Bandipora, Aug 4: Sameer Ahamd Khan, 17, leaves home at half past five in the morning to reach school at 7:30.
The 9-kilometer walk is fraught with challenges, but the determination to have a better future always surpasses it.
Similarly, for Shameema Bashir Naik, the long walk to school and back home in the hope of a better education is something she would “happily” do every day.
The Dard-Shina tribe in Gurez valley of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district has been relatively marginalised; the new generation has high hopes pinned on the education sector to secure a better future.
However, the Education department has been struggling to provide education up to the mark where school children and society could feel the change.
“On reaching the school, however, we merely get to have two classes as there are no lecturers available for three more,” Khan, who studies at Government Higher Secondary Baduaab and walks from one of the last villages of Gujjran in Gurez’s Tulail Tehsil, said.
For Shameema, who studies in the 11th class, the “heartache” never ends. Even after daily long walks, “It is always a waste of time,” she asserted.
“Today, I am forced to launch a protest and seek lecturers for our school,” she added, noting the school has just three subject-specific lecturers.
Notably, the Gurez valley, which consists of two Tehsils, has one education zone having seven higher secondary schools.
For the farthest and largest region of Tulail, there are four higher secondary schools at different places. The centrally located Dawar has two, while the Bagtore region consists of just one.
“We must say Tulail region villages like PTL, Baduaab and Kilshay suffer a lot in terms of dearth of lecturers,” one of the officials in Gurez told Greater Kashmir.
Officials say all higher secondary schools in Gurez have arts, medical and other streams.
With the region not having regular services and scattered habitations and villages, the students, largely from weaker sections, have to walk several kilometres to attend school but mostly return disheartened.
The situation gets more challenging towards the winter as the Valley witnesses extreme fall in temperatures and remains blanketed under snow for most of the months.
“Some arrive from as far as Chakwali, which is twenty kilometres away, and some walk 11 kilometres from Husangaam. However, at the school, they are taught just two subjects,” one more aggrieved girl student shared.
The situation has anguished both students and parents who said their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
“The education is zero. It’s been years now that parents are seeking an appropriate number of lecturers, but just a few locals are posted,” Mukhtar Ahamd Lone, a former BDC from Bagtore, said.
He said the medical students at Higher Secondary in their village were deprived of education last year, and the situation has remained unchanged this year too.
“Parents are now planning to write to the higher-ups about the situation as the future of the children is at stake,” he added.
Official records collected by Greater Kashmir put the total number of vacant lecturer posts at 57 out of 86 in Gurez. Even as the department was making strides to compensate by providing contractual lectures, “most of them don’t join.”
Although local officials are yet to establish how many have been listed for Gurez, officials estimate it would be around 12 to 15 at the maximum.
“We may see the same situation this year too,” an official said, adding that for a mere 25000, no lecturers want to join given the Valley’s relatively remote location and challenging weather conditions.
Students are now vehemently demanding that the department should move and provide them with a sufficient number of lecturers to study with full zeal.
Chief Education Officer Bandipora GM Puja didn’t reply to calls from Greater Kashmir.
