Students of strife-torn valley open a new chapter in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Unlike many their age,17-year-old Khalid and Umar love it when their school opens every day. They hadwaited for more than two months for their schools back in Srinagar to open gatesagain. But due to the continued tension between the locals and the forces, theirwait seemed endless. So Khalid and Umar packed their bags and moved out to moveahead. Now in the city with no curfews and riots to disturb their dreams, theseteenagers from the Valley feel it may be finally possible for them to finishschooling peacefully.Schools and colleges in the Valley have been closed for nearly three months now ever since a 17-year-old boy was killed during protest in June. Violence ensued, and curfews followed forcing schools and colleges to shut for an indefinite period. Since then, several students like Khalid Mir and Umar Farooq have come to the capital or shifted to other cities in search of regular classes to pursue class XI. They are besides the batch of 155 students from DPS Srinagar who were shifted to DPS Dwarka last month.Now sitting in a quiet room at Bloom Public School in VasantKunj, Umar says, "I am glad the school agreed to admit me mid-session. I hadjoined class XI in Burn Hall School in Srinagar when the new session startedthere in March. The situation was normal till May.'' There is noise outside butcreated only by the chatter of his carefree schoolmates. He looked at thembefore saying again, "Then my parents decided to send me here for good. It wasfrustrating to sit at home for months together without a clue if our schoolswould open again anytime soon. '' After securing 82% in class X from J&KBoard, Umar is now studying commerce and aspires to become abusinessman.Like Umar, Aseem Raza (name changed on request) fromBaramulla too moved out of the Valley this season to join Tagore InternationalSchool in Vasant Vihar. He said his family could no longer compromise on hiseducation as closures had become more regular than his classes. "I faced manydifficulties in class X also. I remember appearing for my board exams not withan admit card but a curfew pass in hand. Now, many of my friends have alsojoined schools in Dehradun and Bangalore,'' said Aseem. He belongs to a familyof doctors and studied in St Joseph School.Running an academicinstitution in the Valley has been a challenge for all stakeholders. Though theDPS Society currently runs schools in Srinagar, Budgam, Baramulla, Rajouri andAnantnag, shortage of good faculty has been a problem. Ashok Chandra,chairperson, DPS Society, said, "We run schools in collaboration with localtrusts there. The Srinagar school has a reasonably good faculty. In Anantnag, wehad even got teachers from as far as Kerala. But parts of that school have beenburned down twice in the past. Rajouri is also a sensitive area.'' He added, "Aswe have classes XI and XII only in DPS Srinagar, the pro-vice chairman of thetrust there asked us if we could accommodate the children since the school hadbeen shut for long. About 10 teachers and 155 students volunteered for it.Around 25 students of the batch are still there.''According to theValley residents, the migration of school students has started only this yearand it's the more well-off families which are sending their children out. "Weare in a unique situation. No strike has continued for so long here. So childrenfrom rich families have started leaving the Valley. Those, who cannot afford it,are still here,'' said Vinod Venshen, who runs a couple of schools and collegesin Kashmir.Khalid agrees. He too joined Bloom Public School and nowdreams to be an engineer. "We mostly stayed indoors when there were riots on thestreets. I now only want to concentrate on covering my syllabus for the examsstarting on September 17. It's now time to work hard.'' Aseem added, "Who wantsto leave Kashmir. But we can't carry on there without education.''