Kashmir's Private Schools Scramble For Leadership

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) By Arshid Mehraj

SRINAGAR - District presidents and caretakers filed into a modest conference room somewhere in this lake-ringed city on Thursday morning, summoned by a man named Farooq Ahmad Ashai. By afternoon, they had committed their association to something that shouldn't feel remarkable but, in this place, always does: a vote.

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Ashai, convener of the Private Schools Association Jammu & Kashmir's Election Commission, had called the gathering to solve a practical problem.

The PSAJK's district bodies, its organizational backbone across the valley, needed new leadership. The question was how to choose it, and how quickly.

The answer, hammered out over hours of discussion, came with a hard stop: March 30.

All district elections, in every corner of the Kashmir Division, must be completed by then. More notably, they would proceed under the watch of a newly constituted Election Commission, an explicit bid, participants said, to lend credibility to a process that has historically struggled with it.

“We want this to be seen as fair,” one district president said afterward, speaking on condition of anonymity because the association had not authorized public comment.“People are tired of selections in Kashmir. They want elections.”

The PSAJK represents hundreds of private schools across a region where education has mostly operated under strain. Kashmir campuses have often been disrupted by political shifts and security measures, with the COVID-19 pandemic adding further strain in the recent past.

Through it all, private schools have filled gaps left by an overstretched government sector, often with minimal oversight or coordination. The association itself has weathered internal divisions. Thursday's reference to“erstwhile District Bodies” hinted at structures that had grown stale, possibly dysfunctional.

Now, Ashai and his colleagues are gambling that speed and transparency can reset the narrative.

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The Election Commission's role remains loosely defined in the notification issued Thursday evening, but its symbolism is clear. In a place where so many decisions flow from above, this small educational bureaucracy is at least gesturing toward bottom-up legitimacy.

Read Also PSAJK Seeks Stable & Long-Term Education Reforms Video: Private Schools Association Seeks Role as 'Knowledge Partners'

Whether that gesture translates to meaningful change depends on execution. The notification offers no specifics on how the commission will supervise dozens of district contests, or what recourse exists if irregularities emerge.

The March 30 deadline leaves scant time for voter registration, campaigning, or dispute resolution.

For now, the document sits in inboxes and WhatsApp groups across the valley, awaiting the“necessary compliance” of school administrators who must suddenly organize democracy on a tight clock.

In his office, Ashai has done what he can: set a date, name a process, and invoke the language of fairness.

The rest will unfold in classrooms and committee rooms from Anantnag to Baramulla, where teachers and administrators will try to elect their representatives before the month ends. And that does count as progress in a place like Kashmir.

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