Srinagar, Aug 25: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said teachers cannot be made solely responsible for determining the future of the Union Territory, arguing that the government must first improve their working conditions, school infrastructure and staffing before expecting them to shoulder greater responsibility for children’s futures.
Addressing a gathering of teachers and office-bearers of the J&K Teachers Forum, Omar said teachers already faced an expanding list of responsibilities beyond classroom teaching, including election duties, government functions and social campaigns.
“It is a fact that the future of Jammu and Kashmir is our children,” Omar said. “What will be the future of our children? You all have a very big role in that. But if we put all our responsibility on you and say that what Jammu and Kashmir will be like in the future will be decided by our teachers, then I think that would be a great injustice to you and would put excessive pressure on you.”
He said the role of teachers had become considerably more difficult with the proliferation of smartphones, social media, television channels and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.
“Today, look at what you are competing with. You are competing with phones, social media, channels and so many other things. And now there is a new thing — artificial intelligence,” he said.
Omar said AI had created a new challenge for teachers in assessing whether students were submitting their own work.
“I say, how difficult will it be for a teacher to determine whether an assignment submitted by a child, what they have written, is their own work or whether artificial intelligence helped them?” he said.
The chief minister also criticised the practice of continually assigning additional duties to teachers while their own service-related grievances remained unresolved.
“There is an August 15 function, there is a January 26 function, and the first thing we tell you is: prepare the children, organise a cultural programme, have them march past,” he said.
He also cited International Yoga Day, anti-drug campaigns and elections as examples of duties routinely assigned to teachers.
“When there is election work, we put you in booths in far-flung areas,” Omar said.
“Whenever there is some other work, whenever we have to do something, we do not find anyone else — our eyes fall on you.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that teachers’ files did not always move with the same urgency.
“But when your issues come up, unfortunately, I have to say that your files do not move forward as quickly as the files that are moved when we have to post you somewhere else,” he said.
Omar said the government had a responsibility to resolve teachers’ grievances relating to transfers, departmental promotion committees and vacancies.
“If you have issues concerning transfers, if you have issues concerning DPCs, if you have issues concerning vacancies, or other matters, then we have to resolve those issues with the same seriousness,” he said.
“And I assure you that as long as Sakina is here and I am working with her, none of your issues will be ignored,” he added, referring to Education Minister Sakina Itoo.
The chief minister also highlighted the disparity between teachers posted in rural areas and those able to secure postings in urban schools through influence.
“Providing education in remote rural schools is not easy. Working there is difficult,” Omar said.
He said some teachers without political or social influence remained in remote schools for long periods, while those with access and influence often managed to remain in urban schools.
“Perhaps they have never even seen a rural school. They work only in city schools,” he said.
Omar also drew attention to the problem of so-called ghost schools, where students remain formally enrolled but do not regularly attend classes.
He said some students enrolled in schools primarily to appear for board examinations while spending much of their time at private tuition centres.
“The teacher comes to school. The teacher wants to do their work. But students enrol there only for paperwork,” he said.
The chief minister acknowledged continuing infrastructure deficiencies, including rented school buildings, unsafe structures and inadequate access to smart classrooms.
“We talk about smart classrooms, but how far have we been able to take smart classrooms to our children?” he said. “Smart classrooms are a distant thing; even today, in some places, we are unable to provide proper school structures.”
Omar said responsibility for those shortcomings rested with the government rather than teachers.
“But these shortcomings are not your fault. They are ours,” he said.
“Repairing infrastructure is not your responsibility; it is mine. Filling vacancies is not your job; it is mine. Strengthening your hands so that you can perform your work properly is the responsibility of me, Sakina and Nasir.”
He urged teachers, meanwhile, to prepare students for a rapidly changing world, saying the pace of change expected over the next two or three decades would exceed that witnessed in recent decades.
“We have made a lot of progress from 1947 to today,” Omar said. “But the world is changing very rapidly. The change that has taken place in the last 30, 40 or 50 years will happen much faster in the next 20 to 30 years.”
“We have to prepare our children for that,” he said, adding that students needed to be equipped to make “a positive contribution to Jammu and Kashmir”.
Omar also addressed concerns over the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), saying the requirement had not originated with the Jammu and Kashmir government and that his administration had repeatedly opposed its application.
“This is not something that we have created. We have repeatedly tried to fight against it,” he said.
He linked its applicability in Jammu and Kashmir to the post-2019 constitutional and legal changes, saying that because laws applicable across the country now apply to J&K, the TET requirement had also been extended to the region.
“Perhaps the Supreme Court’s order so far is that this has to be implemented by August 28. So, for the moment, we have time to take our campaign to the Supreme Court,” Omar said.
He said the government would continue to raise its objections before the Supreme Court.
“As Sakina has assured you, we continue to raise our voice against this here and in the Supreme Court,” he said.
Omar’s remarks placed the government’s responsibilities alongside those of teachers, arguing that better educational outcomes would depend not merely on what teachers did inside classrooms but also on whether the administration succeeded in improving the broader conditions in which they worked.
“You will be able to do it, you will succeed, only if we succeed,” he said. “If we are able to improve your conditions, if we are able to improve your infrastructure, if we are able to improve the schools, then you will be able to improve the future of the children.”
“If we fail and then tell you, ‘Now you go and fix everything,’ that will not happen,” he said.
Omar also acknowledged financial constraints facing Jammu and Kashmir, saying the government’s fiscal position was not as strong as it would like it to be.
“The financial condition of Jammu and Kashmir is not as strong as we would like it to be, so there are some restrictions,” he said.
But he maintained that those constraints could not absolve the administration of its responsibility towards teachers.
His broader message to the gathering was that teachers should be supported rather than burdened with every expectation surrounding education, social development and the future of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is not your responsibility alone,” Omar said.
