In the Kashmir Valley, where the summer air stays mild and no heat wave presses on the calendar, officials are once again weighing whether to announce school breaks. The deliberation, framed almost entirely around the weather, would be unremarkable were it not for what it ignores. In the very government schools where most of our children study, a large share of pupils cannot yet read, write, or count at the level their grade demands. To debate the timing of a holiday while that crisis goes unaddressed is to mistake comfort for progress. It is a case of misplaced priorities, and it deserves to be said plainly.
The evidence is not anecdotal. The Annual Status of Education Report for 2024 records that, even after a welcome post-pandemic recovery, only about 23 percent of Class 3 children in government schools can read a Class 2-level text. Put the other way round, roughly three in four have already fallen behind in the foundational years that shape everything after. Arithmetic tells the same story, with most young students unable to manage the basic operations expected of them. These numbers are not a verdict on any one school or teacher; they expose systemic gaps in instructional time, teaching support, and infrastructure. Respectable board-exam pass rates in Jammu and Kashmir can flatter this picture, allowing children to advance year after year without ever mastering the basics beneath the certificate.
What our children need, then, is more sustained attention, not fewer days of it. Many have not meaningfully covered even half their syllabus when measured by genuine understanding and retention. Teachers, stretched across crowded classrooms with thin resources and the relentless pressure of unfinished portions, understandably long for respite, and the education department appears content to grant it under the familiar cover of weather and routine. But a break offered as the default answer to exhaustion treats a symptom while the disease spreads. The real questions go unasked: why does remedial support remain so scarce, why is syllabus progress so loosely monitored, why are teacher training and school infrastructure allowed to lag year after year?
Rushing into vacation now would only widen the gap. Kashmir’s gentle summer is, in fact, an opportunity rather than an excuse: a season in which classrooms can stay open, remedial sessions can target the children who have slipped furthest, and syllabi can actually be completed before any extended pause. The National Education Policy places foundational literacy and numeracy at the centre of reform, yet that ambition stalls wherever implementation is weakest. To prioritise a holiday over catch-up work sends precisely the wrong signal, that it is acceptable for children to stay behind while the system itself takes a rest.
The course correction is not mysterious. It means smaller classes and better-equipped schools, regular assessment of what children have truly learnt, and real accountability for both syllabus coverage and outcomes. It means giving teachers the training, materials, and manageable workloads that make a break feel like a reward rather than an escape. Above all, it means treating every available school day as something to be used well, not waived away.
Our children deserve more from the system, not less: steady instruction, the chance to catch up, and a fair shot at the foundations on which their futures rest. A holiday justified by pleasant weather, while a quarter of young students still cannot read their grade-level text, is a holiday the system has not earned. Fix the core failures first, and the breaks can follow. Reverse that order, and we will keep cycling through incomplete learning and periodic rest, with our children’s prospects, and the credibility of our education policy, paying the price.
