From Celebration to Suspension

The Suspension order of five teachers of a Srinagar schoolwent  viral on the social mediaparticularly on whatsapp. It created chaos and within minutes teachers rushed to the deserted schools, suspending the celebrations. Yes, a districtlevel education officer conducted  a”surprise” visit to a Srinagar school in Shalteng area and put five teachers(four female, one male) under suspension for their ‘unauthorized’ absence fromduties. As the order reads.

Thus teachers spent a day idle on second Eid at schools  because there were no students; studentsnever ever turn up on the second day of Eid as the festivity is more among thechildren, and this cannot be snatched from them by force. Eid, as I said, isthe mega festival and a single day is too short to enjoy the festivity. Let mereproduce here what Ajaz-ul-Haque put so beautifully: “If religioussensitivities are respected elsewhere, why is the case different with us.Christmas along with the year end is a full week affair. Diwali is an elaboratecelebration. But Eid – for us – disappears like a flicker…… Does Eid deserve amere holiday? Can’t we edit the calendar and cancel some less importantholidays which are more political than social in nature…… Different story thatour offices don’t function on the second and – in some cases – even on thethird day following Eid. One day we celebrate as official holiday and two moredays pass unofficially. This way the system forces people to escape theirduties. It’s unfair but unavoidable. We encourage dishonesty as officially oneis present in the office, but unofficially celebrating with his family. Acollective wrong all of us (are forced to) commit with a sense of guilt. To doaway with this hide and seek, why not declare Eid at least a three-day holidaywhich it deserves the least.”

   

One expects that some sense finally prevails in the peoplewho are at the helm of affairs. In the name of discipline, we should not resortto coercion.

Education department faced criticism from all sections ofsociety, from the netizens and even many political and social figures, seeingthis suspension order of five teachers, got irked and reacted and reminded theDSEK of their ‘dummy drills’. They at once tagged the order of director schooleducation Jammu vide  No:  DSEJ/Gen/52227-43 Dated 31-10-2018 readingthat all govt and private recognized schools shall observe five (05) days Poojaholidays w.e.f 5-11-2018 to 09-11-2018, to highlight the contrast between howthings are managed in Kashmir and in Jammu.

This is an open secret that students don’t turn up in almostall schools. So isn’t it this the failure of the top officers of thedepartment. Now that the teachers were present, schools were open, why did theyfailed to bring the students. So there was no work done effectively.

Policymakers should sit, ponder and explore the provisionsfor some change and extend the holidays matching the societal conduct on thisfestival.

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