As per the date sheet, which has been notified to parents and also uploaded on the school’s website, the examination is scheduled from October 08 (Today) till October 13. The venue surprisingly is ‘Gindun’, a playground in Srinagar’s Rajbagh area. A part of the ground is occupied by an entire company of CRPF men for the last over one month.
“The venue of the examination will be GINDUN STADIUM near police station Rajbagh, behind Jogger’s Park, the timing of examination will be 7 am to 10 am,” reads the date sheet, a copy of which is with The Kashmir monitor.
An official at police station Rajbagh confirmed that they have been asked to “provide security” to the kids during the exams. However SHO Kuldeep Koul refused to give any information regarding it.
A DPS board member, who did not want to be named, said that the students have been asked to report to Gindun wherefrom they will be sent to Srinagar’s indoor stadium for the exams. The stadium however too is manned by a huge number of government forces.
“We have asked the students to reach to Joggers Park Rajbagh wherefrom they will be shifted to Sher-i-Kashmir Indoor Stadium where the exams will be conducted,” the board member said.
Asked why the school conducted exams during the current situation, the board member said that all the schools had conducted their first term exams before the summer vacations except DPS.
“So we had decided to conduct the exams now,” the board member said.
Criticizing the move, an agitated parent of a class 9 student from Budgam said that the school was resorting to “unfair means by cornering students in such unusual circumstances”.
“How will we reach the venue? And who will guarantee the safety of our kids?” asked the parent.
Besides the date sheet, the school authorities are also receiving a lot of flak for ‘forcing’ parents to pay the tuition and transport fees for the months of July, August and September failing which their wards will not be allowed to write the exams. The dictum comes at a point in time when all the schools have been shut since July 01, first because of the summer vacation and then eventually due to the crisis erupting after the killing of Hizb militant Burhan Wani.
A cash receipt of the school dated October 06, a copy of which is with The Kashmir Monitor, shows school authorities stating Rs 4400 as transport fee for months June, July, August and September.
“The school authorities have charged both tuition fee and transport fee for the last three months, now they have announced exams at a venue which is way away from the school, how will we manage to reach the destination amid the current situation,” said the parent.
The Kashmir Monitor tried to reach DPS Budgam’s Principal Mehfooz Aslam however the person who answered the phone claimed he was a teacher and that Mehfooz was not available to comment.