J&K: School Education Department staff deployed again for COVID-19 mitigation efforts

Amid the rising concern over the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday issued fresh orders for the deployment of teaching staff from schools for COVID-19 mitigation duties. State Executive Committee (SEC) headed by the Chief Secretary Jammu and Kashmir ordered for the deployment of School Education Department staff as additional staff for COVID -19 containment duties in the union territory. The latest move to deploy school staff for duty comes after the School Education Department earlier called back all teaching staff across J&K to their actual places of posting.

The Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the Jammu and Kashmir government issued the order on Tuesday. In the order, the SEC ordered that the concerned Deputy Commissioners (DCs) in consultation with respective Chief Education Officers (CEOs) would be issuing detailed orders under Disaster Management Act, 2005 for the School Education Department staff. It noted that all school staff under the rank of lecturer must be deployed to perform COVID-19 containment duties.

The order laid out some rules in the matter. “The deployment should be for three months only and not more than one staff member from a single school should be deployed for duty,” the order read. Furthermore, the government order also informed that the deployment would be of non-repetitive staff members. Earlier, the chief secretary along with additional chief secretaries, divisional commissioners, DCs, and other officials of the J&K administration had held a review meeting to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the region.

Following the meeting, the officials decided on the deployment of education staff for duty. “In the meeting, it was decided that there is a need to continue and further strengthen the existing COVID-19 containment measures in all districts given the newly discovered variant,” the order said. Earlier, the Education Department had cancelled the deployment of all teaching staff who were deployed for COVID duties in different departments and districts.

COVID situation in J&K

Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday registered 91 fresh cases of coronavirus, taking the total tally to 3,40,924. As per the health officials, the UT also recorder one death taking the toll to 4,525. Srinagar district recorded the highest case tally with 30 fresh infections, while Jammu followed with 20 cases. Currently, there are 1,296 active cases in the union territory, while a total of 3,35,103 patients recovered so far.  

Image: PTI