Srinagar, May 31 -- ByMuntashir Kifayat Hussain

When I first heard the government had started pre-primary classes in our schools, I was hopeful. But also worried. We've had big plans before. What we often don't have is heart. And that's what these three-year-olds need the most.

People think it's just teaching tiny children their ABCs or counting to ten. But it's more than that.

You're not managing a classroom, you're shaping a world. These kids are three or four. They don't even know what school is. And yet we expect them to sit in rows, stay quiet, and clap when we say clap. It doesn't work like that.

So when I got a chance to visit a remote primary school in Budgam as part of an academic monitoring team, I didn't expect much. The pl...