Inoculate teachers, eligible students before reopening schools, colleges in J&K: Kashmir health department

The health department in Kashmir on Friday advised education authorities to vaccinate teachers and eligible students before taking any decision on the reopening of educational institutes amid the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.

Director Health Services, Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Rather, in communication to directors of Higher Education and School Education urged them not to think of reopening schools and colleges before inoculating teaching/non-teaching staff and students.

“…before any decision is taken by the government in future regarding re-opening of educational institutions in UT of J&K, it becomes imperative to get all the teaching/non-teaching staff and eligible students fully vaccinated to prevent a potential resurgence of Covid-19 cases,” the letter reads.

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“In the backdrop of above, it is, therefore, requested that the dates for vaccination of all the teaching/non-teaching staff and eligible students (batch-wise) may kindly be conveyed at the earliest so that the vaccination sites are created at the places to be identified by you,” it adds.

Educational institutions in Kashmir have almost remained closed for the last 23 months, first on account of lockdown imposed after revocation of J&K’s special status in August 2019 and subsequently due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Schools had reopened only in a phased manner from March 1 this year but had to be closed again in early April after the second wave of Covid-19.

Students in Kashmir, like most of the other places in India, have been pursuing education online, though the success of remote learning has been patchy.

Previously the schools had remained closed continuously for eight months from July to March in 2016 when summer unrest broke out in Kashmir following the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

When militancy erupted in Kashmir, schools remained shut for five months from December 1989 to May 1990. Back then, the schools couldn’t reopen on March 1 after winter break as the insurgency was at its peak. The schools opened on 15 May 1990 and again in September that year, the schools had to be shut as the government employees went on a strike for 72 days.