The High Court has directed the government to inform it within a week about the measures being taken for ensuring compliance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the Covid guidelines in schools in Jammu and Kashmir.
A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Puneet Gupta asked senior Additional Advocate General N H Shah, who is representing the Education Department, to inform the Court about the said measures.
The court issued the direction while hearing an application by Azra Ismail through her counsel Salih Pirzada seeking directions for teaching the students in J&K through virtual mode. Azra has moved the application in the Public Interest Litigation on Covid19 she has already filed in High Court.
The Court also asked Senior AAG, B A Dar, to file a reply to the application on behalf of the Chief Secretary within one week positively in view of the seriousness of the issue. The Court listed the case for further hearing on November 12.
The applicant submits that after the government on August 31 issued guidelines for opening of all schools, most of the schools have nearly “zero attendance.”
She submits that as per the SOPs and guidelines the schools which fall within the containment zones had to remain off because of the Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Government under the Disaster Management Act.
“However, regardless of such restrictions the teachers are being compelled by the Government to attend the schools in contravention to the SOPs and guidelines,” she submits. She submits that once there is a strict direction from the concerned authorities to restrict the entry of public in containment zones, the opening of schools in these zones becomes questionable.
The Director School Education Kashmir, she submits, has failed to implement the SOPs and guidelines in respect of the containment zones declared by the Government
She submits that the exercise which was undertaken by the teachers through virtual mode was better in place than the mode prescribed by the administration.
“The viral mode is an alternative for direct teaching from the precincts of schools to tide over the pandemic conditions rather than a stray presence of teachers in scholastically sterile ambience”. All the students of the private schools, she said, are attending the classes in virtual mode and are comfortably imparted teaching without any sort of hindrance from the administration.
The applicant submits that the infrastructure in Government schools is very poor and lacks the basic essentials like connectivity, drinking water, lack of bathrooms, sanitization and many other things.
The Government, she said, is staking high claims of health and education but has not set up any internet connectivity in the schools so that the teachers attending the schools would arrange the communication of lessons to the students.
While the applicant is seeking direction to the Principal Secretary School Education Department to continue with the virtual mode teaching process to the students, she submits that the teaching staff of the School Education may be allowed to conduct the teaching process as per the virtual mode from the respective residences.
“If at all the schools are resolved to be opened, the same may be done in consonance with the SOPs and guidelines issued by the Government of India as well as the Government of J&K and Ladakh.”