With Schools Shut For Four Months, Kashmir Students Face Board Exams

Srinagar: For the last four months, 17-year-old Rafia Reshi has not gone to school but next week she will have to sit for her class 12 exams, the Jammu and Kashmir government has said.

Like almost every other school in Kashmir, Rafia's school in Srinagar has been closed since unrest broke out in the valley after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8.

Though the government has not been able to reopen the schools, it has decided to go ahead with the board exams as scheduled on November 14.

 To compensate the loss of academic session, the government has said students will have to answer questions out of only half the syllabus - an idea some find strange.

Many students and civil society groups want exams deferred to March but the government has said no.

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"I don't feel I will be able to do justice to the most important exams of my school career. How will you maintain an all India level standard by opting a policy of syllabus reduction? We will be half-doctors, engineers and half-intellectuals of the future," said Rafia.
 The government says conducting exams on time is to save the students an year which would otherwise be wasted. Board authorities say students injured during the unrest will be given helpers to write for them.

Adding to the challenge for authorities is that more than two dozen schools have been mysteriously gutted in fires in the last two months. Police are yet to catch those responsible.

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Also, many schools are still occupied by security forces who have been brought in to deal with the unrest.

More than 90 people have been killed and over 10,000 injured in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kashmir as a curfew called by security forces and