Virus challenges Kashmir schooling

SRINAGAR, India — Children in Indian-controlled Kashmir are no strangers to lockdowns. Curfews, strikes and school shutdowns are all part of growing up in one of the world’s most militarized zones.

So when schools in the disputed region opened after six months in late February, 9-year-old Jannat Tariq was overjoyed to see her friends and teachers.

She had spent months under a strict lockdown that began in August 2019, when India scrapped the region’s semi-autonomous status, closed schools and colleges, and imposed harsh curbs on civil rights and communications, including a shutdown of the internet.

In February, it finally was time to return to formal schooling. But Jannat’s happiness was short-lived.

The following month, she was once again forbidden to go to school, but for a completely different reason: the coronavirus pandemic.

Decades of insurgency, protests and military crackdowns have constantly disrupted formal schooling in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where rebels have fought for decades for independence or unification with Pakistan, which controls the other part of the Muslim-majority region. A generation of students have seen their education upended, and empty classrooms are a familiar sight.

Over the years, volunteerrun community schools and makeshift classrooms have emerged to fill the gap when formal schools shut, but largescale troop deployments and restrictions on public movement mean they reach only a small proportion of students.

Now, the coronavirus lockdown is amplifying the problem.

Experts say lack of formal schooling during the lockdown could have a serious psychological and emotional impact on the children. With no opportunity to be with friends, many homebound students are struggling to reimagine the school experience as parents take over the role of teachers.

Like elsewhere in the world, online classes could have bridged that gap. But in Kashmir, it is a luxury students can’t afford.

A year after India’s sudden move to strip Kashmir’s semi-autonomy, high-speed internet remains restricted in the region.

India continues to defend the move by saying limited internet speed helps to head off anti-India protests that sometimes lead to clashes between demonstrators and Indian troops.

Experts say lack of formal schooling during the lockdown could have a serious psychological and emotional impact on the children.

Confined to their homes, students have found it challenging to study online with the painstakingly slow internet connections, which also faces outages following the frequent gunbattles between rebels and Indian soldiers.

“We are not able to keep up with lessons online and we miss our regular school,” said 11-year-old Mohsin Shafi.

With no high-speed internet, many educators are unable to upload video lectures and conduct online classes. But some are making the best of limited resources.

When months went by without teaching, Muneer Alam, an engineer-turned-math teacher in Srinagar, the region’s main city, started an informal community school in June in the form of an open-air classroom.

Alam said the driving force to start the open-air classes was seeing children all around him depressed and anxious.

It worked.

The open-air classroom buzzes with students. Some sit on chairs.

Others place themselves on rugged mats or on the ground. Social distancing is maintained.

“I wanted to give children an opportunity to attend a few classes with familiar faces around them,” Alam said.

(AP/Dar Yasin) Kashmiri students attend an open-air early morning class inside Eidgah, a ground reserved for Eid prayers, in Srinagar, Kashmir. When months went by without teaching, Muneer Alam, an engineerturned-math teacher, started the informal community school in the form of an open-air classroom in June. Schools in the disputed region opened after six months in late February, after a strict lockdown in August 2019, when India scrapped the region’s semi-autonomous status. In March, schools were shut again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Khalid Bazaz plays with his niece Sundas Irfan, as his daughter Maria Khalid sits on his lap and watches online classes at their home in Srinagar. Confined to their homes, students have found it challenging to study online with the painstakingly slow internet connections, which also faces outages following the frequent gunbattles between rebels and Indian soldiers. “I have to spend three hours every day with Maria as she is too young to handle zoom meetings and like every child she is not interested in these online classes,” Khalid said.

Iqra Nazir listens to her teacher Muneer Ahmed during a math coaching class in Srinagar. Decades of insurgency, protests and military crackdowns have constantly disrupted formal schooling in Kashmir, where rebels have fought for decades for independence or unification with Pakistan, which controls the other part of the Muslim-majority region.

Kashmiri student Aaishya Imtiyaz writes her examination as her mother Nusrat Fatima cleans vegetables in their kitchen in Srinagar. “This is my second exam at home since last year. I hope and pray that we go to school very soon,” Aaishya said.

Kashmiri students attend an open-air early morning classes.

Kashmiri students walk home after attending an open-air class.

Humzah Mir studies in his bedroom in Srinagar. Humzah, who cleared his grade X exams a few days ago, says it will be a hard road ahead with no proper classes.

Chairs and benches lie inside an empty classroom of a private school closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mohsin Shafi holds a book and sits for a photograph inside a houseboat on the Dal Lake in Srinagar. “We are not able to keep up with lessons online and we miss our regular school,” he said.

A woman walks inside an empty school closed the past four months because of the coronavirus pandemic in Srinagar.

A face mask hangs on a study table of a Kashmiri student in Srinagar.