Back To Blackboard: Schools Reopen In Jammu's Border Districts After Days of Tension

New Delhi: Students and teachers heaved a sign of relief as schools across five border districts of the Jammu division reopened after eight days on Thursday.

The School Education Department of Jammu and Kashmir announced the reopening of classes in most areas barring around 30 locations near the Line of Control (LoC) or the International Border (IB) due to vulnerability.

The director School Education, Jammu has issued an order in this regard. The department has uploaded a list of government and private schools of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch and Rajouri districts that will reopen or remain closed.

In the order shared by the department on its X handle, zonal education officers have been asked to ensure that the institutions adhere to the guidelines on safety and wellbeing of students and staff while the heads of the institutions have been directed to ensure resumption of academic activities in a smooth and orderly manner along with maintaining regular coordination with the local administration and law enforcing agencies.

Schools were closed earlier this month following India's precision strikes in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack and it's subsequent cross border shelling.

“We are very happy to return to school after eight days. We feared the war-like situation might keep us away longer. It's a happy moment to meet our friends again,” said Urvashi, a student of KC Public School.

For many like Alesha, a Class 9 student at Model Academy, the experience was far more harrowing. “Earlier, we couldn’t step out or meet friends as the situation was scary. Returning to school feels like getting back to our old life,” she said.

Teachers, too, echoed this emotional relief. Although online classes had been continuing in some capacity, educators stressed that classroom teaching remains indispensable.

In several reopened schools, special morning assemblies were conducted with the messages of peace and safety. Education authorities issued detailed zone-wise instructions based on ground-level security assessments. While zones like Gandhi Nagar, Bhalwal, Dansal, and Vijaypur saw schools resume, areas such as Arnia, RS Pura, Ramgarh, Hiranagar, Manjakote, and Mendhar remain under academic lockdown.

In Udhampur and less volatile zones of Kathua such as Bani, Basohli, and Billawar, visuals of children happily returning to classrooms were a welcome contrast to the military trucks and sandbagged bunkers that had defined the streets just days ago.

For school transport operators and support staff, this return to routine means more than just paychecks, it marks the resumption of normalcy in a region that oscillates between books and bunkers.

Yet, amid the cautious optimism, education officials remain vigilant. Heads of institutions have been directed to maintain close coordination with local administration and security forces. “We cannot afford to let our guard down,” noted Subash Mehta, Joint Director, School Education Department.