Shift in academic session leaves students confused in Kashmir

SRINAGAR — Unlike past years, the school students of Kashmir division won’t be turning to tuition centers to cover a portion of their syllabi for the new academic session as the students are yet to appear in the annual regular examination of the session that has been going on for more than a year.

The dilemma struck the students at that time when the government had decided to shift the academic session from November-December to March.

The school students informed the news agency KNO that they are confused as to what they have to study during the winter vacation that began on December 19. “We are in the same academic session that has been going on for more than a year.”

One of the students, Farhaan said, “We don’t know whether we have to prepare for the examination or join any tuition center for the new class! Usually, we would join tuitions during the winter vacations which would reduce the burden of covering syllabi in schools.”

He said that the students are studying the same textbooks which they have even revised multiple times. “We have done three revisions of the existing textbooks but we are confused about what is in store for the students.”

One of the government school teachers told KNO, “Earlier, we would assign students the winter work to complete during winter vacations. This year, we too were confused as to what we should assign students.” He said, “The confused students are continuously calling the teachers to clarify what they need to study.”

Meanwhile, officials of the School Education Department said that they will try to compensate for the academic loss that students have suffered during the COVID-19 lockdown. “We are trying to bridge the losses that students have suffered from the past three years,” the official said.

Pertinently, the government had decided to shift the academic session for all classes from November-December to March to bring uniformity to the national calendar.