned leave.
Some of the competitive teachers skip the winter tutorials as they teach in coaching centres.
Lack of better infrastructure (heating, proper facilities) at some places.
Every 2 lecturer cannot be used for teaching in the "super so" programme. There are the lecturers whose teaching aligns with the national standard. But, unfortunately, most of them skip using influence. There are infinite benefits of these winter tutorials in Kashmir. Some of the benefits are:

Preparation for Competitive Exams

The "super so" Programme offers specialised coaching for competitive examinations like NEET.
Bridging learning gaps:
Winter tutorials help to keep students engaged and plug the learning gaps by reviewing material and valuable concepts.

Offering Targeted Lessons

By offering targeted lessons especially in subjects like mathematics and social studies the academic performance is enhanced.
Utilisation of spare time:
The tutorials offer a structured and productive way to utilise winter break.

Economic Benefits

The parents can save the money normally spent on coaching expenditures of their children.

How to ake Winter Tutorials Successful

The winter tutorials should be started in the high school and higher secondary of the area. The high school and higher secondary provide better facilities in terms of infrastructure, technology and supervision.
The teachers engaged in these winter tutorials should be started by the district officers of education and the best teachers should be utilised.
The job knowing Gazetted officers be nominated as modal officers for the continuous monitoring process of these centres.
There should be periodic review of the teaching- learning process in the centres.
Banners/Hoardings should be used for advertisement giving maximum media coverage.
The specific topics like fundamentals of mathematics etc should be set as targets to be completed in a given winter tutorial. The experts should be utilised for selecting these topics.
Resource persons of all levels that are zonal level, district level (DIET), state level(SCERT) should be utilised to the fullest in providing teaching support at the centres of winter tutorials. The resource persons should come out of their cozy rooms and serve the community with the potential they have.
SED should make a special squad to monitor the activities at winter tutorials.
The government should devise ways to include more and more students of private schools in addition to the government school students. This will send a positive message to the society and will change the mind set of the society.
If people come up with a positive mind set to work hard for the upliftment of government schools I am sure our government schools will be well ahead of the private schools in the coming years. Everybody needs to shoulder the responsibility. The government spends about Rs 15 k on each student per month which includes expenditure on infrastructure, salary, MDM etc. Even an elite private school charges only Rs 8k including bus fare to each student. Let us hope for better results in terms of enrollment and quality this session of 2025 --2026. The winter tutorials will reinforce the process of development if taken seriously.

Email:------------------muntashirkifayat@gmail.com