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• 30 Mar 2026

Can Kashmir Valley’s Schools Go Truly Smart?

Building Smart Schools in Kashmir Valley: Promise, Progress and the Gaps

DR SHAHZAD BHAT   Across the Kashmir Valley and in the expanding suburbs of Srinagar, parents now ask whether their child’s school has a smart classroom, computers or reliable internet. Government hoardings and school banners highlight digital initiatives. Yet, behind these claims lies a more complex picture: a system that is expanding access faster than ever before, while struggling to turn hardware and connectivity into meaningful learning.   The Valley today is part of a school system that has recorded sharp growth in enrolment and access. Official data show that Jammu and Kashmir as a whole has over 24,000 schools and more than 26.5 lakh students, served by around 1.66 lakh teachers. Access to schooling is reported at above 98 per cent, and primary dropout has fallen to around 1.5 per cent, with upper primary dropout at just over 3 per cent. However, almost 28 per cent of students still do not move from secondary to higher secondary level — a reminder that staying in school and learning well remain serious challenges.   For the Kashmir Valley, these figures are not just numbers. They capture the story of a region where children have lived through conflict, lockdowns and pandemics, yet continue to turn up at school with remarkable resilience. It is in this context that the push for “smart schools” must be understood.   Under Samagra Shiksha and related schemes, hundreds of government schools in the Valley have been equipped with information and communication technology (ICT) labs, smart classrooms and projectors. Across the Union Territory, around 4,011 ICT labs have been approved, with roughly 3,000 already functional and more than 2,000 additional labs and over 4,000 smart classrooms in the pipeline. A significant share of these are located in districts of the Valley — Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam — where officials speak of a rapid shift from chalkandtalk to digital boards and multimedia content.   At the same time, national UDISE+ data offer a sobering counterpoint. According to many stats, only about onefourth of eligible government and aided schools in Jammu and Kashmir reported having ICT facilities at all, and an even smaller number had fully functional labs. Since this statistic covers the entire Union Territory, it almost certainly hides sharper contrasts within the Valley: a handful of wellequipped schools in district headquarters and towns, and many more in remote or hilly pockets where a single lab has to serve hundreds

of students.   Ground reports from various districts in the Valley underline this unevenness. In some schools in Srinagar and parts of Budgam or Anantnag, smart classrooms have become a regular feature of teaching. Teachers use projectors, digital content and QR coded textbooks to explain difficult concepts, and students are at ease with basic computer operations.   But travel a little further — to a snowprone village in Kupwara, a hilly pocket of Kulgam, or a farflung area of Bandipora — and the picture changes. Computers may have been supplied, but are locked in a room; the internet connection is unreliable; the electricity supply is irregular; and there is no dedicated ICT teacher to run practical classes.   This gap between announcement and actual use is not unique to Kashmir, but it is amplified here. In the Kashmir Valley, geography and politics complicate matters. Mountainous terrain, scattered habitations, heavy snowfall and frequent weatherrelated disruptions mean that ensuring stable power and broadband in every school is a formidable task.   Another core issue is teacher capacity. Even where ICT labs or smart boards exist, many government schools in the Valley struggle to use them effectively. Teachers, already overburdened with large classes and administrative work, may not have had sustained training in digital pedagogy.   A minor technical fault can render an entire lab useless for months if there is no local technician or trained teacher to troubleshoot. In such situations, "computer education" sometimes gets reduced to one demonstration on a projector, while students get very little handson time.   Yet, there are also positive stories. Over the last few years, the administration has reported the mainstreaming of thousands of outofschool children, many from the Valley, through special training centres and bridge courses. More than 2,000 kindergartens have been set up, giving young children in the Valley a better start in early childhood education.   Vocational labs in selected higher secondary schools expose students to trades linked to tourism, IT, health care and other sectors relevant to the local economy. In schools where these initiatives intersect with functional smart classrooms, the effect on attendance and engagement is visible. The central question now is: what would it take to convert this patchwork of initiatives into a truly smart school ecosystem across the Kashmir Valley?   The emphasis has to move from infrastructure counts to functionality. A smart school is not defined by the number of computers supplied, but by how often they are

used in regular lessons. Simple indicators — such as the number of hours the lab is used per week, or the percentage of classes that integrate digital content — can help district officials and school heads monitor whether the investment is delivering results.   Furthermore, every new ICT lab or smart classroom in the Valley should be paired with intensive teacher training. At least two teachers per school — including one from mathematics or science and one from languages or social science — need sustained mentorship in how to use digital tools in their subjects. Peerlearning circles of teachers across clusters of schools in the Valley can help spread practical ideas that work in local conditions.   Also, solutions must be realistic about Kashmir’s geography. In parts of Baramulla, Kupwara, Shopian or Kulgam, uninterrupted power and highspeed broadband may remain uncertain for some time. Hybrid models — offline digital content servers, solar backups, preloaded learning modules that do not depend on continuous internet connectivity — can ensure that smart schools are not held hostage to every power cut or network disruption.   For many families struggling with rising prices and uncertain livelihoods, digital education can seem like an abstract promise. School management committees, panchayats, and local community groups can play a role in monitoring the use of ICT facilities and ensuring they benefit all children, not just a select few.   Students themselves must be heard. From a public school in Sopore to a higher secondary school in Pulwama, young people in the Valley are already using mobile phones and social media in their daily lives. Smart schools should channel this familiarity into productive digital skills: using spreadsheets, researching reliably, coding basics, and critical thinking about online content. Asking students what works for them — and what feels tokenistic — would give policymakers far richer feedback than any official report.   For the Kashmir Valley, building smart schools is not merely about matching national targets or acquiring the latest gadgets. It is about giving a generation that has grown up amid uncertainty the tools to shape a more stable and creative future. The infrastructure is slowly coming up; the next big test is whether every classroom, from a oneroom primary in a remote hamlet to a well equipped school in Srinagar, can become a place where technology genuinely strengthens learning rather than just decorating the walls.   (The Author is Asst professor working in HED and a Columnist)