Schools reopen in Kashmir after winter vacations

The students and the teachers in private schools were seen equally excited and joyous to resume the routine activities in the school.

Mubashir Khan

Syed Rizwan Geelani

Srinagar: All the government and private schools across Kashmir reopened for routine academic and extracurricular activities of students after a gap of over two month winter break.

The first day in both government and private educational institutions was observed as a ‘welcome day’.

The students and the teachers in private schools were seen equally excited and joyous to resume the routine activities in the school.

On the other hand, government schools also witnessed hustle and bustle.

The students in most government schools were welcomed with sweets and biscuits by the teachers to make the first day of the students in schools a mix of fun and studies.

The teachers had decorated the exterior of the school buildings, premises and the classrooms with hanging buntings to attract the students on their first day at school.

"We are happy to be back in our school after more than two months. All of us are excited to meet our friends, classmates and teachers. We are happy to reunite with our peer group," said Salika Mukhtar, a student of a Srinagar school. "We are unable to express our excitement to join our friends after more than two months. Meeting friends and teachers after a long gap always gives you peace."

The teachers also expressed their happiness to see their students post winter vacation.

"We are delighted to see the students back in school. We are ready to go ahead with the new academic session after the culmination of annual exams," said a school teacher.

This year, the School Education Department (SED) on the recommendations of the Traffic Police Srinagar, has fixed the timing of city schools from 9 am to 2 pm.

The decision was taken for the convenience of the students so that they are not stuck in the traffic gridlock witnessed in the city.

Notably, the condition of the roads has turned bad in view of the construction work going on everywhere around the city.

The city is dug up almost everywhere.

From the city centre in Lal Chowk to the Dal Lake and other areas, men and machinery are at work in connection with the construction going on under the Smart City Project awarded to Srinagar in 2017.

It has June 2023 as the deadline.

Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Vijay Kumar Bidhuri while speaking about the reopening of the schools apologised to the parents for changing the timing of schools.

"The school timing was changed in the city and I am sorry for that but it was done to ease out the students and we expect cooperation from parents and the students. The timing was changed in view of the construction of smart city projects going in the city. But I am hopeful that things will improve in the near future," he told media persons.

Meanwhile, the students while sharing their feedback about the change in the school timing said that they had a smooth journey in the morning while reaching their respective schools.

"It was all fun as we did not get stuck in traffic jam anywhere. We enjoyed the time with friends in our school bus," said Insha Mukhtar, a student.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic (Srinagar) Muzaffar Ahmad Shah had already asked the schools in the City Centre to approach parents with a request to use the Rajbagh area for the pick and drop of their kids.

The appeal of the Traffic Police Department was well received by the parents who used the Rajbagh area to pick and drop their kids.

Majorly, the kids did not face any inconvenience while being ferried to the schools and back home.

"We tried our level best to appeal to the parents to cooperate with us in easing out the congestion. The way we had thought of it, we implemented it and we did not receive complaints of traffic jams anywhere from the students or parents," SSP Traffic (Srinagar) told Greater Kashmir. "Parents and schools were kind enough to agree to our appeal and cooperated with us to avoid traffic congestion." Greater Kashmir