Minister for Education, Sakina Itoo, on Friday acknowledged that the deployment of teachers for census-related duties has adversely affected academic activities in government schools across Jammu and Kashmir and the students were bearing the brunt of an already acute shortage of teaching staff. Talking to reporters in Srinagar, Sakina Itoo said the School Education Department (SED) was already facing an acute shortage of teachers as no major recruitment has taken place since 2019. “Under these circumstances, the assignment of thousands of teachers to census duty has further strained the functioning of schools,” she told reporters here.