Summer vacations for Kashmir colleges announced

Srinagar: The Higher Education Department has officially announced summer vacations for Kashmir colleges and winter zone of Jammu from July 06 to July 15, 2017.

The order in this regard was issued by Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Department (HED), Asgar Samoon on Thursday.

“All Government Degree Colleges of Kashmir division and winter zone Jammu division shall observe summer vacations with effect from July 06 to July 15, 2017,” reads the order.

Before announcing summer vacations for Kashmir colleges, the Jammu and Kashmir government earlier decided to close all educational institutions in Kashmir region and Jammu’s winter zone on account of summer vacations from July 6 to July 15.

Officials said the summer vacation in Jammu region will end on July 05 and the schools there will resume functioning on July 06. “So it was decided to announce summer vacation for lesser number of days in Kashmir region as well,” a senior official in the School Education department said.

He said the formal orders to this effect will be issued on July 01 or 02. “The file is approved and the formal order will be issued in coming days,” he said.

Interestingly, the government has announced vacations for a shorter period as compared to previous years. It would usually announce summer vacation for 15 days.

“This year we have directions from Education Minister to announce summer vacations for a shorter period in view of disturbance in the academic calendar in the past few months,” the official said.

The government announced closure of schools for many days following thrashing of students at Government Degree College Pulwama by government forces on April 15. The incident had left over 50 students injured.

In wake of the incident, campuses erupted across the valley against the forces’ action on students, forcing the government to announce closure of schools and colleges.

From April 17 to June 01, the government educational institutions remained closed for 17 out of 34 working days.