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| Exams on cards, Edu Deptt forces students to practice singing for 'Sufi festival' | | | Muhammad Mukaram
ET Report
srinagar, Sept 2: While the Government this year cancelled summer vacations in the Valley schools to make up for lost time because of last year's floods, the Education Department is forcing almost 500 students to practice singing to make a "Sufi music festival" a success.
The concluding ceremony of the music festival named 'Shashrang', which was to be held in August ending, has now been re-scheduled and would be held on September 12, said sources.
While examinations up to 10+2 level are scheduled to be conducted in October-November, the students are seen thronging the Indoor Stadium Srinagar to practice singing. Earlier, the Education Department had to change the venue of the music practice from SP College to the Indoor Stadium after reports appeared in the media.
"We have been given different Kashmiri songs to practice, but there seems to be no end to the practice. Exams are near and we don't get time to study nor do we know how much syllabus has been covered by our classmates," said a student of a girls higher secondary, where some months ago Education Minister Naeem Akhter Andrabi paid a visit and had told the staff to take care of the education as the school was hit by the floods.
The proposal copy for the musical event says the participating students need to practice singing "on all working days-Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from July 22, for a month, to celebrate the Kashmir Sufi music festival 'Shashrang' in August this year."
The proposal, however, had been resisted by principals of several schools on grounds that students are still recovering from the affects of the flood. The principals had also argued that the Education Department had cancelled summer vacation this year on the pretext that students cannot afford to lose more working days, and had even asked to arrange extra classes so that students are ready for examinations by the year end.
"Keeping students busy with extra-curricular activities on three days a week for a month will only hamper education further," officials from the Education Department said.
Sources told Early times former Joint Director Education, Syed Abid Rashid, had on various occasions even ordered to maximum participation in the music practice sessions. "He had once enquired as to why the practicing students are less in number at the venue, prompting us to request schools to not to let any student miss the sessions. We had to save our skin," said sources in the Education Department.
The music festival had, in fact, been discussed with Naeem Akhter, who had given a nod to the project and Rashid had passed the required orders.
"Please make sure you take immediate required action in the matter as desired by the Education Minister," reads the note written by Rashid on the proposal letter presented to him by the Kashmir Music Club (KMC) chairman Waheed Jeelani.
Jeelani had also met Rashid in his office on June 30.
"As desired by the (Education Minister), this year we would like to make our young school children part of these festival celebrations on a large scale. In this regard, it is requested to cooperate with us in making proper selection of talented students, as we intend that more than 500 young children should perform some group songs on the concluding day of the festival in full traditional costumes," reads the letter.
The Directorate of Education then asked CEO Srinagar, in its order of July 8, to take required action in this regard. Soon after the order, the CEO organised a meeting of various higher secondary school principals at Government Girls Higher Secondary school Kothi Bagh on July 11 to discuss the modalities of the function.
"Fifteen schools have been notified to prepare students and we will review the progress in the next meeting," the CEO had said.
An 'open-air grand concluding-cum-award ceremony' will be held at Srinagar's Botanical Garden. "On this occasion, we expect the Chief Minister, Minister of Culture and the Minister of Education to grace this ceremony, besides the public and art lovers," concludes the letter. |
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