Published On:Saturday, 18 October 2014
87000 students without text books
Post flood worries
SRINAGAR: Over 87000 students from class Ist to 8th standard across Kashmir valley are without text books as the same were damaged by the last month’s devastating floods, official figure reveals.
According to the data collected by Department of School Education of Kashmir, over 87000 book sets (text books) across Kashmir Valley have been damaged during the recent floods. “Over 87000 students from Ist standard to 8th standard have lost their text books during the past month’s devastating floods and the department is in urgent need of these book sets so that the same would be distributed among students,” Director School Education of Kashmir, Mir Tariq Ali told Kashmir Monitor.
According to sources, the School Education department has approached the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) for the required book sets but the text books which JKBOSE has published for next year had also got impacted by the floodwaters.
“Education department has approached the JKBOSE to provide the required 87000 book sets from the quota which JKBOSE had published for next year but a huge damage has been witnessed to those books as well,” sources told Kashmir Monitor.
Chairman, JKBOSE, G H Tantray refused to comment on the loss of books in his department saying he has just taken the charge and has no knowledge how much loss his department has faced during the recent floods.
Meanwhile, Director Education told Kashmir Monitor that they have written about the loss of books to Government of India and they expect timely arrangement would be made about the same.
According the officials in the department of Education, atleast 1096 schools across the Valley have either completely collapsed or partially damaged due to the devastating floods. “We have made a survey in which we found atleast 1096 schools have got damaged across the Kashmir valley,” Tariq Ali told Kashmir Monitor adding that over 90 crores are required to rebuild these buildings. He said out of 1096 damaged schools, 908 schools were constructed under Sarva Shiksha Abiyan (SSA) scheme, 97 under RAMSA scheme and 91 schools were those which had been constructed by state sector. Tariq Ali also said that these were the reason why the session for annual exams was postponed to March-April next year.
