@@.......Nearly 10,000 Kashmiri Students Study in Army Schools.......@@ Army schools are gaining popularity in the conflict-ridden region as nearly 10,000 students study in various schools set up by the Army across Kashmir. Army Public School (APS), Srinagar, part of a chain of 135 schools across the country that is run by the Army Welfare Education Society (AWES), is one of the most prestigious schools in the state. Nearly 1,000 students —boys as well as girls — are enrolled in it and a majority of them are the local children. “Army Public Schools are primarily meant to provide education to the children of Army men and 90 per cent of the seats are reserved for them. The rest of the seats are for locals. But the Srinagar APS is the only institute in the country where 60 per cent of the students are locals and 40 per cent quotais for the children of defence personnel,” said a senior Army officer looking after the school affairs in Srinagar. The school which is affiliated to the Central Board of School Education (CBSE) has becomepopular, the school authorities say, as it remains open even during curfew or when there is a strike. “During the Afzal Guru’s episode, our school remained open. Many of our students come from the old city (a separatist bastion). This has made us popular and the standard of education in the institute is quite high,” said 37-year-old principal of the APS, Srinagar, Sandeep Marhatta. The school is housed in the high-security headquarters of the Army in Srinagar and students too have to undergo frisking every day before making their way to the school. “It (the frisking) does not trouble us as we have got used to it,” said Saba Gulzar, a class XII student who hails from Rajbagh locality ofthe city. “The school is one of the best here and that is what pulls us to it,” she added. Another student from the old part of Srinagar said that apart from providing education, the school was grooming them toface the world. “Even if I am from a locality that is very volatile, the fact remains that I have been studying here without any difficulty,” he added. A student, who recently passed class XII with 78 per cent marks, had been reprimanded bythe school authorities after they found that he carried a mobile phone which had clippings of street protests and stone-throwing incidents. “We gave him advice and he took it seriously and when the results were out, he was among the best students of the school,” said a teacher at the school. The school has also admitted some students who have been sponsored by various Army units. The school provides hostel facilities to Sadbhavana (Army’s goodwill mission) students and to those coming from interior parts of the Valley. These students are provided free uniform, books and accommodation facility. Besides Srinagar, the Army is running goodwill schools in other districts of the Valley too. Around 9,000 students are studying in these schools. The Army said the response of locals has been overwhelming and the number of students applying for admission runs into thousands. The goodwill schools are managed by the local units of the Army in thearea. The first goodwill school was set up by the Army in Uri in 1999 and since then more schools have came up across the Valley.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:25:27 +0000
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