Why Universities in Kashmir closed

By: Aijaz Rasool Yatoo

As we all are aware that due to Covid19 pendamic every educational institution has been closed all over the country and even markets,transport and every office closed due to this pendamic and we can understand that this was demand and need of hour.Now with the passage of time everywhere we are observing that all the works has been resumed.Administration tried to restore these works as due to suspension of these works,our economy was badly affected.At the same time when we see towards our educational institutions,we can see they are non functional except two classes of secondary education.If we talk about Universities of the valley that what steps have been taken to restore the classwork,there may not be any answer to this question.And now question is that why I am talking only about Kashmir valley,why not about the all over India.The answer is simple that we have to take our vision back to August 2019.From August due to Abrogation of Article 370,Educational Institutions have been closed as there was lockdown like situation till December 2019 and when normal situation restored but for educational institutions in our valley it was winter vacation and finally in February,classwork restored in Universities of Kashmir after the gap of six months but unfortunately due to the pendamic in the month of March universities again closed till now.So we can say that from last fourteen months our universities have taken offline classes only for a month,which also was affected by bad weather conditions.At least our administration should take this lost time into consideration that what is happening with the career of students.There is another side of the story that online classes held during the Covid period but it should be also taken into consideration that we have 2G network for these online classes.What kind of difficulities students are facing due to this weak network connectivity,Administration should look into this matter,if they are unable to provide 4G service atleast they can take steps to restore classwork.If markets are open,mini buses are running with overload of passengers,every office is open,why only educational institutions closed.We can also understand that there is health issue but we have to take preventive measures and restore classwork as we have to live with this virus.We have to face the situation and we have not to run away from it.Atleast we can start open air classes in Universities.How much more time we have to waste for waiting the vaccine or medicine of this virus.Why no one is serious about our career,where we will go,whom we will ask our difficulties,who will compensate our loss of last fourteen months,who will answer,why compromise with our studies.we are facing a lot of difficulties due to low speed of network for online classes but who cares.

Our lot of time has lost and online classes are not fruitful and this is clear,study needs attention and online classes cannot bring attention of students towards the lecture.Face to face interactions have positive impact on students.At last I want to convey the message that students of valley needs justice,classwork should be restored and preventive measures should be taken to conduct the classes.Students have lost their interest now of study but still it is time to come back and we request administration to look into our demand of offline classes.Someone may ask who will be responsible for the health of students if they have to join university,first of all if anyone wants to stay at home there is no issue and this time offices are full with employees and who is responsible for them,they are also our family members.People in markets and other places are also our family members.No one sitting at home nowadays but when there is issue of opening educational institutions,many people have health issue.I don’t know where are those people who were talking about the importance of education.What is happening with our education,they are unable to see.Secondary classes are running on voluntarily basis and this is good steps towards restoration of classwork.Now it is the need of hour to restore again the classwork so that students can compensate their lost time and can get benefit from studies.Todays students are tomorrows future and we don’t want that our society’s future will be dark.At last once again I request higher authorities that steps should be taken to restore classwork and students will also cooperate by adopting the SOP’s.

Author is pursuing masters degree at University of Kashmir and can be reached on aijazrasool69@gmail.com