Beyond Optics

While Kashmir college campuses shine with manicured lawns and blooming flowers, their classrooms tell a different story.

- Uzma Qadir Mir

College campuses in Kashmir look like scenes straight out of a postcard.

Tall trees shade the paths, flowers bloom everywhere, and the lawns are so neat they almost soothe your mind.

People who visit see this beauty and quickly assume the education inside is just as impressive.

But step into the classrooms, where knowledge is meant to take root, and you encounter a jarring disconnect.

Broken benches force students to share cramped spaces or sit on cold floors. Windows are cracked, letting in harsh winds in winter and scorching heat in summer.

Ceiling fans either don't work or rattle loudly, disrupting lessons rather than easing them. Dust coats blackboards, and dim lighting saps the room of any warmth.

These conditions are more than an inconvenience. They are barriers that chip away at students' capacity to learn and their sense of worth.

A Kashmir Observer report in early 2025 found that only 20 percent of colleges in Jammu and Kashmir have digital classrooms, while just 15 percent boast functional science or computer labs.

The root cause is chronic underfunding: education receives a mere 2.3 percent of the state budget, leaving classrooms to languish as funds are stretched thin.

This neglect is dangerous in a world that demands digital fluency and innovation. Students here compete not only with peers across India but globally, yet their learning environment is frozen in time: stifling, dilapidated, and demoralizing.

Beyond the physical discomfort lies a deeper wound, one of dignity.