Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Mar 31: The residents of Kamad area in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district are dejected with the Government for ignoring the upgradation of the oldest High School in the area.
Established as a primary school in 1924, the school was upgraded to a middle school in 60’s and then to a High School in 2005. The teachers and locals lamented that the school has not seen any progress with regard to the upgradation ever since and accused authorities for upgrading the least derived schools.
“Schools with lower rolls, weaker infrastructure and established much recently have been upgraded to Higher Secondary’s and not this one. I fail to fathom reasons behind it,” Altaf Hussian, a resident said, adding that that the school caters to half a dozen villages and has produced good results.
While emphasizing on the importance of the school, the residents said that it has produced nearly 40 doctors and 70 engineers in the area. “This is the high time to upgrade the school for the larger good of our area,” another resident, Mohammad Shafi said.
The teachers on the other hand blamed the authorities for ignoring the school despite producing best results. “15 of our students appeared in class 10th class examination last year and passed with good grades. A hundred per cent result should not have been ignored like this,” a teacher said.
In absence of the facility the students have to travel long distance to attendant Higher Secondary. “We have to either to travel to Anantnag which is four kilometers from here or Dialgam, which is around two kilometers from here. The upgradation would save us time and money,” a group of students said.
The residents said that the school has enough land available and could be developed as a model Higher Secondary by the department and appealed the Government to reconsider their decision.
Deputy Chief Education Officer Anantnag, Mushtaq Ahmad, told Excelsior that the school is not fulfilling the required parameters. “Schools need to fulfill all the required parameters before upgradation. One such parameter is the availability of higher secondary in a span of five kilomtres and in this case the Higher Secondary is already present. The other parameters are also required. But still we will look into the matter and try to take it up with the Government,” he said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
