Schools reopen in Valley after 3 months, Centre, state happy

Srinagar, Sept 27 (PTI) After remaining shut for 100 days
due to civil unrest, schools across Kashmir Valley in north
India reopened Monday with students and teachers given a
smooth passage by security forces despite curfew and
restrictions in many areas.
Attendance was however thin against the backdrop of
hardline Hurriyat party leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call to
parents not to send their wards to schools and colleges.
Reopening of educational institutions was part of
Centre's 8-point initiative to bring back peace in the Valley.
Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram expressed happinness
over reopening of most educational institutions disregarding a
boycott call and appealed to all sections of people,
especially parents, to cooperate with the government in their
smooth functioning.
Chidambaram also condemned a "few minor" incidents of
stone-pelting onschool buses at Habak, Bemina and Nowgam and
asked, "How can any right thinking person pelt stones on
school buses?
"I hope that such mischief will stop immediately," he
said in a statement, adding, "anyone who has the interest of
the children at heart cannot indulge in stone-pelting; nor
should anyone support such mischievous attempts to interfere
with the functioning of schools and colleges."
J and K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the state
government's entire efforts were focussed to ensure that
children do not lose valauable year of education.
At the same time, he hoped separatists will cooperate
and will not target children because they are coming to
schools.
"Please cooperate with the Government", he said in
Jammu, adding "Education is right now a fundamental right
of children. We want to restore that right to children".
The education system in the valley had suffered
collateral damage due to frequent curfews and strikes in the
unrest, which began on June 11 with the killing of a
17-year-old student in police tear smoke shelling.
In order to ensure the smooth functioning of schools,
the state Government had pressed a fleet of state road
transport corporation buses into service.
More than 170 buses were deployed on 11 city routes
for facilitating the movement of students and school staff.
The attendance of the students, however, was just
around 20 per cent but authorities were hopeful that it
would improve from Tuesday.
State Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed
has announced a comprehensive plan for restarting the
learning process and holding of annual examinations in the
Valley.
In view of the diktat issued by Geelani, many private
schools decided to adopt a wait and watch strategy. Geelani
had Sunday also appealed to teachers and the non-teaching
staff to stay at home.
"We will see how the first day pans out. If government
schools function normally, we will also start from Tuesday but
at the moment we cannot risk our students," Mukhtar Ahmad, who
runs a private school, said.
Despite tight security deployment around the schools,
there have been reports of some people threatening the
management of some schools in Batamaloo area of the city.
However, police officials say they were not aware of
such threats. PTI MIJ
SAK


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