There are moments when a society inadvertently reveals its deepest governing assumptions. Not through elections, legislative debates or grand political declarations, but through the questions it chooses to ask. The annual debate over summer vacations in Jammu and Kashmir is one such moment. Every year, as temperatures rise beyond familiar limits, public attention converges upon an almost ritualistic question: Should schools remain open? If not, for how long should they close? It appears to be a practical question. It is, in fact, an inadequate one.

The issue is not whether schools should close during an extreme heat wave. No responsible government can disregard the health and safety of children. When temperatures become hazardous, temporary closures are both prudent and necessary. To oppose such measures would be to confuse administrative responsibility with institutional ambition.

Yet the very familiarity of this debate should unsettle us. It returns every year with remarkable predictability. The weather changes, schools close, the academic calendar is revised, and public discussion subsides until the next season arrives. We have become so accustomed to this cycle that we rarely pause to ask a more uncomfortable question: Why has the periodic suspension of education become the most acceptable response to predictable climatic conditions? That question changes everything.

For what appears to be a discussion about vacations is, in reality, a discussion about the character of the state itself. It asks whether governments understand education merely as another administrative service or whether they regard it as an institution whose continuity must be protected with the same seriousness with which they protect healthcare, public safety or essential infrastructure.

Every society possesses institutions it considers indispensable. Hospitals do not cease to function because temperatures rise. Emergency services are not suspended because weather conditions become difficult. Electricity departments do not announce seasonal retreats because demand increases during summer. Public institutions are expected to adapt because society depends upon their continuity. Education alone appears strangely negotiable.Whenever........

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