Education suffers
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. All major activities have come to a grinding halt which includes education also. Education has witnessed major disruptions owing to the pandemic as all the schools and colleges have been closed down across the globe.
Though some measures have been undertaken to reduce the damage done, but the absence of physical presence in class rooms has hit the development of the school and college going students.
The measures like online education which have been undertaken in most parts of the world have not been so effective and in a place like Kashmir where technology is subservient to curbs and restrictions, the measures have in-fact added to the miseries of the students community as the online mode of education has not succeeded in involving them.
The education sector is deeply stressed due to Covid-19 as many schools in the private sector have lost most of their revenues owing to non-payment of dues in many of the cases. However, apart from these major issues the major damage that has been reported is the increasing dropout rates of school going students among the Muslim community in Jammu and Kashmir.
Official figures available suggest that the annual average drop-out rate of Muslim students in private as well as government schools was high at elementary, high, secondary and higher secondary level.
At the primary level, the drop rate is 14.3 percent followed by 13.1 percent at upper primary level, 23.7 percent at secondary level and 26 percent higher secondary level.
Ironically, the drop rate at secondary level was more than twenty percent in eight districts in Jammu and Kashmir.
The figures reveal that the annual average drop-out rate at secondary level is more than twenty percent in eight districts including Budgam, Bandipora, Baramulla, Kulgam, Kupwara, Rajouri, Ramban and Resai.
Though many reasons like lack of formal education among Muslims, Madrasas and education to nomad Muslim are some of the main factors cited for dropout rates, the policies of the government too have been not so encouraging to retain the students hailing from the poor strata of the society.
With Covid-19 pandemic too making the economic conditions of the people worse, the school dropout rate may witness a further slide once schools reopen and students are asked to report physically in the schools.
The situation though alarming needs a concerted effort from policy makers and various others who are working in the education sector to set parameters that will enable students and their parents to persuade them to stick to schools.
This is the need of the hour as education can transform the society to achieve new goals that have otherwise been ignored so far.
KV Network
