India Celebrates Children's Day while Kashmiri Children are Serious with Exams

While the nation is celebrating children's day, children in Kashmir are amidst an earnest and serious aura as the board exams commence today for classes 10 and 12.

Schools in Kashmir had initially closed for two weeks long summer vacation on July 1, but could not resume functioning due to the violence that outbroke in the valley.

Hizbul Mujahideen, commander of Burhan Wani along with his two associates were killed in an encounter with security forces in a village in Kokernag area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district on July 8. Since then schools were forced to remain shut due to the prevelance of terror.

The unrest has left 85 persons dead and thousands hurt while hundreds of people including students were booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) for participating in the protests.

Even schools were targetted in the violence and the safety of students were at stake. The government however took the volition to conduct board exams with some relaxation for students there as they have been struggling to study under a tensed atmosphere.

The students had hardly attended 90 days of school for an entire academic year but endure to give their best for the exams, in order to not lose a precious academic year.

The relaxation specified is that they can cover fifty per cent of the syllabus alone for the exam or take up another exam in March, on condition that they must attempt all the questions.

"All arrangements are in place for over one lakh students scheduled to appear for the 10th and 12th class examinations. While 484 exam centres have been set up for about 48,000 candidates for class 12th examination across Kashmir division, as many as 550 exam centres have been established for 5,5000 candidates for class 10th examination," an official of School Education department told PTI.

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