Srinagar, June 6 -- It was around 1:30 in the afternoon when we arrived. The sun hung low, casting soft shadows on the green hills of Narabal, a village in Budgam district.

A few of us, academic monitors, had come to visit one of the government middle schools perched in this part of Kashmir. From the outside, the campus looked still, almost too still. For a moment, we hesitated. Was school already over?

Then we stepped closer. Through an open window, I saw something unexpected: a room full of students and teachers, all silently flipping through books. Some leaned back, lost in thought. Others followed words with a finger, lips moving slowly. Nobody spoke. Nobody checked a phone.

Twelve feet by twelve, that room may not have looked like...