Terming teachers as role models for the society, Member Legislative Assembly Doda Shakti Raj Parihar said they have a greater role to play, particularly in present times, in shaping the destiny of their students.Addressing a gathering of teachers after handing over regularisation orders among 12 Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers of Doda here, Shakti Raj Parihar said that teaching profession has been held in high esteem by all religions and societies. He said teachers have an immense influence on the lives of their students, sometimes greater than that of their parents. “In the present times when the working parents have little time for their children, teachers also need to don the role of parents and provide them all the requisite emotional cushion which they are in need of,” MLA Doda remarked.Regretting that the students of present times have little to rejoice and entertain, MLA Doda asked the teachers of Doda constituency to create avenues of extracurricular activities at schools like varied types of arts, sports, physical activities, picnics etc and let the students explore the universe on their own and move beyond the realms of exams, tests, classes and grades.“Our kids are living in an atmosphere of strain, who have very little to cheer about. It is the teachers who have to steer them out successfully by supervising a complete personality development in them,” he said.MLA Doda hoped the teachers regularized today would infuse new blood in the working of the Education Department. She said government is sensitive to the demands and needs of teaching community and their resolution is accordingly prioritized.Chief Education Officer Doda Mohd Sharief , in charge RETs section Rashid Yaseen Butt and other officers were also present on the occasion .