The students of the state have faced a considerable brunt of the crisis with most schools and colleges remaining closed for two months. Now that temporary normalcy has returned, the challenge before the Government, apart from handling growing separatism, is to overcome the setback to education. In the days ahead, it will be quite a task for institutions to put the academic calendar back on track and complete the syllabus on time. The frequency of shutdowns experienced in the Valley was worse during the 1990s. However, compared to the last couple of years, this year’s duration of shutdown was relatively high.

The academic calendar in the Valley has been severely hit and it can be gauged by the fact that most of the educational institutes have remained closed for five months, including the winter vacation, leaving a working period of only four months in the current academic session.

In fact, this year, the number of holidays observed so far in educational institutions is 74, excluding 90 days of winter vacations. These 74 days include 11 days of state holidays, seven days of summer break, 26 Sundays and 30 days of strikes and curfews.

The Common Entrance Test (CET) for medical and engineering courses, which was scheduled to be held in July, has been postponed thrice and so have the other examinations in Kashmir University. The CET is now scheduled for September 13 and 14.

Prior to appearing for the exams it is mandatory for college students to attend 180 working days in their respective institutes, but they have attended around 70 days in colleges due to the present crisis.

A similar situation had emerged in the early 1990s when the turmoil began in the Valley, and college and university students were promoted to the next session or class without even appearing for examinations. However, mass promotion is not an option for the authorities this time. The Government has asked schools, colleges and university authorities to organise additional classes to compensate for the academic losses. They are hopeful of completing the syllabus within the given time so that students can appear for examinations on time. The officials are holding a meeting of education officers to discuss the situation and have also appealed to the teaching community to put in extra efforts to complete the pending syllabus.