School bells should ring again

The government after the gap of nearly five months has stated that the higher educational institutions will be reopened once the 100 per cent students and teachers are vaccinated in Jammu and Kashmir. However, there has been no statement with regard to the reopening of schools. One fails to understand when the government is going to consider the reopening of schools here. The closure of schools has affected the education of students badly as the online mode of education has not been effective compared to the offline studies. After reviewing the Covid situation, the government has finally decided to reopen the colleges and universities with limited attendance and also after all the students and teachers are vaccinated. Nonetheless, the government in Ladakh Union Territory has decided to reopen the schools for class 6, 7 and 8th students from September 1. The cases in Srinagar and elsewhere in Jammu and Kashmir have also declined to a large extent, but the government still seems in dilemma about whether to reopen Schools in Jammu and Kashmir anytime soon, which is only adding to the miseries of the students. Therefore, in order to mitigate the educational sufferings of the students, the administration should consider reopening of Schools from class 6 to Class 8 students here as well to prevent further educational losses to the children, who have hardly attended their classes from the past two years. The online mode of education must not sustain for a long period and should be put to an end.