Bringing classroom home

The education of students, studying in schools across the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, has been severely affected after the cross border shelling occurred and caused extensive losses to the people in different areas. The schools in these shelling-affected areas have been closed for the last one week now, adding to the miseries of the pupils. The time has come to urgently implement and expand online education for students in border areas. While the rest of the country moved toward digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, students in these sensitive zones were left behind, not by choice, but by circumstance. These students are grappling with the border tensions and simultaneously are facing huge academic losses as well. But this gap can be filled with the right will. The students cannot tolerate further academic losses while reeling in constant threat of shelling by Pakistan, which has been firing bullets and shells to the civilian areas unprovokingly. While the safety and wellbeing of the people living in the border areas should be the topmost priority, the educational losses to the students must not be ignored. There is a dire need to push for online education in border areas. Children growing up near our frontiers deserve the access to learning and development amidst the prevailing situation. In fact, their education is critical to shaping informed, resilient future citizens who understand both the privilege and responsibility of guarding the nation’s front lines.