Srinagar Oct 3: Majority of schools in Kashmir continued to remain deserted on Thursday as students remained away from institutions snubbing the government’s directive to start class work.
The divisional administration in Kashmir had on Monday ordered opening of all schools including higher secondary schools in the valley on October 3.
Although the staff has been regularly reporting to duties at schools in Kashmir, authorities had on Thursday hoped for some semblance of class work, which has been unable to resume since the abrogation of Article 370 by the Government of India on August 5.
To woo students and parents of private schools in particular, authorities had directed the institutions against charging tuition and bus fee for the months of August and September during which schools have mostly remained shut.
However, on Thursday nearly all private as well as government schools remained bereft of students, as usual.
No school buses plied on the roads even as private transport plied normally. No students were seen rushing to schools.
At Government S P Higher Secondary School and Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Srinagar’s city centre no student had turned up for classes.
While class work at S P School seems unlikely for now due to the presence of government troopers at the institute since early August, the nearby Girls Higher Secondary School Kothi Bagh too presented a desolate picture.
Parents and teachers attribute the zero attendance of students to uncertainty in the valley since the abrogation of Article 370 and the communication blockade especially lack of cellular phone services due to which parents hesitate to send their wards to schools.
“How will parents send their children to schools when they can’t know their whereabouts in the current situation? How do they know if anything untoward happens at the schools?” Shahid, a youth from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district asked.
He said that government as well as private schools in Pulwama district remained shut on Thursday despite government orders.
A teacher at government middle school in Srinagar too attributed the absence of students to the suspension of mobile network by the government.
In absence of mobile network, teachers at a tribal school in Srinagar had to manually call students-who had returned home in early August-to the school for classes, a teacher said.

Irshad Khan