Govt doing its bit; expects teachers, lecturers, doctors to contribute towards society: Education Minister Sakina Itoo

Srinagar, Aug 30: Minister for Education Sakina Itoo on Saturday said that the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah-led government was performing its part, and it expected the teachers, lecturers, professors, and doctors also to contribute towards society.

The minister was referring to the elevation of 458 teaching and non-teaching personnel from the Kashmir division to their next level.

“The process for elevation is complete, and the formal orders will be issued soon. Whatever is genuinely possible for the government, we provide it to the teachers, lecturers, professors, and doctors. We also hope that they too contribute towards the society,” Itoo told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar.

About the availability of textbooks in the upcoming academic session, the education minister said that the major challenge for the government was to restore the previous November session in schools.

“And after we restored the session, there were apprehensions that the government wouldn’t be able to conduct exams on time and provide textbooks to schools. But all the exams were conducted on time, results were also declared in a time-bound manner, and textbooks were also distributed to the schools,” she said. “No doubt there was some delay in the distribution of textbooks, but the process will be streamlined this year.”

Itoo, who also holds the portfolio of the Health and Medical Education Department, said that the NC government was working to fill the vacant post of doctors to ensure that adequate doctors are available for the patients in all the hospitals.

“The in-service doctors go for higher studies, and the posts remain vacant. But we have inherited this from the last 10 years of administration here. Since the NC government was formed in J&K, we tried to hire academic arrangements and utilise their services to overcome the dearth of doctors in hospitals,” she said.

However, the minister acknowledged that the available doctors working in hospitals were over burdened and their workload doubled due to the non-availability of doctors.

“We are facing the same situation in the paramedic section as well,” she said.