Visit remote areas before comparing govt, private schools: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar, July 22: The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that it was easy to open schools at Athwajan and Hyderpora but those comparing government schools with private ones must visit far off areas to see the dedication of teachers despite facing challenges.

CM was speaking during the inaugural session of a day-long Educational Summit on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: Empowering Education Leaders for holistic education-challenges and way forward.

The summit was organised at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) here.

“Some people who comment on our work and your work, they often compare government schools with private schools. They don’t see that government schools are set up in places where private schools are nowhere to be found,” Omar Abdullah said while addressing the teachers and other officers of the education department.

“Setting up a school at Athwajan Chowk or Hyderpora is very easy. Let these people go to Gurez,Karnah, Machill, Tangdhar and Karnah to open their schools there,” he said.

Omar Abdullah said that the government schools were being compared with those of the “big private schools” while asking those raising fingers on government schools to go to the mountains and see the condition of government-run schools.

“You will see the dedication of our teachers there. It is not that all our government teachers have to get themselves attached to Srinagar or Jammu. Our teachers are teaching in remote mountains, in difficult conditions. No one talks about that,” he said.

He said nobody talks about seasonal schools wherein teachers go with their children for months of the year and live in the mountains with children.

“They try to educate their children and they try to make them employable,” he said.

He said the things we used to believe in have changed.

“I am seeing this change in my life. In December, we used to believe that there would be snow in Gulmarg. Today, even if it snows in January, it is a blessing,” he said.

He said the temperature in Srinagar goes to 37 degrees while in our childhood, there were no fans in our houses.

“Today, people are installing air conditioners in Pahalgam and Gulmarg. It does not rain for months and when it rains, it is so fast that it flows from the top and we do not benefit from that,” he said.

Referring to the exhibition of students, Omar Abdullah said his heart fills with happiness to see the children of the school talking about rainwater harvesting.

“When I see the children using less plastic, how can alternatives be used? How can we reduce the use of plastic when we harvest? Land filling should not be increased, I feel really happy,” he said.