Washed away

With the heavy rains that fell across the northern parts of the country, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, a lot more has been washed away along with the homes and lands. There have been complaints from people in the area that crucial examinations were missed by students because they were unable to reach examination centres as a result of the rains. They may well, therefore, have to wait another year before they can take the board tests. While the Karakoram Board of Education, which runs government schools in Gilgit-Baltistan, announced a cancellation of papers, the Federal Board of Education failed to do so, leaving in a quandary the many students who were unable to reach school. They are reported to have waited with growing anxiety to hear of a cancellation which would allow them to sit the papers at a later date and thus avoid a problem with their educational attainments. The fact that this did not happen indicates the degree of negligence that hampers our educational system and determines the manner in which it is run.

The persons sitting in Islamabad obviously have little care or concern for the young men and women preparing to embark on higher education or plot out their careers in other parts of the country. The fact that students in Gilgit-Baltistan were not able to sit in the examination seems to have moved no one outside the immediate area. This is a tragedy. Moreover, nothing seems to have been done to protect the 72 people who died in the torrential rains which hit the mountain areas of the north for two days, with many others still stranded due to landslides that have blocked off roads and caused flash floods. We need in the time of natural disaster to look at its impact on people and determine what can be done to offer them some relief. In this case, the simple rescheduling of a few examination papers could have made an immense difference to young people’s futures. But thousands have been made to suffer a severe setback that could so easily have been averted with a little more thought and a little ability to think ahead rather than stick to the blinkered vision which so often drives our policymaking.