Kashmiri students are grappling with a significant loss in education, as the Kashmiri language textbooks were not available in government schools across the valley up to the elementary level during the recently ended academic session; however, the exams for the subject were conducted.
“For the past two years, there has been no supply of Kashmiri textbooks in schools. Subjects like math, English, and others didn’t have books even until June—teachers have been teaching using notes taken from their mobile phones,” rights activist Rasikh Rasool Bhat told FoEJ Media.
“Teachers across Kashmir somehow managed to teach the subject through makeshift arrangements. We hope this gap is addressed in the next academic session,” he said.
“According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, education in the mother tongue is considered a key element in nation-building. In alignment with this vision, the NEP 2020 has been translated into all regional languages, including Kashmiri. It is hoped that from the next academic session onwards, all textbooks including those in the Kashmiri language will be made available in schools well in time,” Bhatt added.
The education of students is reportedly at risk, making them depend on outdated curriculum or learn only the basics with limited resources, which teachers manage to get through their phones.
“We face a lot of problems. The teachers only teach us the basic things—we really need proper books,” a student said while talking to FoEJ Media.
“We want to get our books—we want to study from the books ourselves,” he added.
The controversy has elicited widespread censure from educators, parents, and members of civil society, who assert that conducting examinations in the absence of textbooks gravely undermines the instruction and preservation of regional languages—a cornerstone principle of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“We are poor people—what can we do? We will take our children out of school; they are not learning anything. Instead of moving forward, they are falling behind in their studies; the children don’t know anything,” a father said, speaking to FoEJ Media.
