‘Kashmir loses educationist, revolutionary and a thinker par excellence’
Srinagar, August 08: Agha Shahid Ali Writers (ASAW), Private Schools’ Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK), Coaching Centres Association of Kashmir (CCK) have expressed their deepest condolences on the death of educationist, scholar, thinker, orator, teacher Dr Agha Ashraf Ali.
A joint meeting of all the associations was held in which people expressed their condolences on his demise. Dr Agha Ashraf was also the chairman of ASAW.
G N Var who is also the General Secretary of the ASAW said that the demise of Dr Agha Ashraf Ali is a great loss to the society. “He was one of the rare personalities who knew what can be the solution to our seething problems. He was a revolutionary who wanted to ignite a revolution by advocating education. Every time he would suggest read a book, enrich yourself and thus be ahead of others.”
The Coaching Centres Association also highlighted his role in giving new shape to learning for competitive examinations in Kashmir. “He was always worried that Kashmiris are not cracking civil services and other competitive examinations. For this he became instrumental in establishing SN Das Gupta College where he taught and delivered lectures to aspirants for seven years without taking even a single penny,” said Var. “He would identify needy students, bring them home and help them financially besides giving them books. He also built a rich library at ASAW which was unfortunately lost during 2014 floods.”
The PSAJK termed his role as educationist as the golden period of education in Kashmir. “When he was head of the Board of School Education and education department he initiated reforms that had far reaching effects. He started Carry-On and Re-appear system as he believed that it would arrest the trend of students dropping out of studies because of failure in a single subject. It greatly helped our students and our literacy rate increased due to this policy,” said Var. “Till date no director of education or Secretary BOSE has matched his legacy, in fact they are even following his path albeit not with dedication.”
Dr Agha Ashraf Ali was a great proponent of emergence of local talent and institutions. “He would often guide schools on how to match the global standards and groom the talent. He wanted the emergence of good educational institutes in Kashmir. He was against the chain of schools coming from outside and wanted locals to match the best at national and international level,” said Var
