As schools in Kashmir are about to shut for the winters, students want them to be open for a while more
For six years, young people from Kashmir have been making headlines by cracking competitive national exams - the tough IIT and IAS. The closure of schools for the last three months, due to the unrest following the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani -- have thus hit the student community hard.
And now, as the schools are about to shut again for Chillai Kalan - the chilliest 42-day period of winter - they want to put in some serious study, at least for a week.
"Allow us to study. Not just for two days but schools should be open for entire week. We have exams ahead and have to compete with rest of the world," said 14-year-old Mohammad Saad, a student from Srinagar's Woodlands school.
Like thousands of students, he is jittery over continuous closure of schools for months.
The constant unrest and strikes called by the separatists have forced schools to remain shut for five months now. Lately, the schools have been open only on weekends in the valley as the only relaxation in the separatist's strike is on weekends.
The children feel politics should not be allowed to ruin their education and schools should function normally.
"Normally, we complete one lesson in one-and-a-half months. How can we do it now in eight days? It's a burden on our teachers and us," said Mohsin, a student of Class 10.
Last month, the state government announced a mass promotion of students and went ahead with class 10 and 12 board exams. A large number of students turned up despite not having attended classes for almost five months.
"We will try our best to help students to compensate the loss they have suffered for none of their fault. We have a protocol in place that we have introduced last year -- winter tuition," said Naeem Akhtar, the state's Education Minister.