Perhaps, the rest of the world witnessed the longest blockade of such a nature for the first time in recent years, in the wake of Coronavirus bringing everything to a halt. Contrariwise, this part of the world is fairly accustomed to such situations. However in the middle of this storm, if anything has been gravely hit, it probably is the education system. Every time a calamity strikes, the first victim which falls prey to it is the education sector. Adding to the colossal edifice of misfortunes, post the amendments in the Constitution in 2020, the education sector has witnessed all sorts of difficulties. The educational institutions ranging from primary schools to Universities were closed for months altogether across the valley. No sooner had the situation turned normal with students going back to schools for a few days then came the global pandemic which forced their closure, once again for an indefinite period. Since then, except for a month or so, all the elementary level and higher level institutions have remained closed. Taking into account the situation, the loss suffered by the students is impossible to mitigate. In the absence of schools, the students have been bearing the brunt of “amalgamation of various losses.” The much hyped online classes by virtue of a number of constraints and challenges have failed to match the productivity of offline classes. The nature of loss is such that it will take years to recover what has been lost so far. In the light of the third wave, even if schools are reopened for some time, they will have to be locked one more time, perhaps not the last time. Yearning to see schools open, once again, as of now the only thing to be cherished are the older memories reminiscing “Once upon a time, we used to attend schools.”
