‘Shameful projection of normalcy’: Kashmir board exams coincide with EU delegation’s visit

NEW DELHI: After spending the better part of the past three months outside their classrooms, students in Jammu and Kashmir will start writing their board examinations on October 29, 2019.

According to reports, around 65,000 Class 10 students are eligible to write the Class 10, Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education examination, starting on Tuesday, October 29. Another 48,000 Class 12 students are set to start on Wednesday.

The scheduling of the exams on the same day J&K will be visited by a delegation of lawmakers from the European Union, has caused much anger. One user described it as a “shameful projection of normalcy” in a state which has been under lock-down since August 5. On that day, Article 370 granting special status to the state was abrogated, the state was clamped down by security forces and all channels of communication blocked.

It resulted in students staying away from schools for about 85 days.

Filling empty schools

Now, the students are writing their board examination amidst tight security and without preparation. Reportedly, the state authorities have given them no supplementary material to prepare and was unrelenting when students sought reductions in the syllabus.

The BJP government at the Centre, however, has strenuously denied that the Kashmiris were under any lock-down or that their normal lives had been disrupted.

On social media, those sympathetic to the students complained that the state was “forcing compulsory exams” on students to “fill otherwise empty schools”. This performance is for the benefit of the EU delegation, they argue. Another Twitter user wrote: “Children in Kashmir will be appearing for exams tomorrow without having attended school for 85 days; images of which will be used perversely to project ‘normalcy’.”

A post on a social media account of former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti said: “No coincidence that EU MPs trip tomorrow coincides with board exams for over 60,000 students in Kashmir. They have no choice but to appear for the exam tomorrow just to lend credence to ‘all is normal’ acrobatics.”

As per reports, authorities have made arrangements of transportation like buses of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) to ferry students to their examination centres.